Switzerland Complains to Obama Administration About "Swiss Miss" Anti-Romney Ad
Speaking of cheap and inaccurate anti-Swiss populism favored by supporters of the Democratic Party, see if you can make it to the halfway point on this anti-Mitt Romney attack ad:
Also not amused: Switzerland. Here's Swiss Info:
The film gives "the impression that having a bank account in Switzerland is dubious in itself and its only aim is to hide money from the tax authorities," the Swiss foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Switzerland's Washington embassy reportedly expressed its unhappiness at the clip to the Obama team, according to the Swiss News Agency.
Though almost no one will remember this micro-snit 72 hours from now, it's worth pointing out that Switzerland is not only one of the largest direct foreign investors in the United States, but also has arguably more diplomatic importance to the U.S. than all but a handful of small countries. This is due to its historical neutrality, which gives Bern diplomatic presence in places Washington won't officially go (such as Cuba) and an important mediator role in places Washington won't officially leave alone (such as the Middle East).
President Obama came into office promising European countries more "humility" and personal diplomatic engagement than his predecessor. I doubt that Switzerland, for one, has felt the love.
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That ad is painful- I could only make it through 19 whole seconds
That's what I was thinking as well. If that ad is an example of what they're churning out, I wouldn't feel too threatened.
I got to about 20 seconds or so as well.
With all the aspiring singers around, they couldn't find a chick who could actually sing?
Or I suppose she is supposed to sing badly because she's on TEAM EVUL.
24 seconds. I guess I can take the most torture.
I made it to "spanky spanky."
Is it wrong that I was turned on?
Barf barf.
It's actually a good strategy. Obama wrecks the economy - The wealthy put their money oversea - Only a fairly wealthy person can run against him to due to his endless fundraising - Attack opponent for protecting money from Obama's policies - FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! - Cycle starts again.
Except the reason that the Dems have been able to use the Swiss and Caymen Island accounts as a weapon against Romney, is because he reported the goddamned accrued interest income from them on his tax filings.
Jebus, the guy is Mormon. He may know why people put their assets into these overseas jurisdictions but he doesn't have the testicular fortitude to go through with not reporting it.
If he reported the interest, they are not exactly "secret" are they?
If they aren't disclosed they can scream bloody murder about them; if they aren't secret, they can still yell about them because people have been trained by pop culture to see foreign bank accounts as somehow nefarious.
Heads they win, tails you lose. And since they are smearing him through inplication, they can't be caught out for lying.
These people are idiots about a lot of things, but campaigning is not one of them.
*implication* I need preview, dammit.
If only they put such thought and intelligence into governing rather than being evil.
Come on. They do.
+4 more years
"Governing" without "being evil"? Unpossible!
Fair enough. When they are governing they still are being evil and thus putting thought into it.
this IS their version of governing. I'm telling you; you have to change previous ways of thinking when looking at this administration. What would otherwise be considered unpossible now has to be looked at seriously.
I have one associate who had a stop put on his accounts after getting an extension on his filings. It was just a bone headed IRS error that caused him a shit load of headaches for a few weeks. He now keeps the majority of his accounts offshore.
It has nothing to do with tax avoidance in his case. I wonder what factor regulation and regulator avoidance plays in the decision making of those who keep offshore accounts besides this instance I'm intimately familiar.
Maybe the Swiss have better banks that provide better service and better interest rates than American banks. In the day and age of the internet, it is not like it is any harder to pay your bills from a Swiss account.
That too. Just having money gives you a broader array of options of what you can do with it. Only a nativist boob sees nefarious intentions in everything that involves economic exchange with foreigners.
I can think of any number of times I have seen American banks keep people's money and say "fuck you sue us". American banks tend to be assholes. Just a guess, but maybe the Swiss got such a good reputation in the banking business because they are not.
And, yes Warty, random strangers at rest stops do tend to tell you the darnedest things!
Obama thinks that when the federal government forcibly rapes the economy, that it doesn't get pregnant.
They are blaming the victim here -- wealthy people are trying to keep their money from the rapists hands.
My ears are bleeding. Damn you, Matt Welch!
IS it Friday yet?
Nothing is Friday but Friday.
Icky, yucky, stinky, stupid Switzerland!
Nice to see Team Blue has decided on a moral high road strategy. *sigh* Is it November yet?
This is the best they have?
Amazing how the Team who claims to hate stereotypes and demeaning other cultures, uses those very tactics when it helps them.
Stereotyping white cultures is considered OK. But yeah, if the Swiss account didn't exist, they'd have a Caymen Islands commercial that would be offputting (but easily forgiven because it's all in the interest of advancing the black guy).
As long as it's not white gay culture, although white gay non-Democrats are fair game.
ironically, I believe it is a black guy who is recent steward of the Caymans' continued reputation on financial matters.
Is this stuff designed to actually convince voters? Or it just grist for the base? I just don't see how any person, not already in the tank for Obama, would watch that ad and think anything other than "Obama must be a real tool."
Really lame and dishonest? Yes
Will it cost Romney some votes? Yes
I doubt it. To cost Romney votes it would have to convince someone who would otherwise have voted for Romney. If they are that stupid, they are likely to switch back to Romney after seeing a Romney ad.
Saying this add will sway voters is like saying cheerleaders get fans to switch sides in the middle of a game.
And saying that is like saying that the fans at the Michigan/Ohio State game aren't really sure which team they're going to root for.
Or perhaps you hadn't heard that the election will be decided by a rather large mass of undecided voters (a lot of whom are undecided at this point because they're somewhat dull)?
Come on. That's a three minute cheer, not a campaign ad.
It's a joke.
It's something that Maddow and her fans can tap their fingers to, not something to actually convince anyone of anything.
1. I really wish I was as rich as Romney, or even Obama.
2. If I was a rich conservative, nobody would know where I hid my money - because I wouldn't tell the IRS, or I would leave the country like that Facebook guy.
3. If I was a rich liberal, I would just shelter my cash in Fiji like the Kennedy's and tell everyone to suck it.
It is doubtful many of the Kennedys have paid a dime of taxes in their lives. When you are heir to a big fortune, that fortune sits in a trust. You then borrow against the trust whenever you need money. Since borrowed money is not "earned" money, you don't pay any taxes, just the interest on the debt, which is very low since it is secured by the trust. Then when you die, the debts are all paid by the trust and whatever is left goes into a new trust for your kids and the process starts over again.
Well, they paid a little on the funds still in the U.S. They don't talk about the Fiji oil companies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbDwbUZar0o
That is for the money they make. The inherited money is basically tax free. Remember that the next time some Congress creature is whining about the need for the estate taxes. The really rich don't pay estate taxes, just schmucks who managed to do well and build a business or something.
I am pretty sure that trust disbursements are taxed.
Prove it.
Not in Fiji.
But to be fair, that vid doesn't seem to be anything that the actual Obama campaign had anything to do with producing. Or am I missing something?
It was produced by some pro-Obama PAC or SuperPAC called the Agenda Project Action Fund. Unless Romney or Obama denounce an ad produced by a PAC or SuperPAC on their side, I assume that they agree with it.
I hereby denounce everything and everyone until the end of time, unless I specifically give my endorsement.
Oh wait. I think I just denounced puppies and Mother's Day. I could be in trouble.
I once accidentally did that. The Coalition For Kissing Puppies On Mother's Day While Supporting Our Troops smacked my bitch ass up that November.
Apparently, a candidate can't even say "those PACs need to stop producing nasty, deceitful attack ads", because that would be meddling in the affairs of said PACs.
I call bullshit.
Sure they can. And if someone filed a complaint against them for coordinating with the PAC, well, the FEC won't get around to it for years. The candidate would probably win, anyway, and even if they lost, it wouldn't be until after the election, so who cares?
I have little doubt that Obama could get this taken off the airwaves immediately if came out and said it was unfitting of his campaign. Ditto with the ad claiming Romney caused the death of the steelworkers wife.
But, supposedly, there is to be NO contact between PACs and the candidates or the campaign staffs.
Supposedly. Wink.
Where are all the investigative reporters on this? The "no contact" lie would seem to be relatively easily uncovered.
Ask Stephanie Cutter. She's good at that lie.
I just can't get worked up by idiotic campaign ads because it's hard for me to intellectually accept that they really can influence the electorate. That they do apparently influence the electorate indicates that we have much, much bigger problems than idiotic campaign ads. Like, where to find enough drugs to get us through the campaign season.
I agree, Citizen, but we're sensible people... not Tony.
This is am outrage! I demand an investigation!
I mean, if Obama had to spend all his time disavowing everything his idiot supporters said or did, he'd have no time left for picking drone targets and stuff.
But remember, every Republican is totally supportive and responsible for what Akin said.
Yes, John. I know. Dems are totally worse than Repbs. Totally. It's John Kerry's fault.
I am severely youtube impaired.
Is she cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
Ya for sure from Sweden! Now that we are all here we will have a picnic, ya?
But you're wearing....lederhosen...
Would like to see any prominent Democrat forced to answer why, if Romney "didn't pay taxes for ten years"... how he avoided prison in the process.
Yes, forced. As in "not allowed to wander off into talking points about The Children and not answer the goddamn question in a straightforward, simple sentence".
I saw an effort with that approach, on CNN oddly enough, as Wolf Blitzer tried to get Debbie W-S to answer a straight question about Ryan's Medicare plan, the part about no one over 55 being affected. He told her that part at least a half dozen times; didn't matter.
Similarly, Anderson Cooper hammered a former Obama staffer turned campaign hack about the "Romney killed my wife" ad, repeatedly calling out the staffer saying the ad was pretty damn clear, and pretty damn despicable. The staffer twisted more than a marlin on a line.
A thousand Internets, not to mention a health audience, to the first host who explicitly says "cut the spinning and talking points; I asked you a straight question. If you can't provide a straight answer, just say so and we'll move on. Folks will understand you do not have a straight answer."
I actually think CNN has won the media wars. MSNBC is so blatantly progressive in it's bias (but refuses to admit it and claims impartial and objective journalism even on their commentary shows like Maddow) while Fox is fairly straightforward mainstream GOP in their bias (and although they claim the mantle "fair and balanced" they're unashamed to have guys like Hannity admit to being partisans). CNN seems to be the most impartial of the three now.
I agree. But it's a tallest pygmy award.
And they really have the "respectable" statist quo bias perfected to a degree that I often find more infuriating than obvious partisanship of MSNBC or FOX.
Plus Piers Morgan. What a vapid insufferable pus bag. I'd rather watch Hannity and Maddow in a make out session than listen to him for 30 seconds.
What's pissing me off is how partisan the PBS News Hour has become. I've been watching it for 30 years. Back in the day, if something happening in Iraq was the global headline of the day, they would have the Iraqi ambassador on. It's very sad what it has become, thanks to Jim Lehrer and that fat bitch Gwen Ifill.
He didn't pay any taxes because he took advantage of all of these evil loopholes in the tax code.
Wonder how many leftists did the same thing.
That is different!!
but they donated to the appropriate liberal causes and love teachers, so that's okay.
Mrs. Apostate ran the numbers on the 2010 tax returns and it turns out that the answer to your question is, "At least not BIden or Obama." Numbers below.
2010 - Effective tax rate / Top marginal rate / AGI
Apostate - 10.2% / 15% / none of your business
Romney - 13.9% / 35% / $21,646,507
Ryan - 15.9% / 28% / $215,417
Biden - 22.6% / 33% / $379,178
Obama - 33.8% / 35% / $1,728,096
But you just go on thinking that the tax system is oppressing people like Romney.
Would like to see any prominent Democrat forced to answer why, if Romney "didn't pay taxes for ten years"... how he avoided prison in the process.
Strictly speaking, this claim would be true if Romney's tax bill was $0 because he had loss-carry-forward amounts that offset his entire tax bill.
"He didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," is not the same statement as "He failed to file returns 10 years in a row."
I shudder to think that someone might have his/her vote swayed by this vacuum-skulled flapdoodle.
The stoopid... it burns...
"There is a high likelihood Romney received amnesty for the federal crime of tax evasion." - Paul Abrams
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....f=politics
Wonder how many Democrats have done exactly what Romney has done?
Zero percent of the ones currently running for president.
Romney should up the ante on this pissing contest.
"Here are *all* my tax returns, medical records, and academic transcripts. Also, my *actual* birth certificate. Now, ...."
Not quite that way.
He needs to say he will release a phat package including all that stuff, when Obama does the same. All or nothing deal.
Then, when the issue is raised, just say "Hey, I'm ready to go when Obama is. Talk to him."
That reminds me. Do we know what's in Assange's doomsday machine?
Unobtainium farmed from the Marianas trench by James Carpenter.
Or the contents of Al Capone's vault.
The Swiss, outraged by what amounts to an infantile caricature of what Swiss banks do in reality, manifest their sternest of protests.
They should call that their "full time job." Pretty much everything people think they know about Swiss banks is infantile drivel driven by the very drivers of all drivel: Hollywood.
But Matt Damon's secret Swiss spy stache in the Bourne Identity is true, isn't it?
I can't imagine enjoying this even if I was someone that was totally in the tank for Obama. It's awful in every way... as an ad, as entertainment, you name it.
It's not any worse than Mark Fiore's Pulitzer-winning political cartoons.
I can't imagine enjoying this even if I was someone that was totally in the tank for Obama. It's awful in every way... as an ad, as entertainment, you name it.
I made it 35 seconds in, but that was due to in part to my WTF initial reaction.
So Matt welch is suggesting that Obama do something about an ad put out by an independent 503c corporation that offends the Swiss?
Love to see how he squares that with his defense of free speech in the citizens united decision.
16 seconds was my limit