Chrysler issues statement to calm concerns by workers that their jobs are being shipped overseas to China.

"Well that's embarrassing. Still not going to admit I was wrong though."

Courtesy of Chrysler:

 I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. 

North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,000 Jeep vehicles by 2014. In fact, U.S. production of our Jeep models has nearly tripled (it is expected to be up 185%) since 2009 in order to keep up with global demand. 

We also are investing to improve and expand our entire U.S. operations, including our Jeep facilities. The numbers tell the story: 

• We will invest more than $1.7 billion to develop and produce the next generation Jeep SUV, the successor of the Jeep Liberty -- including $500 million directly to tool and expand our Toledo Assembly Complex and will be adding about 1,100 jobs on a second shift by 2013. 
• At our Jefferson North Assembly Plant, where we build the Jeep Grand Cherokee, we have created 2,000 jobs since June 2009 and have invested more than $1.8 billion. 
• In Belvidere, where we build two Jeep models, we have added two shifts since 2009 resulting in an additional 2,600 jobs. 

With the increase in demand for our vehicles, especially Jeep branded vehicles, we have added more than 11,200 U.S. jobs since 2009. Plants producing Jeep branded vehicles alone have seen the number of people invested in the success of the Jeep brand grow to more than 9,300 hourly jobs from 4,700. This will increase by an additional 1,100 as the Liberty successor, which will be produced in Toledo, is introduced for global distribution in the second quarter of 2013. 

Together, we are working to establish a global enterprise and previously announced our intent to return Jeep production to China, the world’s largest auto market, in order to satisfy local market demand, which would not otherwise be accessible. Chrysler Group is interested in expanding the customer base for our award-winning Jeep vehicles, which can only be done by establishing local production. This will ultimately help bolster the Jeep brand, and solidify the resilience of U.S. jobs. Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change. So much so that we committed that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio plant, will never see full production outside the United States. 

 Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. 

It is inaccurate to suggest anything different. 

Sergio Marchionne

Of course this statement is in response to this incredibly duplicitious ad by the Romney campaign.

Okay somebody help me out here. In the whole history of American politics, has a major manufacturing company EVER had to call out a politician over falsely accusing them of shipping jobs overseas?

I'm relatively sure this is a first.

But hey that's okay, after all Mitt Romney's a "car guy" right? Yeah, right.

Yet another no-nonsense, FACTUALLY based, Obama ad. Keep them coming DNC!

I keep hearing people acting surprised that the Obama team and the Democrats are being so aggressive.

My response is that if we had been kicking ass for the last fifteen years this country would NEVER have suffered the setback that it has under Republican leadership.

The new Democratic platform should read, "No More Mr Nice Guy!"

Mitt Romney quotes "Popeye the Sailor Man," and a deeper examination of Bain documents obtained by Gawker reveals probable tax fraud.

"Mo money, mo money, mo non-taxable money for me!"

Courtesy of Politico:  

Mitt Romney conceded President Barack Obama has succeeded in making him a less likable person, but he offered a defiant retort to those hoping he will open up this week: “I am who I am.” 

Romney quoted that Popeye line three times in a 30-minute interview with POLITICO about his leadership style and philosophy, swatting away advice from Republicans to focus on connecting with voters in a more emotional, human way at this convention. Instead, he vowed to keep his emphasis — in the campaign and any administration to follow — on a relentlessly goal-driven, business-minded approach that has shaped his life so far. 

“I know there are some people who do a very good job acting and pretend they’re something they’re not,” Romney said. “You get what you see. I am who I am.” 

Seriously?  So Romney's big excuse for being robotic and unlikeable is that OTHER people also have personal flaws but are just better at faking that they are more personable?

So don't believe who Mitt Romney appears to be, just trust that he is who he, and of course his wife Ann, say that he is. Faith over observable facts, now where have I heard that argument made before?

So just "who am" Mitt Romney?

Well according to information revealed in those Bain documents he is a man who has done everything in his power to defraud the government by not paying his fair share of taxes.

This from Veracity Stew:

Management fees for running a private equity firm are classified as earned income, and are taxable at a rate of 35%. However, if that money is then shifted offshore through the Bain maze, it can be disguised as “carried interest” and the earner pays a much lower 15% Capital Gains tax rate. Does the reader now see why Mitt Romney’s Budget Plan proposes the elimination of taxes on Dividends and Capital Gains? As Victor Fleischer – Professor of Law, University of Colorado explains: 

"Because the management fees for a large private equity fund can be ten or twenty million per year, the tax dodge can literally save millions in taxes every year. The problem is that it is not legal."

But that is not all. Not by a long shot.

Mitt Romney has referred to President Obama as the "outsourcer in chief." However in the nineties Romney invested heavily in companies that SPECIALIZED in outsourcing. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

In recent weeks, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have accused each other of being an "outsourcer in chief," as their campaigns have tussled over Romney's past at Bain Capital and the (non)release of his tax returns. But all this scuffling hasn't taken into account an until-now unreported fact about Romney's days at Bain: When he was running the private equity firm, he invested tens of millions of dollars in a pair of companies that specialized in outsourcing high-tech manufacturing and that developed offshore production facilities in Mexico, China, and elsewhere to build electronics for US firms. 

In March 1999, shortly after Romney left Bain to take over the troubled Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Brookside Capital Investors Inc., a Bain-related entity wholly owned by Romney, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission that listed dozens of companies in which Brookside held a stake the previous quarter. The roster included investments in Singapore-based Flextronics International ($13 million) and Florida-headquartered Jabil Circuit Inc. ($41 million), two companies that were leaders in the fast-growing field of outsourcing electronics manufacturing and offshoring production to low-wage countries. Together, these two investments represented almost 10 percent of Brookside's $559 million portfolio. 

For much of the 1990s, most overseas outsourcing involved unsophisticated products like apparel. But in the second half of that decade, US high-tech companies producing computers, telecommunications equipment, and other electronics began contracting out their manufacturing to firms that had established production facilities both in the United States and in overseas locales where labor was cheap. 

Such was the case with Flextronics and Jabil Circuit. They were two of a handful of companies that, according to the Los Angeles Times, "exploited the boon in high-tech outsourcing, or 'stealth' manufacturing," producing components or products for American businesses including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft. When Romney was acquiring stakes in these two companies, they were hot tickets for investors. During the second half of 1998, the leading electronics manufacturing contractors—including Flextronics and Jabil Circuit—averaged an 85 percent boost in stock prices. That year, Flextronics doubled its revenues.

You know this is the thing that REALLY nags at me when I hear Romney surrogates talking about how this country needs HIS expertise on creating jobs to turn our economy around.

Somebody really needs to sit me down and explain to me how somebody who made his money in this manner:

As the founder of Bain Capital, Romney became a brilliant LBO buccaneer who specialized in buying up firms by taking on a lot of debt, using the target firm as collateral, and then trying to make the firm profitable -- often by breaking it up or slashing jobs -- to the point where Bain and its investors could load up the firm with even more debt, which Bain would then use to pay itself off. That would ensure a profit for Bain investors whether or not the companies themselves succeeded in the long run. Often, burdened by all that debt, these bought-out companies did not succeed, costing thousands of jobs as they were downsized, sold off and shuttered. Other times they did phenomenally well, as in the case of Sports Authority and Domino's Pizza.

Has ANY insight into how to create jobs for hardworking Americans in THIS country.

After all you cannot load up a country with piles of debt just to ensure that IT'S top one percent make a profit, with no consideration for the middle class workers that are the foundation for its ability to prosper?

Or can you? And did I just describe all eight years of the Bush administration?

So it appears that Joe Biden was right, Mitt Romney is essentially "George Bush on steroids."

Personally I think that if THAT comparison is made over and over again, that President Obama should have this election in the bag.

The Obama campaign is no longer bothering to play nice with Mittens. Good, it's about time!

Oooh, THAT is brutal!

And, as it turns out, completely accurate.

Let's see him use that "I was a successful businessman" talking point now!

Mitt Romney, the "Out-Sourcer-in-Chief."

"Okay what the hell? Are they planning on looking at ALL of my record? Even the parts we told them not to?"

Courtesy of Politicususa:

After the Washington Post blew the lid off of Mitt Romney job creator claims, the Romney campaign responded by not denying the fact that he is the outsourcer in chief. 

Contrary to the Romney job creator narrative, The Washington Post analysis found that, “Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field.” 

The Romney campaign responded by disputing the article, but not the facts themselves. Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said, “This is a fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring nor versus work done overseas to support U.S. exports. Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real world economy so he understands why jobs come and they go. As president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. President Obama’s attacks on profit and job creators make it less attractive to create jobs in the U.S.” 

Actually, The Washington Post article is based on research of SEC disclosure forms that reveal that Romney was instrumental in moving American jobs overseas. The Romney campaign didn’t bother with disputing the facts and research in the article. Instead they adopted a Clintonesque ‘it all depends on what the definition is’ parsing of outsourcing versus offshoring.

So riddle me this Batman, how does ANYBODY have confidence that a guy who made money by sending jobs overseas, will somehow know how to CREATE jobs in America?

Once again, if Romney plans on running against Obama's "poor" record creating jobs, where is the proof that HE can do a better job? 

Seriously, don't bother looking, there IS none!