Happy FRY-day, Everyone! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about African-American Architects. Today we’ll wrap up our series with one of America’s current, innovative, creative Black architects.
Curtis J. Moody
Curtis J.Moody is an award-winning architect who received the Whitney M. Young, Jr. award for Outstanding African-American Architect in the United States. He has also received 26 awards from the National Organization of Minority Architects and 23 from the American Institute of Architects. His Columbus, OH firm, Moody-Nolan, Inc., was founded in 1982, with Howard E. Nolan. The company specializes in architecture, interior design and civil engineering. Past projects include North Carolina Central University Pearson Cafeteria, Eric Kunzel Center for Performing Arts & Education in Cincinnati, and Columbus Metropolitan Library. Moody has degrees in Science and Architecture from Ohio State University. He also attended Harvard Graduate School of Design. Moody-Nolan, Inc. has been credited with doing more than several billion dollars in construction since its existence.
Read about Curtis Moody’s work in the book Responsive Architecture: Moody Nolan Recent Work, and this 4 page article from Minority Business Entrepeneur.
You can listen to a 2009 American Public Media interview with Curtis J. Moody here.
TAKE MITT ROMNEY TO THE WOODSHE, MR. PRESIDENT!
TRICKLE DOWN, MY ARSE.
White Dad, Black Daughter: Facebook Swoons
By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: July 27, 2012 at 5:31 PM
News anchor Frank Somerville of Oakland, Calif.’s KTVU gave viewers a peek into his personal life earlier this week, posting an image on his Facebook page of himself removing his young daughter’s braids. It was captioned as follows:
So for those of you who think tv can be glamorous, this is how i spent my morning, learning how to take out my daughter’s braids. It takes a long time and a lot of patience!
But the public took more from the photo than evidence of Somerville’s mundane off-camera activities. With more than 1,400 comments and more than 2,500 shares, the moment between a white father and his black daughter sharing this tedious but intimate routine inspired an outpouring of sentiments related to colorblind love, family, nostalgia and simply the shared experience of doing little girls’ hair
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/white-dad-black-daughter-facebook-swoons
August 03, 2012 10:44 AM
The Ghost Candidate’s Dilemma
By Ed Kilgore
Last week I did an extended meditation on Sean Trende’s observation that Mitt Romney just isn’t telling voters enough about his own personal background or his agenda to get him across the threshold of credibility as a presidential challenger, even if they are ready to “fire” Barack Obama. Let me repeat Sean’s key argument:
[T]hese are parts of his biography that simply must be filled in if Romney wants to win, along with his activities turning around the Salt Lake City Olympics. (Does anyone outside of the political world even know about that?) If Romney can do this, he’ll have an excellent shot at winning this race. It might not even be close. But if he can’t, he will probably become the first presidential challenger in modern history to pass Step 1 of the referendum model, but fail Step 2.
Sean wrote that before Romney’s blundering appearance in London cast serious doubts about the utility of his “Olympics Story,” previously the one bright shining exception to a long public and private career that he has chosen to obscure. Moreover, there is fresh evidence that voters just don’t like what little they know about the GOP nominee: a Pew survey showing Mitt’s favorability ratings (37/52) deep underwater. Pew’s analysis points out that the only two recent presidential nominees with net negative favorability ratings prior to Election Day (Bush 41 in 1992, Dole in 1996) lost. Moreover, while undecided voters in Pew’s survey don’t much like either candidate, Mitt’s numbers (18/57) are significantly worse than Obama’s (31/48). And it’s no longer possible to blame Romney’s bad personal favorability ratings on the misgivings of conservative Republicans who don’t like or trust him but will march to the polls to send him to the White House anyone: his favorability ratio among those intending for vote for him is now 79/12.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/the_ghost_candidates_dilemma038998.php
In northern Ohio, Obama ads effectively define Romney
Swing voters in a long-struggling manufacturing region express suspicion of the Republican’s record at Bain Capital.
By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times
August 3, 2012, 3:00 a.m.
FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio — Strike up a conversation about Mitt Romney in this working-class suburb of Cleveland, and it’s a good bet that it will quickly turn to Bain Capital.
President Obama’s blistering indictment of his Republican challenger’s career at the private equity firm has come to define Romney, interviews show, among swing voters here in one of the election’s Great Lakes battlegrounds.
Television ads that Obama and his allies have aired on Cleveland stations for weeks have left some wondering how Romney earned up to $250 million at Bain and whether he caused the layoffs of Americans like themselves along the way.
Echoing the Obama ads, they also question why some of Romney’s personal fortune wound up in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
“He should just surrender his tax returns and let the people see what he’s done,” said 50-year-old Kevin Cannon, a Fairview Park grocery store cashier who voted for Republicans George W. Bush and John McCain, but might reluctantly support a second term for Obama.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ohio-bain-20120803,0,523290,full.story
Posted at 03:44 PM ET, 08/03/2012
Romney confirms his tax cuts won’t be paid for
By Greg Sargent
Mitt Romney, at a press conference today:
“The president’s ad saying I’m gonna raise taxes on the middle class? That’s patently, simply false.”
The Obama campaign has jumped on this quote today, arguing that this week’s Tax Policy Center/Brookings study does shows that Romney’s plan would raise the middle class’ tax burden, and that Romney’s statement today is false. But I think this is the wrong way to look at what Romney said.
The real point to be drawn from Romney’s assertion is that he has admitted his tax cuts won’t be paid for. Which means that his plan would explode the deficit.
This is the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from Romney’s own words, if you take them at face value and assume that he means what he says. If Romney is telling us that his plan, as implemented, won’t raise the middle class’s tax burden, what that means is that his plan won’t close the loopholes that the middle class enjoys. The Tax Policy Center/Brookings study finds that the only way the plan could pay for its across-the-board 20 percent tax cut — which disproportionately benefits the rich — is by closing those loopholes. Therefore, if Romney doesn’t intend to close those loopholes, the tax cuts will not be paid for.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-confirms-his-tax-cuts-wont-be-paid-for/2012/08/03/85d88594-dd9e-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_blog.html
I love Harry Reid.
Rachel Maddow pointed out tonight that Willard did this SAME THING that Harry Reid is doing.
He did it in 2002.
I love this.
The whole ‘ did you beat your wife’ line of accusation.
No way he can win. ….cause those tax returns are toxic.
GO PRUDENTIAL BUILDING.
See Romney thread and video Romney’s GOING DOWN.
Pew: Obama Expands National Lead To 10 Points, Romney Image Wanes
Kyle Leighton-August 2, 2012, 3:50 PM
A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows one of the biggest national leads for President Obama since the general election campaign began in earnest — a 10 point lead, 51 percent to presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 41 percent. Pew registered a 7 point lead for Obama in their June survey.
The bump for Obama seems to come from Romney’s stumbling — Pew picked up a downward trend in the former governor’s favorability rating, which has long been a struggle for Romney.
“By a 52% to 37% margin, more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Mitt Romney,” Pew wrote. “The poll, conducted prior to Romney’s recent overseas trip, represents the sixth consecutive survey over the past nine months in which his image has been in negative territory. While Romney’s personal favorability improved substantially between March and June – as Republican voters rallied behind him after the primary season ended-his image has again slipped over the past month.”
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/pew-obama-national-lead.php
Philosophical Question
by BooMan
Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 04:41:41 PM EST
If a tree falls in the forest and Mitt Romney still hasn’t released his tax returns, does it make a sound? Is there any message at all that Romney can communicate until he stops the din of people braying for his tax returns? The charge is “out there.” For ten years, Mitt Romney paid nothing at all in taxes. If it isn’t true, then Romney has the easiest slam-dunk in history. He can make Harry Reid look like either a gullible fool or a complete liar. How could an honest Republican politician pass up such a golden opportunity to defend his honor while blasting the reputation of one of Washington’s most powerful Democrats? What is in those tax returns that is so damaging to Romney’s chances that he’d saddle himself with this controversy rather than humiliating his accusers?
Pretty soon, Romney is going to announce his running mate. We’ll chew that over for 72 hours or so, and then we’ll go right back to asking Romney to release his tax returns. We’ll want to know how many years of tax returns Romney saw from his running mate and why we can’t see those, too. Romney gave 23 years of tax returns to John McCain. And McCain chose Palin.
No one is going to listen to Romney until he comes clean.
http://www.boomantribune.com/
The Gov. That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Mitt Romney changes his identity from CEO of Bain to governor of Massachusetts.
By William Saletan|
Posted Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, at 12:01 PM ET
Mitt Romney has discovered something shocking about himself: He used to be a governor.
You may have forgotten this. For the past year or so, Romney has been running for president as a businessman. “I spent my life in the private sector,” he has boasted at every opportunity. Politicians aren’t polling well, so Romney didn’t talk about the four years he spent running Massachusetts. He talked about creating jobs when he was CEO of Bain Capital.
Barack Obama answered that pitch with a blistering critique of Romney’s Bain years. Everything Bain did to pursue profits at the expense of labor—outsourcing, offshoring, closing factories, laying off workers—became evidence for the charge that Romney’s business experience was poor preparation for leading a nation. A good CEO, perhaps, but a bad president. In the words of a brutal Obama commercial about jobs being shipped overseas: “Mitt Romney’s not the solution. He’s the problem.”
……………………………………………
So Romney has retooled. Yesterday, returning from his foreign policy trip, he went to Colorado and blasted Obama’s performance as steward of the nation’s economy. He also outlined a five-point economic plan. Neither of these pitches was new: Romney has been peddling his five-point plan (energy, education, trade, debt reduction, small business) for weeks. What was new was Romney’s self-presentation. He didn’t talk about his life in the private sector. He talked about his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/08/romney_s_accountability_scorecard_bain_s_ceo_becomes_governor_of_massachusetts_again_.html
You do know what this means…they’re running away from the ONLY REASON they gave as to why Willard should be PRESIDENT.
YES YES YES YES
The Prudential Building has GUTTED the only reason Willard put forth as to why he should be President, and now he’s scrambling.
His time as Governor?
hee hee hee
Harry Reid Fundraises Off Of Charge That Romney Didn’t Pay Taxes For Ten Years
From a new fundraisng push by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV):
The other day, I said that I’d been told by a very credible source that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes for ten years. Governor Romney got upset. But, you know what? I’m not backing down.
I’m not backing down because, when you run for President, you should be an open book. I’m not backing down because Mitt Romney is hiding something — and the American people deserve to know what it is.
Governor Romney told me to “put up or shut up” — but he’s the one who’s shut up when people asked legitimate questions about his finances, and it’s up to him to put up his taxes so we can see the answers.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/harry-reid-fundraises-off-of-charge-that-romney
REPOST
Mitt Romney to Harry Reid
CNN Edits Out Confirmation of Harry Reid’s Romney Tax Returns Source
By: Sarah JonesAugust 3rd, 2012
Last night on Anderson Cooper’s 360 Degrees, CNN Senior Congressional correspondent Dana Bash confirmed that a second source claims Harry Reid’s source is a “credible person” who has the “authority and ability to know about Romney’s tax returns.” Bash’s confirmation of a second source was cut out of CNN’s online video in order to make room for a he-said she-said debate on the issue between Paul Begala and Mary Matalin.
Bash’s confirmation was largely ignored by Cooper, who was busy making false equivocations of Reid’s allegations to Michele Bachmann writing letters to governmental agencies calling for investigations of American citizens.
Here’s Dana Bash confirming a second source in the ten year no taxes allegation (it was cut out of the online video), transcript via CNN, emphasis mine:
BASH: It’s very personal and it is very Harry Reid. Look, first of all, let me just back up and say you pointed out the interview he gave with the “Huffington Post.” Again evidence, it’s a friendly outlet. They did it — he did this very strategically.
In terms of the personal, that is Harry Reid. I mean he — when he wanted to go after Alan Greenspan, he called him the partisan hack. When he went after President Bush, he called him a liar and a loser. He apologized for the loser part, not for liar.
But this is — when Harry Reid doesn’t like somebody, he goes for the jugular. And that is what he is doing now. He is an old boxer and he still likes to be a political street fighter. He knew full well that he was going to be questioned over and over again on who his source was. And he said — he’s told people close to him who I have spoken today that he didn’t care. He’s not telling going to tell who his source is.
But I did speak, I just have to tell you, that I did speak to one source who’s very close to Senator Reid who claims to also know who this Bain investor is that Reid spoke with, and insists that this is a credible person and this person if we knew the name we would understand that they would have the authority and the ability to know about Romney’s tax returns. Whether we’ll find it out ever, who knows. But they’re doing this on purpose so that this is the discussion.
http://www.politicususa.com/cnn-cuts-dana-bashs-confirmation-source-confirming-reid.html
The Power of Gabby Douglas
Dave Zirin on August 2, 2012 – 11:47 PM ET
There are two kinds of political athletes. The first, and most memorable, are athletes who engage in the explicit politics of protest. This tradition is marked by Muhammad Ali saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.” It’s Billie Jean King marching for Title IX. It’s Curt Flood saying he refused to be a “well paid slave.” It’s John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising their fists in the name of civil and human rights. But then there is a different kind of athletic politics: the politics of representation. That’s Jackie Robinson the moment he took the field to break baseball’s color line. That’s Martina Navratilova, all ropey muscles, forcing the world to confront a more powerful kind of woman athlete. That’s Compton’s Serena and Venus Williams dominating their country club sport.
Whether or not these athletes embraced the burden, they carried the aspirations and expectations of countless others. We can now add Gabby Douglas to their ranks. The 16-year-old from Virginia Beach is now the first African-American woman as well as the first person of color to win gold in the gymnastics individual all-around competition. She is also the first US gymnast in history to win both individual and team gold at the same Olympics.
Douglas’s journey is as unique as her triumph: one marked by having to navigate the racial segregation that defines so much of the United States. At 14, Douglas left her mother, three siblings and working-class Virginia Beach community to move to West Des Moines, Iowa, so she could train with renowned Chinese coach Liang Chow.
In Iowa, Douglas lived with a host family of strangers in a nearly all-white community and thought she might be the only black person in the state. In the very white world of gymnastics, Douglas also stood out. At most meets she would be the only person of color performing. Douglas was home-schooled in Des Moines by her host family, adding to this sense of isolation. Homesickness meant crying herself to sleep and calling her mother in Virginia Beach, floating the idea of coming home.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/169216/power-gabby-douglas#
Gabby’s mother& sister schooled her well. DON’T EVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS.
Rikyrah, please check your email.
the coach behind the gold medal gymnast
Unless you’ve been living in a media black hole, you know that 16-year-old Gabby Doublas of Virginia Beach, U-S-A won gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around final on Thursday: USA’s Gabby Douglas crowned Olympic champion in dramatic gymnastics all-around final.
And if you’ve been watching, you’ve definitely seen that behind this high-flying pint-sized powerhouse is one hell of a coach, Liang Chow, who’s had his own extraordinary journey as a gymnast on China’s national team to becoming one of the leading women’s gymnastics coaches in the world.
I love that photo above. America, indeed. Here’s a cool TIME profile on Liang Chow from last week: Liang Chow’s Gymnastics Coaching Journey: From Beijing to West Des Moines
http://blog.angryasianman.com/2012/08/the-coach-behind-gold-medal-gymnast.html
Fri Aug 03, 2012 at 06:57 AM PDT.
So now Romney is trying to blame Obama for coming up with his tax plan
by Jed Lewison
Just when you think Mitt Romney has reached the pinnacle of absurdity, he somehow manages to reach new heights. The latest example: now he’s claiming that his tax plan—the one that the Tax Policy Center says would force the middle-class to pay the cost of tax cuts for the wealthy—is actually Barack Obama’s fault. For real:
While the tax study has emerged as a major component of the economic debate at the core of this year’s presidential campaign, Mr. Romney did not allude to the analysis to contest its conclusions as he campaigned in Colorado on Thursday. But in an interview with conservative Fox host Sean Hannity, Mr. Romney said “my plan is very similar to the Simpson-Bowles plan.”
…………………..
The Romney proposal, however, has little in common with that bipartisan deficit-reduction proposal from a majority on the fiscal commission that Mr. Obama created in 2010. The Simpson-Bowles plan called for reduced income tax rates, but it would have raised about $2 trillion more in tax revenues over 10 years, mostly from high-income taxpayers, and cut spending to reduce the federal debt.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/03/1116326/-So-now-Romney-is-trying-to-blame-Obama-for-coming-up-with-his-tax-plan
FightBigotry.com: Because Black People Are the Real Racists
We’ve taken another step closer to the ni-CLANG! Event Horizon. Gird your loins, people:
FightBigotry.com, a new Super PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission this week, makes no bones about its aim. It intends to run an attack ad that it says will hit President Barack Obama for “his disturbing, yet crystal-clear pattern of tacitly defending black racism against white folks before and since being elected president.”
~snip~
A two-minute version of the new spot is already available on the group’s website, though the group promises a one-minute version is forthcoming. In it, he says:
The Obama administration has injected race into the presidential campaign. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder recently said – with no argument from the president – that their white critics are motivated by race. Implying whites are too stupid to have honest disagreements with the president without being racist is in-and-of-itself racist against whites, reinforcing Mr. Obama’s disturbing pattern of tacitly defending black racism. …
Obama’s attorney general said pursuing the New Black Panthers does a great disservice to whose “who risked all, for my people.” So it’s okay for his people to commit racial crimes? In 2009, President Obama defended his friend Henry Louis Gates after a racist altercation with police, telling a white officer he wouldn’t speak to him but would speak to his mama. Mr. Obama’s response? “The Cambridge police acted stupidly.” …
Mr. President, you ran as the candidate of change. But one thing has not changed—your tacit defense of racism against white folks, despite receiving nearly half the white vote to win the presidency.
http://angryblackladychronicles.com/2012/08/03/fightbigotry-com-because-black-people-are-the-real-racists/
GOP turns to lobbyists to shape party platform
By Steve Benen
Fri Aug 3, 2012 12:31 PM EDT.
One of the consistent elements of the last few years is the consistency and frequency with which Republican policymakers turn to lobbyists — for everything.
When Congress worked on a jobs bill in 2010, John Boehner and his team huddled with corporate lobbyists. When work on Wall Street reform got underway, Boehner and the GOP huddled with industry lobbyists. When Congress worked on health care reform, Boehner and the GOP huddled with insurance lobbyists. When an energy/climate bill started advancing, the GOP huddled with energy lobbyists. In February, when the STOCK Act was being considered, the GOP huddled with financial industry lobbyists.
This summer, Republican officials are working on their party platform to be unveiled at their national convention. Care to guess who has their ear?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/03/13105429-gop-turns-to-lobbyists-to-shape-party-platform?lite
SURPIRSED! NOT.
Neat trick
By Tim F. August 3rd, 2012
In a clever move, John Kasich’s administration has found yet another way to discourage less Republican enlightened people from voting. Every county has some discretion over questions such as exactly how long the polls may stay open on voting days, and each county elections board is made up of two members from each party regardless of how the county itself tends to vote. When a committee deadlocks in any county the tie vote gets broken by Jon Husted, the Republican Secretary of State.
Here’s how the game works. In urban counties, GOP committee members vote to close polls at 5 pm, a time that is inconvenient to impossible for many people who work for a living. So far Husted has always broken the tie in favor of less voting, as one might expect. The counties encompassing Cleveland, Cincinnatti and Akron, three of Ohio’s largest cities, will thus operate under “business hours” only. In suburban counties at least one GOP committee member will vote for extended hours and the polls stay open quite late.
Kay will have a more informed opinion on this than I do, but from here the upshot seems clear: Dysfunction Working As Intended.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/08/03/neat-trick/
YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!
…………………………………………..
Michigan Supreme Court: Put emergency manager law on the ballot
Fri Aug 3, 2012 2:21 PM EDT
The voters of Michigan will get a say on the state’s emergency financial manager law. In a 4-3 decision, the state supreme court ruled today that the petition drive met the requirements and should be certified for the November election. That petition had been challenged by a group based in the office of a member of the elections board that rejected it. The challenge alleged that the type on one line of the petition was not 14 point. The court ruling is remarkably technical (pdf) — font nerds, skip to page 18 for the time of your lives — and the most exciting part might be this:
In the present case, plaintiff used 14-point Calibri font for its petition heading, as attested to by plaintiff’s printer
Today’s ruling means that the emergency manager law will go on ice, after it’s officially certified, until the referendum this fall. That has large and potentially confusing implications for the towns and school districts the state has taken over under the law.
——————————————————————————–
What happens to the Muskegon Heights school district, which a new emergency manager just converted to a charter system run by a private company? Who’s in charge in Benton Harbor, where elected officials have been stripped of all power and a blizzard of recall attempts is underway? Do Detroit schools have to keep their new ceiling of 61 kids in a class, as ordered by the emergency manager? For that matter, does Detroit still have to slash its city workforce under the consent agreement they signed to avoid getting an emergency manager?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/03/13106691-michigan-supreme-court-put-emergency-manager-law-on-the-ballot?lite
Romney’s Impossible Math, Ctd
This week Glenn Hubbard, one of Mitt Romney’s top economic advisers, published an op-ed promising to “stop runaway federal spending and debt.” It was shockingly vague when it wasn’t practically reckless. John Cassidy notes that it all but guarantees a deep new depression, if you believe the evidence from Europe these past few years and standard mathematics rather than supply-side fantasy and scoring so dynamic no one else can replicate it:
Hubbard reiterates that he would aim to reduce federal spending from roughly twenty-four per cent of G.D.P. in fiscal 2012 to twenty per cent by 2016. Romney hasn’t spelled out how he would reach this target, but simple arithmetic suggests he would need to impose about five hundred billion dollars in annual spending cuts, which is equivalent to more than three per cent of G.D.P.
Spending cuts on this scale would be a big shock to an economy that is already sputtering badly. As we’ve seen in other developed countries over the past few years, the imposition of austerity policies can easily turn modest recoveries into renewed recessions. It has happened in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. Romney is asking the American voters to believe things would be different here. The obvious question to ask is: Why?
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/romneys-impossible-math-ctd.html
Romney Refuses To Condemn Bachmann’s Islamophobic Witch Hunt
By Igor Volsky on Aug 3, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Mitt Romney refused to condemn Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other Republicans who have alleged that Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is part of a Muslim Brotherhood campaign to infiltrate the American government. During an event in Reno, Nevada Romney dodged a question about the allegations, saying simply, “I’m not going to tell other people what things to talk about. Those are not things that are part of my campaign.” A growing number of Republicans, including House Speaker John Beohner (R-OH) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have condemned Bachmann. Watch Romney’s remarks
This isn’t the first time the former Massachusetts candidate has failed to speak out against extremists in his own party. Romney refused to directly repudiate Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama was born in Kenya just hours before he is scheduled to appear with the reality T.V. star for a fund raiser in Las Vegas, NV. He also wouldn’t decry Rush Limbaugh for calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” or speak out against social conservatives who opposed his decision to hire an openly-gay national security spokesperson.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/08/03/637861/romney-refuses-to-condemn-bachmanns-islamophobic-witch-hunt/
Romney’s Economic Plan Would Kill 360,000 Jobs In 2013 Alone
By Pat Garofalo on Aug 3, 2012 at 9:45 am
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that 163,000 jobs were created in the U.S. last month, but that the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 8.3 percent. Mitt Romney, of course, seized on the latter data point, calling it “a hammer blow to middle-class families.” “Yesterday, I launched my Plan for a Stronger Middle-Class that will bring more jobs and more take home pay. My plan will turn things around and bring the economy roaring back, with twelve millions new jobs created by the end of my first term,” Romney said.
Romney claim that his plan will create 12 million jobs is one that his economic advisers have been echoing. However, a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis found that Romney plan would actually kill 360,000 jobs next year alone:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/03/634941/romney-jobs-2013/
HOW LONG, DEAR LORD, HOW LONG, MUST WE BE SUBJECTED TO THIS MOFOS MADNESS?
New SuperPAC, FightBigotry.com, Smears President Obama For ‘Racism Against White Folks’
By Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress Election on Aug 3, 2012 at 3:00 pm
FightBigotry.com, a new Super PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission this week, makes no bones about its aim. It intends to run an attack ad that it says will hit President Barack Obama for “his disturbing, yet crystal-clear pattern of tacitly defending black racism against white folks before and since being elected president.”
FightBigotry.com’s founder and treasurer is Stephen Marks, a well-known Republican opposition researcher whose 2008 book Confessions of a Political Hitman detailed his work in what he called “the dark side of politics.” In 2000, he launched an attack ad under the misleading name “Americans Against Hate,” attempting to tie Al Gore to controversial comments by Rev. Al Sharpton. Another Marks spot in 2004 attempted to link John Kerry to convicted murderer Willie Horton. He was forced to retract a claim in the book about then-Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), acknowledging that “the information was not accurate.”
A two-minute version of the new spot is already available on the group’s website, though the group promises a one-minute version is forthcoming. In it, he says:
The Obama administration has injected race into the presidential campaign. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder recently said – with no argument from the president – that their white critics are motivated by race. Implying whites are too stupid to have honest disagreements with the president without being racist is in-and-of-itself racist against whites, reinforcing Mr. Obama’s disturbing pattern of tacitly defending black racism. …
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/03/636391/fightbigotrycom-super-pac-smears-obama/
RESPONSE TO MITT ROMNEY’S REMARKS IN NEVADA TODAY
“Mitt Romney said today he would not raise taxes on middle-class Americans. That is false. A new, nonpartisan study shows Romney’s plan would raise taxes by an average of $2,000 on middle-class families with children in order to pay for $5 trillion in tax cuts weighted toward millionaires like himself. President Obama has proposed a balanced approach to deficit reduction that reflects the approach of Simpson-Bowles – a framework Romney falsely claims the President did not support. But Mitt Romney’s budget plans are fundamentally incompatible with Simpson-Bowles.
He refuses to ask the wealthiest Americans to contribute even one more dollar to help reduce the deficit, even if every dollar in revenue would be matched with $10 in cuts. In fact, one of the only things that Mitt Romney’s plan has in common with Simpson-Bowles is that they would both raise middle-class taxes, an approach the President has rejected. Romney’s promising to bring back the same failed philosophy that crashed the economy and devastated the middle class in the first place, which explains why independent economists say his plans would do nothing to create jobs now and could drive us back into recession.” –Liz Smith
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE JOB CREATION GRAPH, SHOWING THE REAL JOB NUMBERS
http://secure.assets.bostatic.com/pdfs/jobschart/JobCreationGraph_July.pdf
<b.29 weeks of JOB GROWTH
There have now been 29 months of consecutive private sector job growth. We could do more today to create jobs if Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress stopped obstructing the President’s jobs plan to create one million jobs now and took immediate action to ensure taxes on middle class families don’t go up.
SHIT’S HITTIN’ THE MITTS ON WINDPOWER TAX CREDIT STANCE
Mitt Romney continues to get blowback from other Republicans on his opposition to the wind production tax credit. If Romney had his way and the tax credit expired, 37,000 workers could be laid off: Branstad says Romney “needs to be educated” about importance of wind energy http://bit.ly/NeV41A (audio)
New York Times: Senate Panel Passes Extension of Wind Energy Tax Credit “Senate Republicans rebuffed their presumptive presidential nominee as the Senate Finance Committee passed a one-year extension of the tax credit for wind energy, just four days after Mitt Romney’s campaign announced that it wanted the credit to die” http://nyti.ms/NXLnH8
We All Have Our Problems
by BooMan
Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 10:42:17 AM EST
According to Pew Research, Mitt Romney is the most unpopular presidential candidate we’ve seen going back to at least 1988. He’s more unpopular than Poppy Bush and Bob Dole were the month before they went down to resounding defeat. Only 18% of undecided voters have a favorable view of Romney. It’s incredible.
But, you know, the real story, according to Politico is that the president is weak in the Deep South, especially among white working class voters. There’s a story there, don’t get me wrong, but there is also a story in New England. What’s more surprising? That a black man from Hawaii, New York, Boston, and Chicago is unpopular in the rural South, or that a Yankee businessman can’t even compete in New Hampshire?
Why do working class white dudes have a problem with the Democratic Party? Why do they prefer to watch Fox News? I don’t really know if there is a simple answer to those questions. I don’t think it matters a whole lot. It’s a shame that Democrats are having a rough time in Appalachia and throughout the Deep South, but it is the Republican Party that is discovering that they can’t find a road to 270 electoral votes anymore. It used to be that the Democrats had a lock-hold on Congress but struggled to win the White House. Things have turned around now. The Dems will struggle to control the House as long as they can’t make some inroads in the South, but they’ve got a lock on the White House for the foreseeable future.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/3/104217/7999
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00H8MLo7JbQ&feature=player_embedded
BWA HA HA HA
Poor Mitt, We Know How He Feels
by BooMan
Thu Aug 2nd, 2012 at 08:52:03 PM EST
What’s it like for Mitt Romney to have to deal with someone like Harry Reid claiming that he heard from a Bain Capital investor that Romney didn’t pay any income taxes for ten years in a row? Steve M. tries to explain what it’s kinda like.
Y’know, it’s a bit like saying that the current president is a secret Muslim socialist who lied about his U.S. birth and has a fake Social Security number and is secretly plotting to take away all privately owned guns if he’s reelected, either before or after he finishes the job of deliberately destroying American capitalism. It’s also a bit like saying that the previous Democratic president was a drug dealing serial murderer and rapist whose lesbian wife had her male lover killed when she wasn’t hanging sex toys on the White House Christmas tree.
Also, too, Paula Jones!!
But, of course, as even Steve M. acknowledges, Reid’s charges aren’t really anything like the kinds of crap the right slings at Democratic leaders every day of the week. Let me try to give an illustration of my point.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/2/20523/87732
Reid to Romney: It’s Your Obligation to Put Up Instead of Shutting Up
By: Sarah Jones
August 3rd, 2012
Republicans are playing right into Harry Reid’s hands but they’re too puffed up with the smug, bellicose inhaling of conservative media to know it. They’re all excited that Mitt Romney told Reid to “put up or shut up” about Romney’s tax returns.
Let’s just take a moment here to think about that. Who needs to put up or shut up? Romney is the one running for president and refusing to do the most basic qualification of the job as a candidate. For some reason, no matter how politically costly it is, Romney is too scared to release his tax returns. He gave us one year, which his own father pointed out could easily be distorted. He promises to give us another year, but it’s August already.
Read on: http://www.politicususa.com/reid-romney-its-obligation-put-shutting.html
A tough new Obama ad that — surprise! — is accurate
Posted by Glenn Kessler at 06:00 AM ET, 08/03/2012
TheWashingtonPost
The Facts
Romney certainly made a lot of money in 2010 — $21.7 million, according to his tax return — and yet his tax rate was about 13.9 percent. As we have noted before, he achieves this rate because much of his income is treated as capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at a preferential rate of 15 percent, and because he donates about 14 percent of his income to charity. (Reuters wrote an interesting article showing that Romney’s donations of appreciated stock to the Mormon church further shielded him from possible capital gains taxes.)
In the past, we gave the Obama campaign Three Pinocchios for saying that Romney paid “much less than what many middle-class families pay.” But the language in this ad is much more accurate.
The ad says “chances are you pay a higher rate” and that Romney’s 14 percent rate is “probably less than you” pay. Most people pay relatively little in individual income taxes, but (unlike Romney) also contribute a good portion of their income to payroll taxes (such as Social Security and Medicare). Employers also pay a share, which most economists say is taken out of a person’s wage.
According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the effective rate for the middle 20 percent is 15.5 percent, including all payroll taxes. That is higher than Romney’s 13.9 percent rate, so there is more than a 50-50 chance that a person’s rate would be higher than Romney’s tax rate. (As we have noted, the numbers are more favorable to Romney if you exclude payroll taxes paid by employers.)
The rest of the ad concerns the new study by the Tax Policy Center, which examines whether the numbers add up in Romney’s tax plan as described on his Web site. As we have noted, Romney has not detailed how he would cut tax rates by 20 percent and yet eliminate enough tax loopholes to keep the plan revenue neutral.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/a-tough-new-obama-ad-that—-surprise—-is-accurate/2012/08/02/gJQAuigQSX_blog.html
The possible Beyoncé movie, starring, directed and produced by Beyoncé
By Jen Chaney
Beyoncé is reportedly hoping to direct her first film, one that will focus on a subject she knows a great deal about: Beyoncé.
The L.A. Times has reported that the pop mega-star is pitching studios on a film about her life and career, one that she would (obviously) appear in as well as direct and produce.The Times piece says some studios have been shown 20 minutes of footage, although no one at ICM, Beyoncé’s agency, would confirm that information.
A distributor has not signed on yet. It would be interesting, though, if a deal is made just in time for Mrs. Jay-Z to formally announce the film’s release at this year’s MTV Vide Music Awards in September. She does like to break big news at that event, as we all undoubtedly remember from last year’s blazer-opening baby bump reveal.
If the project comes to fruition, would you pay money to watch the story of Beyoncé’s life on a big screen? Or would you rather: a. watch her star in a fictional film, like the delayed “A Star is Born”; or b. stare at the many fascinating photos on her Tumblr? Weigh in by posting a comment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/the-possible-beyonce-movie-starring-directed-and-produced-by-beyonce/2012/08/02/gJQATDj5RX_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_movies
Debt, Depression, DeMarco
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 2, 2012
There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.
And this week’s shocking refusal to implement debt relief by the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a Bush-era holdover the president hasn’t been able to replace — illustrates perfectly what’s going on.
Some background: many economists believe that the overhang of excess household debt, a legacy of the bubble years, is the biggest factor holding back economic recovery. Loosely speaking, excess debt has created a situation in which everyone is trying to spend less than their income. Since this is collectively impossible — my spending is your income, and your spending is my income — the result is a persistently depressed economy.
How should policy respond? One answer is government spending to support the economy while the private sector repairs its balance sheets; now is not the time for austerity, and cuts in government purchases have been a major economic drag. Another answer is aggressive monetary policy, which is why the Federal Reserve’s refusal to act in the face of high unemployment and below-target inflation is a scandal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/opinion/krugman-debt-depression-demarco.html?_r=2&hp
http://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/231329887204556801/photo/1
‘Put up or shut up’
By Steve Benen
Fri Aug 3, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
Sometimes, it’s possible to gain and lose the moral high ground very quickly.
When reporters shout intemperate questions at a candidate near Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, the candidate has gained the high ground. When the candidate’s aide tells the reporters, “Kiss my ass” and “Shove it,” the candidate has lost the high ground.
Similarly, Mitt Romney had the high ground when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made unfounded allegations about the Republican’s tax returns. And yet, he somehow managed to cede the high ground soon after.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Reid claimed he’d heard from a Bain Capital investor that Romney hadn’t paid income taxes for 10 years. Which investor? Reid didn’t say. Why should anyone take the claim seriously? Reid couldn’t say. He heard a rumor, and he’s passing it along.
Team Romney was furious and they had a point. The discourse can’t work this way — prominent officials need to be responsible when making attacks, and not just throw around second-hand innuendo, as if presidential candidates have a responsibility to respond to every unsupported rumor.
Romney had the high ground against a cheap shot. And then he gave it away.
“It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up,” Romney said on Sean Hannity’s radio show. […]
“Harry’s gonna have to describe who it is he spoke with because of course that’s totally and completely wrong,” Romney said Thursday in the radio interview. “It’s untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we’ll probably find out that it’s the White House.”
Is that so. Does Reid have any proof that Romney failed to pay taxes for 10 years? No, it’s just an unsubstantiated allegation that Reid carelessly pushed in the media. And does Romney have any proof that the White House is Reid’s secret source behind the attack? No, it’s just an unsubstantiated allegation that Romney carelessly pushed in the media. High ground, lost.
As for “put up or shut up,” is this really the phrase the guy who has been hiding his tax returns wants to use?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/03/13102561-put-up-or-shut-up?lite
Romney has NEVER had the HIGHGROUND, as far as I’m concerned. He needs to PUT UP, because we’re not going to SHUT UP.
RELEASE YOUR TAXES, MITT ROMNEY!
A Black South African ROWER:
From front, Sizwe Ndlovu and John Smith of South Africa celebrated with their teammates after winning the gold medal for the men’s lightweight four event. It was their country’s first ever gold in rowing
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/02/sports/olympics/20120802-OLYPOD.html?smid=tw-londonlive#/?slide=25
THIS IS WHAT HARRY REID DID
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/02/1116103/-This-is-what-Reid-did
http://twitter.com/USAGym/status/231336658946121728/photo/1
MAJOR COOL!
Michael Tomasky on Mitt Romney’s Naïve Evasion Strategy
by Michael Tomasky Aug 2, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
From his tax returns to his slippery policy proposals, Romney is doing everything he can to fend off serious scrutiny. Can a master of prevarication make it into the White House?
I’ve been pounding away at Mitt Romney’s lack of spine on the basis of his unprecedented reversals of position. We have never in modern American history had a presidential nominee who, as he ascended from the state to the national level, changed so many positions so shamelessly. But that’s not the only manifestation of his weakness. Take the three issues of his lack of specificity about the policies he supports, his inaccessibility to the press, and his refusal to release his tax returns. These highlight another aspect of the problem, one that’s no less telling and serious: His desire to sneak into the White House all but unexamined by voters.
Even Bill Kristol has complained that Romney is on “autopilot” and is not laying out a serious and clear vision. Romney hasn’t said what tax loopholes he’ll close or what federal programs he’ll slash. He then tries to argue that to do so would be foolish, like a football coach posting his playbook online (my metaphor, not his, but it’s the essence of what he says).
The problem goes beyond lists of loopholes or programs to the elements that constitute what we usually call a politician’s vision. What he’s going to do to fuel manufacturing, to spur innovation, to improve education; what he sees as the two or three main economic priorities for the next decade; where he will shift and direct federal resources; we know none of this. It may all exist on his web site in small and bromidic doses, but mostly what he says on the stump is that that Obama fellow is an awful anti-capitalist and I, Romney, will unleash the power of the free market and trust me, everything will light up guns-ablazing.
Moving on: On what has to have been the most politically maladroit trip abroad by a presidential candidate since Earl Browder went to Russia, Romney, as you probably know by now, took a grand total of three questions from the traveling press. He did consent to two brief sit-down interviews—both of which he botched, by the way, one with Fox and the other with ABC. But the standard practice on these trips is to do a “press avail” every day or at least most days and submit to a handful (five, six) of questions each time. He took just three questions, once. This tracks with his well-known general behavior throughout the campaign of almost never making himself available to the media, except of course for Fox, where he can usually (with a small number of exceptions) count on being asked questions about exactly how awful Barack Obama is. Despite the Romney campaign’s assurances that this will change, I wouldn’t bet on it.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/02/michael-tomasky-on-mitt-romney-s-na-ve-evasion-strategy.html
CNN’s DANA BASH -HER SOURCE CAN CONFIRM REID TAX ALLEGATION
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/02/1116216/-CNN-s-Dana-Bash-Her-source-can-confirm-Reid-tax-allegation
Tonight on CNN AC360, Anderson Copper opened his ‘keeping them honest’ segment with Sen. Harry Reid’s recent tax allegation about Mitt Romney.
Cooper had CNN Capitol Hill reporter, Dana Bash on to discuss the story, according to Bash, her source can confirm Sen. Reid’s allegation. Bash went even further, she said this source also personally knows the Bain source who would have access to Romney’s tax record. If this Bain source story is true, then, Mitt Romney is in serious trouble. I’ll have more later.
Update @Dana Bash tweets
“When Harry Reid doesn’t like someone, he goes for the jugular.” – @DanaBashCNN #Romney
JUST IN: @DanaBashCNN receives a new statement from @SenatorReid’s office, saying Senator #Reid has a “credible source.” #Romney
Jobs increase in July, but jobless rate rises to 8.3 percent
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 3, 2012 8:37am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employers in July hired the most workers in five months, but an increase in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent will probably keep expectations of additional monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve intact.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 163,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, beating economists expectations for a 100,000 gain. The report was dimmed somewhat by the increase in the jobless rate from 8.2 percent in June, even as more people gave up the search for work.
In addition, employment for May and June was revised to show 6,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported.
The closely watched employment report comes two days after the U.S. central bank sent a stronger signal that a new round of major support could be on the way if the faltering recovery does not pick up.
Most economists expect the Fed will launch a third round of bond purchases, possibly at its next policy meeting on September 12-13.
That’s despite the approach of the U.S. presidential and congressional elections in November, which could leave the central bank open to criticisms from Republicans who have made the weak economy a centerpiece of their campaigning.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-jobless-rates-idUSBRE8720MP20120803
U.S. economy added 163,000 jobs in July, far more than analysts expected. Unemployment rate rose slightly to 8.3%.
John McCain for VP!
By David Corn
With the economy stuck in a slump, Mitt Romney ought to be soaring in the polls. Yet, thanks to his stumble-laden campaign, he is underperforming. In recent weeks, he has been on the defensive about his Bain Capital days and his refusal to release tax returns. A trip to England, Israel, and Poland did nothing to enhance his claims to either statesmanship or competence. He needs a game-changer. And here’s one option: tapping John McCain as his running mate.
McCain is indeed a two-time presidential loser who has always had a tenuous relationship with the Republican Party’s base, and he and Romney don’t seem to be the best of buds after their bruising primary clash in 2008. But if it’s all about doing whatever it takes to become CEO of the United States, Romney might fare best with the veteran Republican senator as his wing man. Consider the following:
■Pizzazz without novelty. Selecting McCain would be a surprise. It would show that Romney, a bland candidate on his better days, can be daring without being stupid. (The Palin pick—that was daring and stupid.) Naming McCain as his junior partner would stir things up without resorting to worrying novelty. The guy is a known quantity and qualified. Romney, who too often appears preprogrammed (and whose policies are pedestrian), could pick another old, wealthy white guy and still have a moment of boldness—without great risk.
Read the rest here:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/why-romney-should-pick-mccain-veep
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone :)