Was Obama a Sellout

I keep hearing this implication, that Obama somehow capitulated on his progressive principles. Let's be clear, Obama, as well as Hillary as well as Bernie as well as most Democrats would all like to have a single payer system, if we could just wave a magic wand; it is simply not possible unless we have a 65 to 70 seat majority in the senate. Please remember back to 2009, for a short time Democrats had a 60 vote majority in the senate. Remember Joe Lieberman who was hanging out with John McCain and flirting with switching parties. It took every one of those 60 votes to do anything. Obama and others suggested a single payer system or a public option but there were about 5 Democratic senators including Lieberman who were absolutely opposed. Therefore, Obama, being a pragmatist instead of a rigid ideologue, sat down with these conservative Democratic senators to hammer out a system that they would support and that would make life better for millions of Americans – Obamacare. For this, Obama has been called a sellout.

For Bernie or anyone else to pass a single payer system would require not just a 60 vote majority but probably a 65-70 senate majority. Short of this super-super majority in the senate, Bernie's big bold talk about single payer as well as breaking up the big banks or reforming Wall Street is just that – talk.

A president being a rigid ideologue will accomplish nothing; that is why Bernie for all his years in the legislature has never accomplished anything.

Would you rather have a president who will hold tight to his progressive principles or a president that will work with others to make people's lives a little better even though we don't get everything we want?

Why I Am No Longer a Republican

I don't know anyone who is for abortion as a preferred method of birth control. In fact, most progressives know that we could get elective abortion down close to zero if we would simply provide free birth control and counseling to all women.

Every woman's situation and pregnancy is different with a vast array of different conditions such as numerous possible health issues affecting the woman and the fetus along with a host of differing social and economic issues involving the age of the mother, lack of family support, education status, employ-ability, father abandonment and other societal pressures.

My abortion position comes down to this: Who is in the better position to weigh all the different pressures and conditions to arrive at the most sensible outcome, the woman who is intimately involved or the government with a one size fits all proclamation?

Should a woman be forced by the state to carry to term and give birth to a mentally retarded child? Or a child with a deformed body? Or a rapist's child? Or her father's child? What if she is only 15? Should she be forced to quit school and get a menial job to try to take care of a baby alone? Every situation is different and the woman is in the best position to weigh the variety of conditions and make the choice; not the government.

Now if Republicans were serious about reducing abortions to near zero, that could easily be achieved by providing free birth control and education in its use to all young girls approaching puberty as has been done in many other countries to great success. But no, Republicans almost always oppose freely available birth control while insisting on abstinence only and at the same time demand that all women be forced to carry the resulting pregnancies to term, this is cruel and misogynistic and this is why I am no longer a Republican.

Logical Disproof of God

It is good to have true beliefs that reflect reality and toward that purpose let's perform a simple yet plausible thought experiment. Suppose we have a newborn fawn in a forest and a forest fire sweeps by and leaves the fawn severely burned but still alive. The fawn lays there for three days in excruciating pain before finally dying.

If there is an all knowing God, He/She was aware of the suffering fawn.

If that God was all powerful, then He/She was also able to stop the fawn's suffering.

The fact that the fawn suffered for three days proves that this all knowing, all powerful God either does not exist or doesn't care about the suffering of the fawn.

This is a logical disproof of God that has been around in one form or another since the early Greek philosophers. Theists have no answer to this logical disproof of God. They just ignore it and hope no one brings it up or spout something about God having some hidden purpose. There is no purpose served by the fawn suffering. Rene Descartes, the 17^th century French philosopher, provided the only logical counter to this line of reasoning when he argued that animals must not actually feel pain. They just appear to feel pain but not really. So when you accidentally step on your dog's tail and he lets out a yelp, he didn't really feel it and if you can convince yourself of that, then the disproof of God as outlined above is invalid since the fawn really wasn't suffering. But we all know that the fawn lying there crying out in excruciating agony does indeed feel pain. If there was an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God, the fawn's suffering simply would not happen.

The Republican Meme of Obama's Failure

My guess is that Democrats are going to lose the Senate in this coming 2014 election. There is a pall of apathy in the country; just the thing to result in remarkably low turnout for Democrats and independents.
The media, whether intentionally or not, has been colluding with the Republicans to create a feeling in the country that nothing is working, Obama is incompetent, Obama is failing and government can't get anything done. Just a damn minute, what has Obama failed at? Is it because of ISIS or Putin or Ebola? There are always going to be crises in the world and a U.S. president can not control or prevent them, he can only deal with these crises in a sane and rational manner which Obama is doing.
What has Obama failed at? Nothing! He has succeeded time after time with no credit from the media. He inherited an economy on the verge of total collapse and prevented a second Great Depression, he returned modest regulation to an out-of-control banking sector, he rescued the American auto industry,  the economy has broken Bill Clinton's record for the longest period of sustained private sector job creation ever,  the deficit is declining at the fastest rate in 60 years, we are adding jobs faster than anytime since the 1990s tech boom, more than half of all stock market wealth in America has been created under Obama, the U.S. has just passed Saudi Arabia to become the number one oil producer in the world, the cost of solar energy is plummeting as the U.S approaches total energy independence, Obama made great strides in securing the world's loose nukes, passed and implemented universal healthcare, made the gutsy call to kill Osama bin Laden, ended two wars he inherited, killed more terrorists in 5 years than the previous president did in 8, showed how to disarm a country of its WMD by disarming Syria of all its WMD without firing a shot, deposed the tyrant Qaddafi in Libya without using American troops and captured the mastermind of the Benghazi attack. Whew, and that's nowhere near a complete list!
He did all this with near total Republican obstructionism; an opposition party actually trying to harm the economy as a means of damaging the president. Think how much better things could be if we had an opposition party that put the interests of the country ahead of hateful partisan politics.
Yet the media, for whatever reason, continues to hammer Obama as a failed president despite his long string of impressive successes. Republicans want the country to be in a sour mood. They know that if ordinary voters are feeling like hope is lost or just generally apathetic, they will not show up to vote and that will help Republicans since their ideologically enraged base will always show up. Therefore I see major Republican gains due in large part to a media that has bought into, and fed, the Republican meme of Obama's failure.

Obama May Prove to be the Greatest President Ever

Obama has accomplished more without war than perhaps any president in history: Inherited an economy on the verge of total collapse and prevented a second Great Depression, the American economy has just marked the longest period (52 months) of sustained private sector job creation ever in history eclipsing Bill Clinton's previous record of 51 months,  the deficit is declining at the fastest rate in 60 years, the economy is adding jobs faster than anytime since the 1990s tech boom, more than half of all stock market wealth in America has been created in the last 5 years, Obama has made great strides in securing the world's loose nukes, passed and implemented universal healthcare, made the gutsy call to kill Osama bin Laden, ended two wars he inherited, brought home the last POW, killed more terrorists in 5 years than the previous president did in 8 years, showed how to disarm a country of its WMD by disarming Syria of all its WMD without firing a shot, deposed the tyrant Qaddafi in Libya without using American troops, captured the mastermind of the Benghazi attack and forced Putin to blink and back down from reconstituting a new Soviet empire without using military threats and risking WW3. Whew, that's not even a complete list!
He did all this with complete Republican obstructionism; an opposition party actually trying to harm the economy as a means of hurting the president. Think how much better things could be if we had an opposition party that put the interests of the country ahead of hateful partisan politics.
If a Republican president achieved any one of the above accomplishments, they would be carving his face on Mt Rushmore. Yet all Obama receives is scorn and hate from an opposition party that refuses to celebrate American victories if it means giving the black guy a shred of credit.
The Republican opposition to Obama has not been anything like normal and appropriate opposition on policies, it has been unprecedented in its extreme, over-the-top hatred, unlike anything ever seen before. Republicans take offense when this opposition is called racist but are we to believe that the first black president and the most extreme opposition to a president ever in history, just happen to coincide and have nothing in common? This hatred of the president can't be because he is extreme in his policies because he is not, he is a moderate with which many on the left have been disappointed. As an aside, this is why Obama's poll numbers come out low; he gets down voted by a lot of people on the left in addition to the conservatives. So again, is the first black president accompanied by the most extreme hatred of a president in history just a coincidence? Obviously not. Like it or not, Obama may prove to be the greatest president ever. Maybe we should start looking at plans for Obama's face on Mt Rushmore.

True Faith Does Not Deny Science and Reality

While not intending to demean anyone because of their religious beliefs since one of the great things about this country is that you can believe pretty much anything, but have you ever considered why you believe so strongly in your religion? Was it because, as a young child, you did exhaustive research into all the religions of the world and found the evidence for one particular religion to be convincing? Or, was it because as a young child who trusted your parents and saw them as incredibly smart; you were indoctrinated into your parents religion before you were capable of mature critical thought? Isn't that the reason that your religious assumptions are so deeply ingrained and feel so right? And isn't that the reason that everywhere you look on Earth, children, with very rare exceptions, believe in the religion of their parents and believe that that particular religion is THE TRUTH whether it is Protestant, Catholic, Muslim or whatever?

To a five-year-old, parents are incredibly knowledgeable and trustworthy, by the age of 15, not so much. Looking back, do you think your parents, unique among all the people of the world, were actually right about everything? Do you think your parents had special insight into the nature of existence or were they just doing to you what had been done to them? Didn't you just blindly adopt most of the views of your parents who blindly adopted views from their parents and so on down the line? If you are nothing more than just a conduit for taking the views of our ignorant ancestors and pounding them into the minds of our children so that they can grow up and do the same, then what was the point of your life? How can you make a difference?

What I am suggesting is incredibly difficult. To hold up long held core assumptions to the light of scrutiny is the most difficult task most of us can ever undertake. True faith does not deny reality, it embraces it.

Intelligent Design Can't Just Be the Nice Parts

A very nicely done video on Intelligent Design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v83X9-oJ-w

The Slippery Slope Argument is Based on Fallacious Reasoning

The slippery slope argument is a form of fallacious reasoning. The argument goes something like this: If the government is allowed to look at phone calls from known terrorists then what is to stop them from listening to everyone's phone calls. This is a false way to look at the issue since the reasoning validating the first part of the statement does not apply to the second part. The second part of the slippery slope argument will either stand or fall on its own merits; the first part has nothing to do with it.

Here is a common slippery slope argument that has stopped the advancement of rights in the area of death. Anytime someone brings up the idea of physician assisted suicide the slippery slope argument springs up that next is Nazi style gas chambers. One has nothing to do with the other but it is always used and has always worked. We are not able to have a rational discussion of common sense end of life treatment because the next thing you know we are warned, we will be rounding up all the old people and putting them in extermination camps. The idea that someone with a fatal and painful disease could seek help from a doctor to end their life has nothing to do with rounding up old people for extermination.

Is the FISA Court a Rubber Stamp

“The FISA court is just a rubber stamp”, I keep hearing this from those that think the government is seeking to spy on and control the American people. Critics point to the extremely high approval rate for government requests for warrants which they say indicates that the court is just a rubber stamp. But there are two possibilities for the high approval rate, either the court is a rubber stamp and approves all requests just because the government is asking OR the requests the court receives are in fact valid with due cause so the court has no reason to turn them down.

There is another piece of data that can help us determine which of the two above possibilities is more likely and that is the number of requests for warrants. If the court was just a rubber stamp, you would expect to see a large number of requests; if warrants were automatic, the government would abuse the process and would be requesting warrants to look into dealings of all kinds, legitimate and illegitimate resulting in a large number of warrant requests. If, on the other hand, the court was actually judging warrant requests professionally in a case by case manner, you would expect to see a relatively small number of warrants requested. In that case the government would only request warrants in a few instances where they are justified and would not abuse the system knowing that to do so would result in a high turn down rate. The fact that there are only a small number of warrant requests and a very high approval rate would tend to support the likelihood that the court is not simply a rubber stamp and that the government is not requesting warrants except where they are justified. 

Conservatives Are On the Wrong Side of History

A conservative is, by definition one who wants to stick to the old ways of doing things and opposes change. The long arc of history is toward more freedom, more liberty and more equality. The conservatives have always been on the wrong side of history in the fight for change and greater human rights and equality.

In the 1860's, the conservatives opposed freeing the slaves. The Republican Party of the 1860’s was a liberal party, calling for protective tariffs, freeing the slaves and a progressive income tax where the rich paid more. The Democratic Party was the party of “NO” back then. History has proven that the conservatives were wrong.

The right of women to vote didn't happen until 1920 and was bitterly opposed by conservatives. Some conservatives are still fighting against basic voting rights for women; for instance, Sean Hannity sits on the advisory board of the male supremacist Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), founded by Fox News contributor Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson who famously said, “allowing women to vote was one of the greatest mistakes America ever made”. The struggle for full equal rights for women in the employment and reproductive areas still goes on and is opposed by most of today's conservatives.

Conservatives opposed the minimum wage, child labor laws, the 8 hour work day and sick leave that was established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Conservative warned that the minimum wage and labor standards would collapse the economy; sound familiar?  Conservatives are still trying to undo the minimum wage and oppose increases to keep up with inflation. Conservatives were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Conservatives by definition tend to oppose change and while every change is not necessarily for the better, consider the overall progress of civilization over the thousands of years and consider where we would be if the conservatives had succeeded in keeping us stuck in a brutal past. History has proven that the conservatives were wrong.

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Facts Don't Count When it Comes to Religion

These two pictures say a lot about how intractable religious beliefs can be.

The Disappearing Middle Class

The head of Papa John's Pizza was recently caught whining about how Obamacare is going to make him provide healthcare to his employees and that it would cost 14 cents per pizza to do so. 14 cents! I guess no one will ever buy another pizza if it cost 14 cents more. Seriously, if it only cost 14 cents per pizza to provide healthcare to your employees, then why in the heck has he not been doing so all along? I think we all know the answer to that question; greed. Today's workers have almost no bargaining power, if a worker attempts to hold out for better pay or benefits, they simply get fired and another waiting applicant fills the job.

Did you know that 50 years ago General Motors was the largest employer in the U.S. and their average wage was about $50/hour in today's dollars? Now our largest employer is Walmart with an average wage of $8.18 per hour. Is it any wonder that the middle class is disappearing to be replaced by full time workers who are below the poverty line? This needs to be corrected, hard working full time employees should not be working for poverty wages in America. These things tend to move like a pendulum and swing from one extreme to the other; back in 1962, GM workers were probably making too much and now today's Walmart workers are clearly making too little.

Here's a possible solution to how we can swing the pendulum back toward the middle. If the minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would now be close to $12 per hour. We should raise the minimum wage to $12 and apply a cost of living adjustment to it (like we do with Social Security) so that it keeps up with inflation. Sure it will mean that we pay a few cents more for plastic doodads at Walmart but that seems to be as good a bargain as 14 cents per pizza.

Life in a Bubble

We all, left or right, have a tendency toward being blind to facts that disagree with our opinions, the best way to avoid this is to obtain our information from a variety of competing sources. Those living in a pure partisan bubble are doomed to succumb to a distorted view of reality derived from one-sided sources of information. We all do this to a degree but the right wing has raised this to an art form. As proof, look at how almost all right wing pundits were absolutely certain of a Romney landslide. The math clearly indicated an Obama win yet these people with few exceptions said the polls were wrong because they were done by liberals and didn't match up with their “facts”. Turns out, the average of the polls were almost exactly correct, clearly those right wing “facts” were not in line with reality.

Have you noticed how someone on the right makes up an assertion against Obama and then many others take up that idea and use each other as “sources” in a kind of circular self-reinforcing storm? The original assertion may be completely untrue yet many come to believe it; A few examples: Obama wasn't born in Kenya, Obama isn't a socialist, Obama has never taken anyone's guns, Obama isn't a Muslim, the Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't make up the job numbers last month, rape does result in many pregnancies, FEMA is not building concentration camps to house right wingers after they take away their guns, evolution is real, instituting moderate re-regulation on Wall Street is not communism, there were no death panels and climate change is not a hoax.

Our country's strength is the competing marketplace of ideas, and if we can't even agree on basic facts, that marketplace ceases to function; that is what we have witnessed for the last four years. In the election, reality has just smacked the Republicans upside the head and because they swim in a soup of self created “facts”, they were the only ones who didn't see it coming. We watched them on election night on Fox News as they stumbled around completely shell-shocked. Romney was so certain, he hadn't even prepared a concession speech! Obama had a concession speech because he knew the math said he had about a 10% chance of losing. So which of those two is grounded in reality? Maybe this election will serve as a wake up call for Republicans to rejoin the real world of real facts and stop getting their “facts” only from biased sources like Fox News, talk radio and right wing blogs. America would be much better off if we can have an honest debate in a free marketplace of ideas using facts arising from reality.

Thank you, American Voters

Congratulations America, you chose....wisely.

Some on the left are disappointed in Obama because he is just a moderate but look on the bright side, we are not going to get rid of Medicare, we are not going to put more Scalias on the Supreme court, we are not going to give a 20% tax cut to millionaires and pay for it on the backs of the poor, we are not going to reinstate “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”, we are not going to enshrine discrimination in the Constitution to keep gays from marrying, we are not going to force women to get permission from their boss if they want to get birth control through their health insurance, we are not going to redefine rape, we are not going to spend an extra $2 trillion on the military that even the military says is not needed, we are not going to cut back on aid for education, we are not getting rid of universal healthcare, we are not going to get rid of the Dream Act, we are not going to self deport, we are not going to start a trade war with China, we are not going to have John Bolton as our Secretary of State, we are not going to have Dick Cheney back as foreign policy adviser, we are not going to reassemble almost the entire Bush team of neocons and financial geniuses that left this country in shambles and from which we are just now recovering.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, American voters.

Heckava Job Romney

Wow, Bush's former FEMA director, Michael (heckava job Brownie) Brown is criticizing Obama for acting too quickly in his Hurricane Sandy response. I guess he thinks Obama should sit on his hands for 3 days before responding like he did in the aftermath of Katrina. This calls to mind the consequences of putting people, who hate government and don't want it to work effectively, in charge of government. Isn't it a self fulfilling prophesy to put people in control of the government who proclaim that government is the problem? Isn't that like hiring a manager to run your business who doesn't believe in your business? Who would ever do that?

So Romney thinks we should get rid of FEMA and put it in the hands of a private for profit business. Really!? So after a disaster, with people hungry, thirsty and homeless, instead of giving those people food, water and temporary shelter so they can get back on their feet, we would have private businesses come in and exploit them for profit which would just compound their problems. The whole idea of profiting off desperate people is completely wrongheaded. George Bush taught us the painful lessons of putting someone in charge of our government who has a contempt for government and his FEMA director, Michael Brown, was a perfect example.

Pro-Life is Mostly About Sex

Watching these GOP men slipping up and getting caught expressing their true hateful views on women, abortion and rape, calls to mind a pivotal event in my life that started me toward a path away from right wing ideology. In my early-teens, I was at church and the pastor went into a spittle flecked, red faced, vein bulging rage about abortion. He wasn't concerned with the life of the fetus, he was enraged that a woman could sin and then escape God's punishment by getting an abortion. Back then the anti-choice people hadn't become skilled at playing the “I'm so concerned for the life of the fetus” game. I watched over the years as the pro-life crowd has evolved the “I'm so concerned for life” strategy. It turns out to be an effective strategy, since it is a valid position if one really does care about life. But you know, you can tell if their concern for life is real or fake by whether their concern for the fetus ends at birth and whether or not they support life in other instances. How many times do you see these GOP politicians rant and rave about the life of the fetus but when it comes to helping out young single mothers with education, child care and enriched early childhood development, they couldn't care less?
There is a tried and true method that prevents almost all abortions without infringing on the rights of women. If the GOP was truly concerned about the life of the fetus and stopping almost all abortions, they would support responsible early sex education and easy free access to birth control. This has worked everywhere it has been tried and results in an abortion rate close to zero after subtracting for those abortions that are medically necessary. For example, see the Netherlands where they have the lowest abortion and teen pregnancy rates in the world. Contrast this to abstinence only states that have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country. The Republican opposition to sex education and easy access to birth control is telling, it comes back to the attitude of my pastor all those years ago, the real concern is not about fetuses or life, it is about women having sex and not paying the consequences. That is what gets these GOP men into such a lather.

If You Repeat a Lie Often Enough

This amazing video is composed of excerpts from one 30 minute speech before the Iraq war. A perfect illustration of the old adage, "if you repeat a lie often enough".

Anti-Americanism

A few videos detailing the new anti-Americanism that has reached an unprecedented level, spurred on by intense hatred of Barack Obama. Why so much hate for Obama? He's just a moderate, just a little to the left of Bush. Is it because he stole their ideas and enacted a largely Republican health care proposal? Or could it be something else?

This video shows a roomful of Republicans reacting with cheers and high-fives upon hearing that the U.S. has lost the bid to host the 2016 Olympics.




This is a video clip of Republican Joe Scarborough expressing dismay at the way Rush Limbaugh reacts to America's failed Olympic bid. Shows that not all Republicans are consumed by Obama Derangement Syndrome.




Are Republicans actually obstructing the economic recovery so that the bad economy will benefit them in the coming elections?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here is a link showing Republican distress over recent good economic news.

Which Party Would Be Better at Protecting Medicare

Remember in 2010, those tea party Republicans prancing around with signs decrying the evils of government and the evils of “socialized medicine” and demanding that the government keep its hands off their Medicare? Someone must have tapped them on the shoulder and explained to them that their beloved Medicare is, in fact, pure government run socialized medicine because now they are all for doing away with Medicare and replacing it with another program they just happen to call Medicare.

The Republicans are using word tricks to fool people; they want to completely do away with Medicare (and by “Medicare” I mean the real government provided single payer healthcare) and replace it with a completely different program (seniors go to private insurers with a voucher and purchase their own healthcare) which they also call “Medicare”. So the Republicans can claim they are not doing away with “Medicare” because there will still be a program called “Medicare”. It's kind of like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” where the aliens take over humans and assume their outward form but inside they are really alien. So the Republicans take over Medicare and it is still called Medicare on the outside, but inside it is something completely different and alien.

This Republican Vouchercare will phase in over a number of years and completely do away with the real Medicare. When Romney claims Obama is “raiding Medicare” isn't it ironic that that is exactly what Romney wants to do? Here is Charlie Crist, former Republican governor of Florida, “The $716 billion in savings his (Obama's) opponents decry today extended the life of the program by nearly a decade and are making sure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted in excessive payments to insurance companies or fraud and abuse. His opponents (Romney/Ryan) would end the Medicare guarantee by creating a voucher that would raise seniors' costs by thousands of dollars and bankrupt the program.”

Changes are indeed going to be required in order to keep Medicare solvent as the huge bulge of boomers retire. Since Medicare is a Democratic program, Democrats are invested in the continued success of the real Medicare. On the other hand, remember the tea party signs, the Republicans are fundamentally opposed to socialized medicine as found in Medicare. Which party do you think will do the best job of protecting and preserving “the real Medicare” for the generations to come?  

Is Romney a Tax Cheat and Felon

In 2009 the Swiss bank UBS agreed to settle U.S. criminal charges that it had engaged in a multi-billion dollar scheme to help wealthy U.S. taxpayers hide assets from the IRS. This meant those secret accounts hiding money from the IRS in foreign banks were about to be revealed. The IRS offered an amnesty program for these wealthy people to avoid felony conviction if they owned up to these secret accounts and paid back taxes and penalties.

We know that Romney was heavily involved with foreign accounts; his 2010 return shows he has accounts in Switzerland and at least 5 other countries. Did Romney take the amnesty offer in 2009? And is that why he refuses to release his 2009 return that would show the felonious behavior and the amnesty?

They keep reporting in the media that Romney has released two years of tax returns, 2010 & 2011, but that is not quite true; he has only released a partial return for 2010. His 2010 return is missing one key page. The Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) in his 2010 return for detailing offshore accounts is purposefully absent. It just coincidentally happens that this one missing page would have referenced his previous (2009) amnesty if he had taken it. Why is the FBAR page the only page missing from his 2010 return? John McCain looked at Romney's taxes in 2008 and I'll take McCain's word that he didn't see anything illegal but the amnesty didn't occur until 2009 so McCain wouldn't have seen it.

Of course this is speculative, but why would Romney take so much heat for not releasing his tax returns if he wasn't hiding something pretty bad? The circumstantial evidence presents a strong case that Romney is a tax cheat who stashed money in Swiss accounts and then took the IRS amnesty in 2009 to avoid prosecution. For what other reason does he refuse to show his 2009 return? For what other reason would that one page be missing from his 2010 return?

Romney could clear up all these questions by just releasing his 2009 return or even releasing his complete 2010 return with the FBAR but he is not going to do so which is a pretty strong indictment that he is hiding some seriously nasty stuff that would disqualify him from the presidency. Even if you are a Republican, are you willing to vote for a likely tax cheat who hid money offshore and thus committed multiple felonies, or are you going to just vote for the guy no matter what, just because he has an “R” after his name?