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http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/anonymous-group-allegedly-hacked-romney-tax-records-franklin-firm

Isn't this blackmail?

Is this even real? If it is real, PriceWaterCoopers would probably pay...

edit: look at the comments... it's gotta be fake.

I actually think this could be damaging not to the Romney campaign but the Obama campaign. Firstly I don't think they really have it. Secondly only an Obama/third-party supporter would do something like this, therefore meaning that Romney could use it against them.

Secondly only an Obama/third-party supporter would do something like this,

Are you joking? Someone might want to hack Romney for a lot of other reasons than supporting Obama.

...therefore meaning that Romney could use it against them.

No doubt they'll make the effort.

 Mannahnin wrote:

Secondly only an Obama/third-party supporter would do something like this,

Are you joking? Someone might want to hack Romney for a lot of other reasons than supporting Obama.

Go on...

Romney has lots of money. People like money.

Getting Romney's password can help you obtain Romney's money.

Romney could also be targeted as a politician that the hacker dislikes, whether or not they like Obama at all.

Could be a disgruntled former constituent, former employee (or their kid) of a company formerly run by Bain, some bigot who doesn't like Mormons, etc. Some hackers just like to go after high-profile targets, or people or organizations they think are bad. Like Anonymous going after the church of Scientology. Or they might just be in it for the money, and have seen him as a high-profile target of opportunity. Tax records aren't the kind of think that's usually locked in a steel vault, so stealing them might just be an easier alternative to robbing a bank.


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...Man, I started reading the comments on that article and could feel myself getting dumber. How does it get worse than Youtube? It's like some kind of horrible magic.

he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

I hope If he does become president he is forced to give up that horse.

It's his money; he could burn it just as easily.

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

None of this is related to the topic.

 Mannahnin wrote:
It's his money; he could burn it just as easily.

When he is president he will face alot of scrutiny.

I also have heard that there are people outside the USA that have figured out a way to get on the internet, so it may not even be someone that is active in American politics, let alone an Obama supporter. That could be a old wives tale though.

Heh, foreigners on the internet. What a crazy idea.

Using this wont wash, in the eyes of the voters Obama cannot be held responsible for the actions of hackers acting in his name. By and large the public understands hackers as chaotic bunches of young individuals working on their own whims.

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

He decided to not be lazy and earn some money (no, he didn't inherit it from his dad) what he does with his money is his own business, just like what Obama does with his money is his business. What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

 jordanis wrote:

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

He decided to not be lazy and earn some money (no, he didn't inherit it from his dad) what he does with his money is his own business, just like what Obama does with his money is his business. What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

I didn't care about the horse until he botched up his visit at the Olympics.

Actually, I still don't care about the horse.

Maybe hackers should just form superpacs that presidential candidates can disavow.

"Swifthacks for Democrats"

What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

I think the rise of public moralizing has something to do with it. A lot of folks have remarked on the effects of wealth, often negatively.

 jordanis wrote:
He decided to not be lazy and earn some money (no, he didn't inherit it from his dad) what he does with his money is his own business, just like what Obama does with his money is his business. What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

We celebrate wealth when it's created by innovation and building something, creating wealth and progress for society as a whole in the process. We shouldn't celebrate wealth when it's created by investment bankers who never create any useful product and simply push imaginary money around with the taxpayers ready to bail them out if their gamble fails. We shouldn't celebrate wealth when it's created through corporate welfare schemes, tax breaks to people who don't need them, etc. We shouldn't celebrate wealth when it's created through short-sighted vulture capitalism that damages the country as a whole to enrich a lucky few.

And that's the problem with Romney: he's running on the claim that his business experience makes him qualified to run the country in the middle of an economic crisis, but his business experience consists of destroying companies, cutting US jobs and sending them overseas, and then hiding the profits in foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. This is a proven record of putting his own wealth above the best interests of his country, and it makes him an unacceptable choice for president.

 jordanis wrote:
What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

When did America celebrate individual wealth and prosperity? We celebrate politicians, celebrities, and athletic starts, all of whom are often wealthy and prosperous; but I've not seen many people buying boxes of Wheaties with Warren Buffet on the front or plastering "I Love Gates!" bumper stickers on their cars.

 dogma wrote:
When did America celebrate individual wealth and prosperity? We celebrate politicians, celebrities, and athletic starts, all of whom are often wealthy and prosperous; but I've not seen many people buying boxes of Wheaties with Warren Buffet on the front or plastering "I Love Gates!" bumper stickers on their cars.

Remember the whole American Dream thing? Work hard, be creative, and you can be wealthy? Too bad it's turned into come up with an obscure financial "product" that manipulates the banking system in your favor, use the profits to buy politicians (don't worry, previous successful people bought some judges who ruled that corporations are people so there's no limit on how much you can spend) who will vote to give you tax cuts and huge bailout checks, and then fire all of your US employees and move all your jobs to China. Since you're now a very profitable corporation, your stock value goes up (creating wealth out of nothing) and you can sell your shares at a hugely inflated value and retire. Don't worry about the inevitable crash, some gullible moron (I mean average investor!) will be holding your stock when it drops, and if your creative interpretations of the law ever become public knowledge you've bought enough judges to ensure that your "punishment" is just a fine of less than your profit.

 Peregrine wrote:

And that's the problem with Romney: he's running on the claim that his business experience makes him qualified to run the country in the middle of an economic crisis, but his business experience consists of destroying companies, cutting US jobs and sending them overseas, and then hiding the profits in foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. This is a proven record of putting his own wealth above the best interests of his country, and it makes him an unacceptable choice for president.

My research shows that only 6 to 8000 jobs were lost while Romney was at Bain, while that very same company helped to create 88000 jobs alone at Staples, a 9% loss of all the jobs created is acceptable: people and companies make bad investments, Bain was an Investor, they supplied money for companies to get going (thats what i understand an Investor to be at least) the Dividend that was asked in return would have made some businesses fail because the company was bound to fail anyway, whether or not they had to pay that dividend to Bain.
as for the hiding profits to avoid taxes i cannot argue, maybe tomorrow after i get off work and it isnt too late, i have work in 6 hours and i need sleep.
i will paraphrase a CNN reporter for my closing: "to beleive what you see in a 30 second commercial about the other politicians opponent without doing the research for yourself makes you an idiot." that goes for either side, the Romney campaign and the Obama campaign both are making gak up just to get your vote, do research, try to prove your party wrong, when you cannot, that is who you trust more. now I know Dogma or another one of the Liberal posters on here is going to have a field day with this post, but I honestly don't care.

What a sight it will be, liberal Dogma having his field day.

 dogma wrote:

 jordanis wrote:
What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

When did America celebrate individual wealth and prosperity? We celebrate politicians, celebrities, and athletic starts, all of whom are often wealthy and prosperous; but I've not seen many people buying boxes of Wheaties with Warren Buffet on the front or plastering "I Love Gates!" bumper stickers on their cars.

no, america worships celebrities and athletes, why should the people who worked hard to earn large sums of money be punished, thats like working hard to get an A on a school project but because it isnt fair to the people who didnt get an A (because they likely didnt work as hard) everyone gets a C...whats the point of that? America used to respect people who worked hard to get money, thats what is missing now.

Easiest way to spot a person who pays absolutely no attention to what other people write? Pegging Dogma as a liberal.

My research shows that only 6 to 8000 jobs were lost while Romney was at Bain,

What years are you counting?

For some reason I am reminded of an interview with Michael Douglas where he talks about the number of people that didn't realize that Gordon Gecko was the bad guy.

 jordanis wrote:
no, america worships celebrities and athletes, why should the people who worked hard to earn large sums of money be punished, thats like working hard to get an A on a school project but because it isnt fair to the people who didnt get an A (because they likely didnt work as hard) everyone gets a C...whats the point of that? America used to respect people who worked hard to get money, thats what is missing now.

That's a stupid analogy.

If everyone works hard on a project, it is possible for everyone to get an A. If I get an A, it takes nothing away from you, and your C is entirely your own problem.

Everyone CAN'T be rich at the same time. There's a limit to how much wealth exists in a system, therefore the richer you are the less there is available for everyone else.

Finally, it's not a question of being punished for being successful, it's about who pays for the things that society needs (roads, schools, police, etc). It's just basic fairness that the greatest burden should be paid by the people with the greatest ability to pay. If you're already making millions of dollars a year, you're living an incredibly comfortable lifestyle and you can afford to pay a much higher tax rate without suffering any real harm* compared to someone making poverty-line income. And you certainly don't need to get tax cuts, bailout checks for your failed businesses, tax structures that tax your investment profits at a lower rate than paychecks, etc, since all of these things come at the cost of a higher tax burden on people with much less ability to pay.

The only punishment for wealth should be directed at the people who use unethical methods to obtain that wealth. Corporate raiders, investment bankers (a fancy way of saying "worthless parasite on society"), companies that violate health/safety laws to cut expenses, etc, should not be allowed to keep the profits of their unethical behavior. But that's an entirely different subject, and they're being punished for the harm they cause, not merely for being wealthy.


*And no, "my ego can't stand having less than $9999999999999 trillion in the bank" or "but I'll have to buy a smaller private jet" are not harm.

 jordanis wrote:

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

He decided to not be lazy and earn some money (no, he didn't inherit it from his dad) what he does with his money is his own business, just like what Obama does with his money is his business. What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

I didn't know you could just decide not to be lazy and suddenly be rich.

Huh, I wonder why those farmhands who work 12 hours a day for minimum wage aren't billionaires.

 Peregrine wrote:

Remember the whole American Dream thing? Work hard, be creative, and you can be wealthy?

No. I was born in '86. I know only the time when making sure you were the most ruthless in the room made you wealthy.

 Peregrine wrote:

Too bad it's turned into come up with an obscure financial "product" that manipulates the banking system in your favor, use the profits to buy politicians (don't worry, previous successful people bought some judges who ruled that corporations are people so there's no limit on how much you can spend) who will vote to give you tax cuts and huge bailout checks, and then fire all of your US employees and move all your jobs to China.

Holy run on Batman! Anyway, most of the people that came up with the mechanisms didn't make the money.

Buying politicians is basically just a political reality. If you don't have money, you don't matter; unless you have enough money to buy terrorist equipment. You matter then, but you still probably won't do anything significant.

 jordanis wrote:

no, america worships celebrities and athletes

How many temples to Paris Hilton do you see? Michael Phelps? Bradgelina?


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 jordanis wrote:
Now I know Dogma or another one of the Liberal posters on here is going to have a field day with this post, but I honestly don't care.

And this is a great example of why I think the best response to the question "What can I do?" is "Don't get emotionally involved."

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

As someone who knows a gak ton of people who own horses, and has looked at keeping a mare my myself, I'd like to congratulate you on looking like an utter horse's ass right here.

Now my mare would have been a poor comparison to the type of horse Romney probably owns, I was going to pick up a mustang from BLM, Would have cost less then my last new hand gun's initial costs depending on how you want to count the training time. (For reference, my 1911-A1 cost me $500 all told) and was just going to use her for trail riding. I decided that it wasn't the best option in my income bracket (well fething under 75k/yr thank you very much, even though I could have afforded to have her boarded and cared for without a lethal financial strain, would have been thin, but doable.) for a more comparative example I know several families who's children are championship level Equestrians, including a national championship winner, who's got a nice full ride scholarship to very nice college for her riding, not a single one of those families makes 75k a year. Only one of them comes CLOSE to making that all told.

I get it. You don't like Romney, but present valid reasons instead of talking out your ass.

More horse details for those who really freaking want to know.


Edit:

 dogma wrote:

 jordanis wrote:

no, america worships celebrities and athletes

How many temples to Paris Hilton do you see? Michael Phelps? Bradgelina?

Does E! tv and all the freaking magazines and blogs endlessly devoted to them count?

[

 jordanis wrote:

 DIDM wrote:
he has a horse, that costs more to maintain than most people on Earth will never make in a year. $75 grand a year to raise a horse, the utter definition of arrogance. Vote for me, I promise to treat my horse better than you have ever been treated in your life.

He decided to not be lazy and earn some money (no, he didn't inherit it from his dad) what he does with his money is his own business, just like what Obama does with his money is his business. What happened to the America that celebrated wealth and prosperity?

Technically, you're correct. His was was still alive when he gave him all that money.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:

Does E! tv and all the freaking magazines and blogs endlessly devoted to them count?

Not if we're distinguishing between "worship" and "celebrate".