First Cuppa Coffee – April 17, 2012: Taxing Tuesday Edition

Okay it’s tax day… The Tea Party drew about 1600 people in Oceanside yesterday.  Downtown San Diego will celebrate the day from a different perspective, as MoveOn and some of their friends stage a Tax the 1% Protest at 5 pm today down by the Embarcadero.

Can you send the weather lady in a bikini out there to do the forecast?… About one-third of all Americans have procrastinated (meaning that they think they owe money) in preparing their taxes, so that means the rest of us will have to endure “live remote” shots on the TV news this evening outside the Midway Post Office. Please, please, TV producers, grow a pair and end this meaningless ritual.  This coverage is almost as useless as the drama injected into local weather…

Best candidate for a Saturday Night Live skit… From City Beat we learn about the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, which oversees the activities of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Their staff of crack investigators has apparently developed a sure-fire program that insures no citizen’s complaint will ever be acted upon, because as we all know, the Sheriff’s Department is perfect.  The most effective tool in the Review Board’s arsenal is the “hide the file, it’ll go away” system. And because complaints can’t be acted on if they are over a year old, this system actually works!

Scandal within a scandal… Since we’ve all heard about the outrage enveloping the Government Services Administration wherein gov’t employees traveled to Las Vegas and had a blowout on the taxpayer’s dime, we’re wondering how things were going over at the Inspector General’s office, the (non-media flavor) fox that supposed to keep an eye on the henhouse? Could there be similar scandals going on at the Departments of State or Labor? We’ll never know, as the Congress has refused to confirm no less than ten Inspector General Appointees as part of their campaign to force the White House to admit that they are {fill-in the blank}. There’s even a web site devoted to tracking the agencies that are currently functioning without oversight.

Romney cancels elections, declares self winner… In an exclusive ABC news interview Gov. Romney sent orders to the White House instructing President Obama to “start packing”.

Declaring the election over … apparently works better for Romney than confronting the challenges his campaign faces.  He went to Philadelphia last night to woo the Tea Party with promises of ending ‘Obama’s war on the rich.’  While Romney was catering the fringes of the GOP, new polling data indicated that a sizeable majority of Americans support the administration’s efforts to implement the ‘Buffet Rule’, which would raise taxes on many wealthy people.

You want polls, we got polls… A couple of polls released today show candidate Romney defeating incumbent Obama in the popular vote.  The consensus poll, over at Real Clear Politics has the President with about a three point lead in the popular vote. There’s only one problem here, as Al Gore and others will tell you: Presidents are not elected by popular vote.  And when you look at the probable scenarios for the electoral college, the incumbent administration has a sizeable advantage.

Not so good with the Latinos…. And, according to current polling, Romney could face an 80-20 loss with Latinos against Obama. And if he does, there is no realistic path to GOP victory. None.  And Fox News paid for the polling.

The race for running mate is underway… Meanwhile, the presumptive nominee said Monday he is tapping long-time aide Beth Myers to coordinate his search for a running mate to join him on the ticket for November’s election. One potential candidate for the job, Rick Santorum, pointedly declined last night to endorse Romney, instead pointing out that he has not backed a candidate in the race and urging his supporters to vote their conscience.

Must…have…more…caffeine... We were gonna do an “all-Mitt Romney” column this morning, but the fact we kept falling asleep while typing it wasn’t a good sign…