Short diary, few links, but deadly serious. No snark. And unfortunately no proof. But I intend to perpetuate this meme as much as possible until Team Romdroid proves it wrong by releasing Romney's tax returns. Which if I'm right, they will never, ever do. And here's why, in my opinion.
You've probably seen this image, or one like it, making the rounds on the Intertoobz:
Clear enough. Mittens is likely guilty of voter fraud, by living in California (or perhaps New Hampshire), owning no property in Massachusetts, yet voting in the 2010 election by claiming he "resided" in his son's unfinished basement. He's denied it, and though I'm not a Massachusetts political junkie and therefore know few details about how he's managed to fend off the charges of voter fraud, he's so far managed to dodge the story almost entirely.
The tax returns, along with showing just how unethically and unpatriotically clever he's been in sheltering his Rmillions from Uncle Sam and the IRS, will also prove that he resided legally in California when he trundled his rich ass back to MA to cast an illegal vote for Scott Brown.
Mittens: one of the very small number of Americans who actually did commit voter fraud. If I'm not mistaken, the form of fraud he committed in Massachusetts is a felony.
Releasing his tax forms would prove he committed felonious voter fraud. That's my thinking.
That's why he won't release them, and that's why we need to keep hounding him about it. We also need to accuse him of voter fraud, using the info above, and keep after him to disprove the allegation by releasing his tax returns.
It's a win all around for us. If he doesn't release the forms, we hammer him as an alleged criminal who's hiding the proof of his crime. The evidence against him is strong enough as it stands to make the claim. If he does release the forms, not only will they likely prove he committed felony voter fraud, but they also show the plethora of heinous financial acts he's committed to hide his millions away.
I haven't seen the one (partial) set of federal tax returns he has released, but Romney did claim he was living in his son's Belmont, MA man cave during 2010. (He did buy a mansion in Belmont six months after he voted there. He redacted his address on his public version of his federal tax form, so we don't know if he claimed his son's basement or the house he didn't yet own as his residence.) The proof of Romney's perfidy won't be found on Page 1 of his tax forms. He hasn't released his state tax forms yet, so we're unable to confirm or debunk the allegation from those returns. But once we have enough of the returns, better minds than I can pore through them and trace his real residence.
Our job: press the meme home. Romney is almost certainly a tax cheat, and almost certainly one of the only Americans to have actually committed voter fraud. Rinse and repeat.
10:15 AM PT: Just got back to check the diary, and it's on the Rec List. I blush, I simper. :) Thanks, guys. Let's rub Mittens' nose in his crimes every hour, on the hour.
Update 8/17: Woot! M.S. Bellows linked to this diary in a Guardian article. More blushing and simpering is called for!