Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 31, 2012

Just put the tax returns on your campaign site and let the people decide.

Well all right then.

This issue goes far beyond Romney. Reporters do not dare to report negatively on matters of vital economic concern to their corporate bosses — for fear of being fired. This would include exposeés, whistle-blowing, in-depth probes (of, for example, Romney’s taxes), etc.

Even Faux Noise got on Lyin’ Ryan about his misrepresentations ( " lies, goddamn lies, and grand faloons" – Mark Twain ) in his speech.

" In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities. "- Mark Twain

George Burns always said, all you need is sincerity — and once you can fake that, you’ve got it made……and, speaking of Shlox Snooze…

well I don’t agree! what? oh now he can never release them, and all because of me…

I really thought that old Rupert was going to be the "surprise speaker last night. Nothing like a tired old white guy to show how big and diverse the Republican tent is.

Man, I’m waiting for the US election to be over so we can have a break from politics in the comics…at least these comics.Politics in the comic I draw will end the day the Global War Of Terror is called off.

From the conversation at the bottom of the strip two days ago between me and Spaghettus1, it wojuld appear that the returns would show most of his income from Bain Capital being taxed at only 15%. That, I imagine, is why he doesn’t want the returns released.

Over here, we have no history or expectation of releasing returns, although in the campaig for London mayor it was done for the first time, and it was the left-wing candidate who ended up with egg on his face…

with the closing speech last night and the gulf whipped up to a froth.expect multiple flurries.

I’ll stick to Asia, thanks.

“… Romney … a scum lord.”πAlotta slum scum out there.

Bain Capital’s CEO Romney would never rip your eyeballs out and show them to you, unless he could start a brand new venture business that way in order to make money.πThen he’ll tell America that’s his business model. Business like that one will create the climate for more businesses, and thus more jobs.πWanna rip out eyeballs and sell ’em back to your victims? Learn from the Bain Capitalist way! It will spawn other jobs, such as ophthalmologic surgeon jobs to put the eyeballs — or at least a significant fraction of them — back in their eyesockets! πVOTE MITT!

Does rightisright = leftisleft? Or does rightisright = GuardSGT?

I’m sorry you call everyone who disagrees with you a marxist. Sort of makes anything else you say less compelling.Remember that it was a Republican (Romney’s father) who started the tradition of releasing one’s tax returns – something every candidate for president since has done. Is it required? No. Is is suspicious when someone doesn’t? Yes. Not because it might reveal criminal behavior but because it might reveal something embarrassing – like the fact that the candidate was not telling us the truth about his association with Bain after he “left”. Or how little he’s paid in taxes over the years. Or where he chooses to keep his money – OUT of the US economy. Not illegal, but it doesn’t have to be illegal to be immoral.

Yes, Doonesbury has been political since the very beginning, with the right wingers getting mad because GT would depict the Watergate/Vietnam era of the Nixon administration. The only difference back then was that there was no internet, so no comment section, the only comments were the ones you might happen to hear if you asked someone face to face about reading Doonesbury! Imagine that— just face to face conversations. So, we really didn’t hear all that many complaints in the beginning. Of course, it was not and still is not mandatory reading…

“Proof Fox is indeed Fair and Balanced.”πDontcha mean Unfair and Unbalanced (UU)?

Yet it’s ok with you that Obama has all of his education records sealed. Nothing going on there.

Well, I know that the GOP thinks it has morals. I think that they only have partial morals. They often claim to be pro-life, but are really not, they are only pro-birth. Once a child is born, they are not interested in what happens to him/her. They seem unaware that a child has to be fed, housed, watched over, educated, etc.

Of course, the GOP is also pro death penalty, which the Catholic Bishops came out against some years ago. And they are supposedly against euthanasia. However, when Pope Paul was on his death bed a few years ago, he refused many of the options which could have extended his life (it wouldn’t have extended it much longer probably, but he could have done certain things such as a feeding tube, etc.) Some folks don’t want to have all the extraordinary measures to be taken, which is different from someone actually taking his/her life, but it is still kind of an acknowledgement of giving up. My dad didn’t want a feeding tube at the end, although he couldn’t swallow anymore. We all made it clear to him that he would need it since he could no longer swallow, but that was his choice. My dad also had a DNR, which was again strictly his choice, of course. He had to repeatedly sign stuff saying that this was what he wanted.

Wow Clint was scary last night. It was weird, he was so out of it, he seemed to forget what he was saying and was a bit disrespectful of the prez. He thought the prez was swearing at him? Really? He thought our mild mannered Pres. Obama told him to shut up? Really? I guess the chair stole the show. And then there was Mitt talking about how his mom got a rose everyday from his dad and then one day she didn’t get a rose and that is how she knew he was dead? Touching story, strange but touching, I guess. The weirdest convention night ever. The fact that the whole convention was built on a lie in that they took out of context something that the prez mentioned, the fact that we are all dependent on certain things that the government does for us. They build roads, schools, etc. No one individual builds those things and everyone was helped along the way to become successful. That is what Obama was saying, but they didn’t mention that part of what he said. Per usual.

It must have been super tough to be in France in 1968 for an 18 year old… What a sacrifice. And to think lots of others his age were in Vietnam, fighting a war, which Mitt was in favor of. I don’t think many folks in Bordeaux were interested in giving up wine and converting to Mormonism…

I don’t think anyone was fooled by the minorities and women speakers that the GOP trotted out at this convention either. Well, it is over. Now we go to Charlotte and then hang in there until the election. We need to keep up the pressure about the returns and make the GOP answer for all of their lies and coverups. Also, can anyone not remember all the jobs that were being lost at the end of the Bush administration? 750,000 jobs a month were lost the month before he left. 800,000 were lost the next month. We are not experiencing that now but we can be once again, if Mitt is elected. He wants to go right back to the same economic plan. Can our memories be that short? We are not where we need to be in our economy but Obama had a huge hole to climb out of and that should not be forgotten.

Did anyone else catch the line from Jeb Bush where he said his brother kept us safe? Guess no one told Jebbie about 9/11.

They are all liars if you ask me.

Blame what on Clinton? The huge number of jobs that were lost at the end of the Bush administration?

the thief is one of the 3,000 so-called ‘Americans’ who have 32 TRILLION dollars in off-shore accounts…check out the FBI release a couple of months ago…and no, you haven’t seen much about it, have you? THAT’S 2 and one half times the national debt…just think about that.

And now, for himself and his buds…they NEED to BUY the Presidency.

Yes, the right didn’t give Clinton a pass for not going to Vietnam, even though he did actively oppose the war. Yet, the GOP folks are routinely given a pass for multiple deferments even though they were in favor of the Vietnam War!

@corzak I think you wil find it is this:http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/uk-offshore-wealth-idUKBRE86L03W20120722

It’s not the FBI, it’s Tax Justice Network, whose research has been criticised in the past, though the person doing this piece seems to be well-qualified.

And it is not Americans, it is global private wealth held in tax havens. Which are secretive, so by definition this is very much an estimate.

Here is a little reminder: we had a surplus when Clinton left office. 8 years later, we had an economic meltdown, after W was in office for 2 terms. We have now begun to climb out of the hole that W left. He left a BIG mess to be cleaned up, but things are beginning to get better, even if not as quickly as we would like.

Meanwhile, Mittens would have us go back to the same tired and disastrous economic policies of W.

Panel 4. See, that wasn’t hard to fix.

DTpi, is response to your comment on my comment yesterday(sorry for the delay but I don’t sit at a computer all day long), no, I was “not born yesterday” and I don’t live in the US either. Seems to me, though, that focusing on Romney’s tax returns, diverts the attention from more important topics, as to how the US plans to dig its way out of its current economic crisis. However, for most people, that’s too difficult a topic to discuss and it’s a lot simpler to harp on Romney’s tax returns and on whatever flaws Obama has.

I was under the impression that, based on the most recent prior comment, that they were blaming 911 on Clinton. After all, it happened on his watch, didn’t it? Just like all those jobs Bush created in early 2009 and getting bin Laden happened on his watch.

Romney is a lying sack of $hit. What are you hiding, Mittens? It must be awfully bad!

Barack Obama never said or even implied, that people should not work hard or work smart. Obama is only for the middle class getting their fair share, not more. Romney is all about giving plenty of breaks and $ to the wealthy and no one else. The wealthy are entitled to receive plenty of tax breaks, no one else is supposed to get any breaks. In fact, the poor are to lose $ under their economic plan. They would have Social Security privatized and turn Medicare into a voucher plan. Especially after the Bush economic meltdown, this would have been a catastrophe if the GOP had had their way in regard to their economic plan. The elderly would be given a small amount of $ and told to find their own way. This would be a disaster.

Maybe he doesn’t have any tax returns to show. Wait…, what?

If you were to really claim that the Dems were really doing the exact same stuff as the Reps, the theme of the DNC would have to be “we like being able to hire people,” which wouldn’t be a bad idea… Instead they are going with “We make it possible,” which I guess isn’t too bad either, but whatever. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone doesn’t say at the DNC that they like being able to hire people, since it isn’t a bad sentiment, that is for sure.

I found this to be an informative article on Romney’s finances:http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

tampa handed charlotte all a inspirational gift.quite the warm up act.

Clint Eastwood had 7 children with 5 different women. Imagine if a rapper at the DNC appeared and had that background… Sorry I don’t have a link for that, but you can google it…

Surely we don’t all have to have a link in order to be considered as having “real info?” Having a link is great, but you can’t be naive enough to think that if you have a link it is going to convince someone of anything. It is great to have that info, but there are other means of having info as well. We are all consumers of media. There is nothing wrong with having a good old fashioned political discussion, even if you don’t have a link.

i don’t understand politics or being correct – long live Trudeau – both of them…eh!

Let’s just get Julian Assange or Anonymous or eve 4chan on it. They’ll dig up those returns pronto.

Well, since I was never a big Clint Eastwood fan, at least he couldn’t really break my heart. I was concerned about Clint, as he seemed really confused, not just politically. He seemed on the verge of a stroke, and he just might be, he is 82.

Wrong! Obama’s tax increase proposal is for those who make more than $250,000. Senator Schumer of NY has proposed that it be a tax increase only on those who make at least a million, and that was rejected by the GOP too.

Obama is only asking for a rather modest increase on those earning $250,000 per year or more, so that they would pay at the same rate as they did during the Clinton years, when everyone was prosperous. I know Clinton had a lot of critics, but I am not sure what they didn’t like about the Clinton years. Was it the peace or the prosperity?

Well, maybe not everyone was prosperous under Clinton, but certainly things were going along pretty well. At the end of his presidency, as I said before, we had a surplus.

Just because you are not making at least $100,000 per year doesn’t mean that you don’t work hard. Folks who work at minimum wage jobs have to work very hard indeed.

lol! Word-for-word recitation of party doctrine – complete with the now-mandatory “lemonade stand”! I guess you’re an intern, tasked with seeding forums with the talking points. But it looks like you only crawl out at night. I guess the logic is to dodge the flags and still get the talking points in?

He worked in a Baskin-Robbins, much bigger than a lemonade stand.

The NYT has an article titled “Fact-Checkers Howl, but Both Sides Cling to False Ads”.

There have been a few false advertising cases in recent years. An egg producer was forbidden to use a logo that implied superior animal care, and hard drive manufacturers had to pay up for fudging on capacity ratings. I guess we hold eggs and computer components to a higher standard than the men who will lead the nation.

I think we need a ban on all political advertising by any electronic media. We could have mandatory televised debates, at least 3, and they should be shown on every channel not intended for children under 10, and broadcast on the web. It’s ridiculous to have people picking their leaders the same way they pick their breakfast cereal and their underwear.

It would take a constitutional convention to make substantial changes, but campaign finance reform should be one cause both sides can agree on. Mountains of cash and spin doctors shouldn’t be standard operating procedures.

Sorry this is late, but picking up on the comments by Spaghettus1, corzak, Gee man etc above, there is perhaps an interesting comparison with the way the UK dealt with offshore account ‘amnesties’. We have now had about four ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunities to declare…

The first is really nearest to your UBS one – HMRC (our IRS) got the details of Channel Islands account holders, though through the courts in this case. People were given the chance to come forward, pay ALL tax, interest, and just a 10% penalty (lower than if they were investigated). We then had another similar one.

Then there were some stolen records of Liechtenstien accounts, and the deal there was to pay only on the last ten years, so if the principal was deposited before that no tax is due on it. Otherwise, again it is more or less full tax, interest and a 10% penalty, plus going forward Liechtenstein will reveal information to the UK. There’s also a deal to pay tax but stay anonymous in Swiss accounts.

On the whole, though, the UK approach has started from the basis of paying tax in full, it is just a simplified procedure, lower fixed penalties, and no prosecution.

Liberalism at its hatefilled worst, both the strip and the comments.