Tax questions for Mitt Romney, from the unnecessarily snarky and unfair to the incredibly serious and necessary

• You have repeatedly referred to people with extraordinarily high levels of wealth as “job creators.” Have you ever hired a full-time worker and paid them a livable wage with money out of your own wallet? Have you ever witnessed any wealthy person do so?
• Can you articulate why you think it is acceptable for income derived from investments to be taxed at a far lower rate than income derived from working?
• You’ve repeatedly said there are politically damaging things in your income-tax returns. What are they?
• If you were advising the Obama campaign on how to win the general election, would you press yourself for your income tax returns?
• Are you a billionaire? Is your net worth, inclusive of assets and investments, more than one billion dollars?
• You recently said you have not paid taxes at a rate of less than 13 percent. What, exactly, has your effective income tax rate been for each year throughout the past decade? No one cares what your marginal income tax rate was.
• Have you ever received a reprieve from the IRS for felonious tax evasion?
• Have you ever failed to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)? Were you a participant in the IRS’s recent amnesty program for reporting previously undisclosed foreign bank accounts?

Listmania

theamericanbear:

Thank-you, Boston Review.

bostonreview:

Ten People Who Don’t Belong on Foreign Policy’s 2011 List of “Top 100 Global Thinkers”:

#12 Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice “For making the world we live in.”

#22 Bernard-Henri Levy “For taking on a real war this time.”

#35 Amy Chua “For proving that even a parenting memoir can shake the world.”

#39 David Cameron “For showing how to do more with less.”

#40 Paul Ryan “For putting America’s debt problem on top of the agenda.”

#45 Robert Gates “For being America’s last bipartisan figure.”

#51 John McCain “For finding his voice again—in support of democrats the world over.”

#58 Thomas Friedman “For holding out hope of American renewal.”

#67 Robert D. Kaplan “For redrawing the global map of our future.”

Politically motivated lines I like from Lupe Fiasco’s new mixtape, Friend of the People

• while we waitin’ on that compromise / proceed with that conscious side / new game alert / hashtag: occupy
• imagine a life that revolves around shoppin’ / conspicuous consumption / that means it serves no other function / than to show off to someone
• actin’ like they the man up in here / it don’t count when your only real fan is a mirror
• bought a bag at american rags / a small chinese-made american flag / took a dolla’ bill then split it in half / the picture that she bought wouldn’t fit in a cab
• this is dedicated to the soldiers / who throw a peace sign in the face of bulldozers
• only time i wrestle’s / when i’m wrestling with settling / only way i’ll settle’s / when we wrestle over everything
• look at all the friends that marketing makes / how much more fries can these arteries take / i’ll give mcdonald’s a lil’ help here / i think they should expand into healthcare / and get all ends covered / even make caskets keep it all umbrella’d
• ask rush limbaugh / to return my calls

Click through to listen.

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“ThinkProgress calculated ten investments America could’ve afforded if it didn’t spend $113 billion — the allotment made in Fiscal Year 2011 — on the war in Afghanistan. Each one of these policy options represents an equivalent $113 billion cost:”

• Provide 57.5 Million Children With Low-Income Health Care For 2011
• Provide 23 Million People With Low-Income Health Coverage In 2011
• Give 20.2 Million $5,500 Pell Grants To Students In 2011
• Provide 14.35 million Military Veterans With VA Medical Care In 2011
• Give 14.7 million Children Head Start Funding In 2011
• Give 14.26 Million Scholarships To University Students In 2011
• Employ 1.93 million Firefighters In 2011
• Hire 1.75 Million Elementary School Teachers In 2011
• Hire 1.65 Million Police Officers In 2011
• Equip 67.8 Million Households With The Ability To Use Wind Power In 2011
• Equip 25.39 Million Households With The Ability To Use Solar Photovoltaic Energy In 2011

Listicle without commentary

Some things that do not to appear to have helped the United States kill Osama Bin Laden:

• Guantanamo Bay
• Institutionalized torture
• Congressional hearings into “radical Islam”
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
• Dick Cheney
• Trying alleged terrorists in military tribunals

News outlets that I will happily pay money for:

• National Journal
• Mother Jones
• Financial Times
• The Economist
• Wall Street Journal