Posts tagged unsolicited advice

jakke answered your question: More on using Wikipedia to predict who Romney’s VP…

Writing something to track edits would be pretty straightforward, for sure.

If database journalism were a thing yet instead of a nascent concept no one’s really putting into practice, some media company would get on this, then.

The Romney camp has a statement about their candidate’s 2011 tax returns. I had a free 15 minutes, so I wrote them a better one: Mitt and Ann Romney have made available an estimate of their 2011 tax returns. If you’re reading this yourself, as opposed to having the help dictate it to you while you roll around in piles of money, it’s safe to assume they paid a lower tax rate than you did. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 percent. The Romneys (Romnii?) have paid taxes in the full amount that they owe. Additionally, they give money — lots of it! — to “charities.” If you speak IRS, this means they give money to organizations recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If you speak human, this means they give money to organizations that may or may not be using it to do meaningful things that benefit the needy and less privileged. In any event — and we can’t stress this point enough — they don’t own the government anything under current law. If you have a problem with this, perhaps you should direct your anger towards Congress, which can change the laws that keep Mr. Romney’s tax rate so profoundly low relative to everyone else’s whenever they feel like it. Mitt Romney is running for president, a position of awesome power and responsibility. However, the president does not write tax policy. If he/she did… oh boy, think of how much easier this would all be. As for the notion that a President Romney would bully Congress into passing tax reform that disproportionately benefits the rich: Have you honestly seen our guy? He’s rigid as a totem pole and as intimidating as cat’s mew. As president, he’d sign anything — literally anything at all — you threw in front of him. His 2011 returns aren’t really newsworthy. Move along…

The Romney camp has a statement about their candidate’s 2011 tax returns. I had a free 15 minutes, so I wrote them a better one:

Mitt and Ann Romney have made available an estimate of their 2011 tax returns. If you’re reading this yourself, as opposed to having the help dictate it to you while you roll around in piles of money, it’s safe to assume they paid a lower tax rate than you did. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 percent.

The Romneys (Romnii?) have paid taxes in the full amount that they owe. Additionally, they give money — lots of it! — to “charities.” If you speak IRS, this means they give money to organizations recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If you speak human, this means they give money to organizations that may or may not be using it to do meaningful things that benefit the needy and less privileged.

In any event — and we can’t stress this point enough — they don’t own the government anything under current law. If you have a problem with this, perhaps you should direct your anger towards Congress, which can change the laws that keep Mr. Romney’s tax rate so profoundly low relative to everyone else’s whenever they feel like it.

Mitt Romney is running for president, a position of awesome power and responsibility. However, the president does not write tax policy. If he/she did… oh boy, think of how much easier this would all be.

As for the notion that a President Romney would bully Congress into passing tax reform that disproportionately benefits the rich: Have you honestly seen our guy? He’s rigid as a totem pole and as intimidating as cat’s mew. As president, he’d sign anything — literally anything at all — you threw in front of him. His 2011 returns aren’t really newsworthy. Move along…