Love this classic right here:
Notice how LiL Eddie Munster Ryan parrots the President?
Cause if you really want to hear our views…
YOU HAVEN’T DONE NOTHIN’
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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Knew it was only a matter of time before Lance would come “CLEAN” Pun intended.
Lance Armstrong to be stripped of 7 Tour de France titles
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart says the agency will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of his seven Tour de France titles for doping.
Armstrong on Thursday night dropped any further challenges to USADA’s allegations that he took performance-enhancing drugs to win cycling’s premier event from 1999 to 2005.
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
A group of protesters display placards as US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s motorcade arrives in Minnetonka Beach, Minnesotaa, on August 23, 2012. President Barack Obama clearly leads his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the battleground of Ohio but the race has tightened considerably in two other key states ahead of the November 6 elections, a new poll said August 23, 2012.
Dude was practically in my backyard today
Mitt Romney Campaign Forbids Reporter From Asking About Todd Akin, Abortion (UPDATE)
A Denver reporter granted a one-on-one interview with Mitt Romney Thursday said she was instructed not to ask him any questions about abortion or Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) controversial comments about victims of “legitimate rape.”
Shaun Boyd, a reporter for Denver CBS affiliate KCNC, was one of four local reporters to speak with Romney, according to the station. She said that the Romney campaign had set pre-conditions before allowing her to interview the candidate.
“You know, I had about five minutes with him, and we got through a fair amount of material, actually, in that five minutes,” Boyd said on air. “The one stipulation to the interview was that I not ask him about abortion or Todd Akin -– he’s the Missouri Republican who created a firestorm after saying women’s bodies shut down in a legitimate rape to prevent pregnancy. I did ask him about health care, the female vote, and energy.”
Audio
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/mitt-romney-abortion-todd-akin_n_1825864.html
Political Animal
Blog
August 23, 2012 3:11 PM
Historic Moment For Rasmussen
By Ed Kilgore
So something unprecedented in public opinion research happened today: Rasmussen put out a poll showing a statewide Democratic candidate opening up a sudden, huge lead over a Republican candidate, and there were undoubtedly cheers across the entire elite GOP/conservative universe.
Yes, Raz has Claire McCaskill up by a 48-38 margin over Todd Akin, with Akin’s favorable/unfavorable rating coming in at 35/63, and nearly half viewing him “very unfavorably.” On the question of whether Todd should stay or go, 41% say “stay” and 42% say “go,” but in the brief analysis it’s made reasonably clear (without breakdowns) that most saying “stay” are Democrats.
Whether this will have an immediate impact on Akin’s thinking about his candidacy is anybody’s guess, but I doubt he’ll be able to keep citing that snap poll from PPP released Monday night that showed him still up by a point over McCaskill.
Given the very well-documented pro-GOP “house effect” of Rasmussen polls, some will wonder if ol’ Scott put a thumb on the scales for Claire. I don’t think so: best I can tell Rasmussen’s bias comes from his sampling techniques and perhaps a bit from his likely voter screens, so he is probably legitimately finding that many MO Republicans ain’t much on Todd’s bandwagon any more, as you might expect at this point. One of Akin’s problems is that he hadn’t really had time to consolidate GOP support after a tough primary before he blew himself up, so those still strongly with him in Missouri are probably those who were with him from the beginning.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/historic_moment_for_rasmussen039414.php
Lord,
I love State Senator Nina Turner of Ohio.
She absolutely rocks!!
LOL did you see the look on that former SOS’s face. Nina wasn’t having it.
THE RETHUGS ARE SUPPRESSING OHIOANS VOTES, BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT BLACK FOLKS TO VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA, BECAUSE HE’S BLACK!!
August 23, 2012 5:57 PM
How Many Pieces of Silver To Buy Off Akin’s Base?
By Ed Kilgore
I’m not sure of the exact timing on this—i.e., don’t know if it was sent out before or after the new Rasumussen poll showing Todd Akin looking like roadkill in Missouri—but for what it’s worth, Mike Huckabee, a man with the power to disrupt ordained GOP messaging, has sent out an email (per Time’s Halperin) sticking by Akin come hell or high water:
The Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren’t rational, left him behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound. In a Party that supposedly stands for life, it was tragic to see the carefully orchestrated and systematic attack on a fellow Republican. Not for a moral failure or corruption or a criminal act, but for a misstatement which he contritely and utterly repudiated. I was shocked by GOP leaders and elected officials who rushed so quickly to end the political life of a candidate over a mistaken comment in an interview. This was a serious mistake, but it was blown out of proportion not by the left, but by Akin’s own Republican Party. Is this what the party really thinks of principled pro-life advocates? Do we forgive and forget the verbal gaffes of Republicans who are “conveniently pro-life” for political advantage, but crucify one who truly believes that every life is sacred?
The references to Akin being “left behind” and “crucified” obviously have some resonance with Huck’s large tribe of fans. But it gets more direct:
………………………………………………..
In any event, if the powers-that-be in the GOP succeed in coming up with the proper Severance Package to separate Todd Akin from his spot on the November 6 ballot, they may need to cut a separate deal with Huck and his Christian Right friends. You don’t agree to crucify your comrade-in-faith without at least thirty pieces of silver.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/huck_bucks_gop039418.php
Giving up on the 38% goal
By Steve Benen
Thu Aug 23, 2012 3:19 PM EDT.
Just yesterday, one of the leaders of Mitt Romney’s Hispanic leadership team said the campaign has a specific target: “[O]ur goal is to hit 38 percent with the Hispanic vote.” That would be a significant increase over McCain/Palin, which won 31% of the Latino vote in 2008.
Maybe now would be a good time for Team Romney to aim lower.
Arizona immigration law author and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is representing 10 immigration agents in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, for policies they say prevent them from doing their job of defending the Constitution. […]
The suit goes after two key Obama policies on immigration: prosecutorial discretion to focus on criminals and repeat offenders, as well as deferred action for undocumented young people.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/23/13438587-giving-up-on-the-38-goal?lite
Inside Mitt Romney’s Bain Files
In a massive document dump, Gawker has published 950 pages of confidential files related to Mitt Romney’s finances. Alex Klein on what’s notable in the cache—and what to ignore.
by Alex Klein | August 23, 2012 2:04 PM EDT
Very rich people have very much money in very many places.
Currently, that’s the broadest possible takeaway from the 950 pages of confidential documents related to Mitt Romney’s finances obtained and published by Gawker. The files include “internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21” entities in which the candidate has invested over $10 million—many of them Bain Capital subsidiaries or investment vehicles based in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.
So far, there’s nothing on income taxes, nothing incriminating, and nothing that should send either campaign reeling—but there are a couple of strings worth pulling on.
Gawker’s John Cook, who obtained the documents, has published a few preliminary observations, and we’re still trawling for more. But for now, here are the most interesting insights from the files.
• The documents may re-spark the political powder keg of Romney’s retirement from Bain Capital. The candidate claims he retired in 1999 to run the Olympics, and spent the next three years negotiating his retirement package. Democrats have countered that SEC disclosures show that Romney kept his role at the firm up until 2002, which would tie him to politically damaging deals and layoffs.
According to the new documents, Romney received a multimillion dollar stake in Sankaty Credit Opportunities, a foreign-based Bain fund, as part of his retirement package. Since that fund only commenced operations in August 2002, Gawker’s Cook infers that since the “retirement package was negotiated in 1999,” Romney’s explanation doesn’t add up.
However, this could be less of a smoking gun than Cook assumes, since an entity created in 2002 might be included in a retirement package that was initiated in 1999, if it was still being negotiated three years later—as Romney has already claimed.
• Romney’s IRA, worth between $21 million and $102 million, received money pursuant to his retirement package as recently as 2011. Sankaty Credit Opportunities IV, another Bain fund created as late as July 2008, earned him between $50,000 and $100,000 in dividends, a gain attributed to his retirement package with Bain Capital, negotiated years earlier. (Fortune’s Dan Primack reported in July that Romney’s retirement package gave him “limited partnership interests in all Bain-related funds raised through 2009.”)
• We’ve already reported on how Romney’s offshore investments delay his tax burden, letting him pay Uncle Sam later and on more favorable terms: a natural strategy for any international investor hoping to attract foreign capital. According to these latest documents, Romney’s Cayman funds have established scores of alternative investment vehicles (AIVs), holding companies designed to do just that. One Bain Capital fund diverted $1.5 billion into as many as eighteen of these AIVs.
• We already know that Romney money has gone toward decidedly un-Romney-like businesses—like gambling. Cook rifled through disclosures from one big Bain fund, Sankaty High Yield Partners II, to find that it lent money to casino companies, cigarette distributors, a “Hollywood talent-management company,” Manchester United, and the parent company of the National Enquirer.
Inside Mitt Romney’s Bain Files
In a massive document dump, Gawker has published 950 pages of confidential files related to Mitt Romney’s finances. Alex Klein on what’s notable in the cache—and what to ignore.
by Alex Klein | August 23, 2012 2:04 PM EDT
Very rich people have very much money in very many places.
Currently, that’s the broadest possible takeaway from the 950 pages of confidential documents related to Mitt Romney’s finances obtained and published by Gawker. The files include “internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21” entities in which the candidate has invested over $10 million—many of them Bain Capital subsidiaries or investment vehicles based in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.
So far, there’s nothing on income taxes, nothing incriminating, and nothing that should send either campaign reeling—but there are a couple of strings worth pulling on.
Gawker’s John Cook, who obtained the documents, has published a few preliminary observations, and we’re still trawling for more. But for now, here are the most interesting insights from the files.
• The documents may re-spark the political powder keg of Romney’s retirement from Bain Capital. The candidate claims he retired in 1999 to run the Olympics, and spent the next three years negotiating his retirement package. Democrats have countered that SEC disclosures show that Romney kept his role at the firm up until 2002, which would tie him to politically damaging deals and layoffs.
According to the new documents, Romney received a multimillion dollar stake in Sankaty Credit Opportunities, a foreign-based Bain fund, as part of his retirement package. Since that fund only commenced operations in August 2002, Gawker’s Cook infers that since the “retirement package was negotiated in 1999,” Romney’s explanation doesn’t add up.
However, this could be less of a smoking gun than Cook assumes, since an entity created in 2002 might be included in a retirement package that was initiated in 1999, if it was still being negotiated three years later—as Romney has already claimed.
• Romney’s IRA, worth between $21 million and $102 million, received money pursuant to his retirement package as recently as 2011. Sankaty Credit Opportunities IV, another Bain fund created as late as July 2008, earned him between $50,000 and $100,000 in dividends, a gain attributed to his retirement package with Bain Capital, negotiated years earlier. (Fortune’s Dan Primack reported in July that Romney’s retirement package gave him “limited partnership interests in all Bain-related funds raised through 2009.”)
• We’ve already reported on how Romney’s offshore investments delay his tax burden, letting him pay Uncle Sam later and on more favorable terms: a natural strategy for any international investor hoping to attract foreign capital. According to these latest documents, Romney’s Cayman funds have established scores of alternative investment vehicles (AIVs), holding companies designed to do just that. One Bain Capital fund diverted $1.5 billion into as many as eighteen of these AIVs.
• We already know that Romney money has gone toward decidedly un-Romney-like businesses—like gambling. Cook rifled through disclosures from one big Bain fund, Sankaty High Yield Partners II, to find that it lent money to casino companies, cigarette distributors, a “Hollywood talent-management company,” Manchester United, and the parent company of the National Enquirer.
Don’t Freak Out
by BooMan
Thu Aug 23rd, 2012 at 02:47:41 PM EST
Whether or not a hurricane disrupts the Republican National Convention, we should expect Romney to get a bump out of it in the polls. He has enjoyed some narrow improvement in his standing since he announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, despite an almost uninterrupted amount of bad news on the campaign trail. I expect us all to grow quite nervous as we see the post-convention poll numbers. But try not to freak out. The Democratic convention will follow immediately after the Republican one, and we will have a star-studded list of speakers who will vastly outshine the grifters and lunatics that will be on display in Tampa. The polls should return to the status quo ante.
Meanwhile, the real erosion we’re seeing is in the congressional numbers. Here’s a summary of the latest results from the Carville-Greenberg survey:
Even before Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan to the ticket, our Battleground polling results indicated an erosion of support for Republicans, largely based on Paul Ryan’s plans for Medicare and entitlements. The advantage Republicans held among seniors in 2010 has been completely decimated. Across these Republican districts, incumbents now hold just a two-point lead with voters over age 64—a group Republicans won by 18 points in 2010.
Not surprisingly, the leading factor in this shift away from the GOP is Paul Ryan’s war on Medicare. By a decisive six-point margin, voters in these districts now say they trust Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to Medicare. Among voters in the 27 most competitive Republican battleground seats, Democrats now hold an 11-point advantage on Medicare.
This only underscores the recklessness of choosing Paul Ryan for a running mate. In the country’s most competitive districts, which overlap with the presidential battleground quite substantially, the Republican advantage with seniors has been almost entirely erased. If that result trickles up to the campaign between Obama and Romney, it will result in a blowout election.
I expect the polls to get worse before they get better, but I also am confident that we are in a strong position, poised to win the presidency, hold the Senate, and win back the House. I also believe that both the Republican and the Democratic conventions will do more to excite the Democratic base than the Republican base. And the polls will pick that up in their likely voter models.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/23/144741/285
Tel’em Boo. There will be NO freaking out over the GOP FREAK SHOW. Can’t wait to get to Charlotte! OBAMA/BIDEN 2012-2016!
August 23, 2012 1:25 PM
Senate Landscape Minus Missouri
By Ed Kilgore
If you assume Todd Akin stays on the ballot in Missouri (or is forced off in a way that splits the Republican vote), and that he is a deepy problematic candidate, then the GOP strategy for gaining control of the U.S. Senate gets pretty tricky. RCP’s Caitlin Huey-Burns has a detailed article today examining their options for picking up three (what’s needed if Romney wins) or four (a majority if Obama wins) net seats.
Assuming, as is likely, the GOP is going to lose Olympia Snowe’s seat in Maine, this means defending all the others (NV, AZ and MA have all been considered vulnerable), and picking up four or five Democratic seats. ND, NE and MT all have Democratic-held seats in elections that currently lean Republican, but none, with the possibility of NE, is out of reach for Democrats. Prospects of winning others are close propositions; WI looks better now that Tommy Thompson is the GOP nominee; Bill Nelson’s still maintaining a lead in FL, and VA remains an absolute dead heat, as it has been all along. In NM and OH, Democrats currently lead, but not by large margins.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/senate_landscape_minus_missour039408.php
23 Aug 2012 01:40 PM
The Phoniness Of Rick Warren
Rick Warren✔
@RickWarren
“Be confident of this:He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus”Ph.1:6
23 Aug 12 Reply
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The self-appointed “faith-monger” in America has just – surprise! – canceled the Faith Forum he was supposed to hold this weekend because the campaign, in Warren’s view, has become too uncivil. Rick Warren is far too principled to descend into this unseemly gutter. Why, it’s giving him the vapors:
It would be hypocritical to pretend civility for one evening only to have the name-calling return the next day.
But one simple question: wouldn’t a completely innocuous conversation with Romney and then Obama separately over a couple of hours be a way to actually defuse the name-calling or directly challenge both men to defend it in the context of their faiths? Since when does a Christian stomp off the stage with a hissy fit when there is peace-making to do?
Or is Warren doing what he always does: ponce around America purporting to be an apolitical missionary, while doing everything he can to ensure the GOP’s fundamentalist agenda – which is his too – is enacted? I was staggered this intense Republican partisan was ever prepared to expose his evangelical audience – and a more general one – to 50 minutes of discussion of Mormonism with Romney – and thought much better of him as a result. But the current cancellation gets Warren everything he wanted: a self-righteous harrumph, success in keeping Mormonism from being discussed in this race, and setting up his real campaign event: a September forum on how Obama is attacking everyone’s religious freedom.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/the-phoniness-of-rick-warren.html
THIS: But the current cancellation gets Warren everything he wanted: a self-righteous harrumph, success in keeping Mormonism from being discussed in this race, and setting up his real campaign event: a September forum on how Obama is attacking everyone’s religious freedom. “
UH HUH
he’s not slick
How many exemptions can dance on the head of a pin?
By Steve Benen
Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:38 PM EDT.
When crafting its national platform, Republican Party officials had a decision to make on abortion: would the GOP support exemptions for those impregnated by rape or incest? In keeping with the last several party platforms, Republicans decided against exemptions.
But wait, Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, says. Maybe there are exemptions, on a theoretical level, if you tilt your head and close one eye (via Pema Levy).
“The Republican Party is a pro- life party. Our platform is just a simple set of principles which say that the problem with the ad that you played is the Democrats are trying to take a simple set of principles, which is the Republican Party’s pro-life. There is no additional language, so to talk about exceptions or whatever is not found in the platform.”
Got that? According to the RNC’s own communications director, the Republican platform is just a set of principles. These principles oppose women’s reproductive rights, the argument goes, but it doesn’t explicitly say there can’t be exemptions, so who knows? Maybe there will be exemptions!
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/23/13436599-how-many-exemptions-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin?lite
Posted at 01:33 PM ET, 08/23/2012
TheWashingtonPost
Mitt Romney’s `just trust me’ campaign, explained
By Greg Sargent
What if one of the two presidential candidates concealed huge amounts of information about himself and his plans for the presidency for the explicitly stated reason that revealing that info would allow it to be debated during the presidential race, to his own political detriment?
In an interview with Time magazine, Mitt Romney was again asked whether he would detail what loopholes and deductions he’d eliminate to make his tax plan — which would cut taxes deeply in ways that disproportionately benefit the rich — pay for itself. Behold his answer:
QUESTION: Is there something you’re willing to say that’s more specific about which deductions you would eliminate?
ROMNEY: I know our Democrat friends would love to have me specify one or two so they could amass the special interest to fight that effort.
Romney will not reveal more details how his tax plan will be paid for, because Democrats would attack those details. And he again confirmed that they will all be worked out with Congress — which is to say, after the election. In other words, if Romney reveals those details now, Democrats would subject his plan to more scrutiny.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mitt-romneys-just-trust-me-campaign-explained/2012/08/23/6d398dc0-ed35-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_blog.html
Posted at 11:49 AM ET, 08/23/2012 TheWashingtonPost
Romney hopes Latinos forget everything he’s said for the past year
By Jamelle Bouie
Talking Points Memo reports that the Romney campaign wants to use the convention to “reset” Mitt Romney’s relationship with Latinos. He’s going to need a pretty big reset — Latinos will have to forget what Romney has been saying and proposing for a year now.
It’s not hard to see why the Romney camp wants a reset. President Obama has held a 2-to–1 lead among Latinos for months. The most recent poll from NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and Telemundo shows Romney with 28 percent support among Latinos, compared to 63 percent for Obama. An analysis from Univision found Romney with 22.9 percent support among Latinos after you averaged the ten most recent surveys.
Team Romney says it wants to exceed John McCain’s performance among the demographic. “Our goal is to do better than four years ago and the McCain campaign did — our goal is to hit 38 percent with the Hispanic vote,” Jose Fuentes, a co-chairman of Romney’s Hispanic leadership team, said recently.
But McCain spent years building credibility with the Hispanic community. He was a vocal supporter of immigration reform and was one of the original sponsors of the DREAM Act in 2005. It was only the the rabidly anti-immigration views of the GOP base that forced McCain to adopt a more hardline stance during the 2008 campaign.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-hopes-latinos-forget-everything-hes-said-for-the-past-year/2012/08/23/2a08f2c2-ed38-11e1-866f-60a00f604425_blog.html
Wanna Take Your Chances, Ladies?
by BooMan
Wed Aug 22nd, 2012 at 10:04:14 PM EST
Watch Paul Ryan hide under Mitt Romney’s skirt:
Jon Delano: “Should abortions be available to women who are raped?”
Paul Ryan: “Well, look, I’m proud of my pro-life record. And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”
Translation: “No, I don’t believe rape victims should be able to get abortions, and I’m proud of my position on that, but my running mate said the opposite yesterday so I refuse to answer your question.”
Rep. Ryan also backed away from his prior support for a law that would deny women a rape exception if the rape wasn’t “forcible.” And there is the fact that both he and Romney have supported the so-called personhood amendment which makes no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother.
So, today, Romney/Ryan are saying that they won’t deny rape victims access to abortions. But their records suggest otherwise. And we know what kind of judges they will nominate.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/22/22414/9414
No August Surprise
by BooMan
Thu Aug 23rd, 2012 at 12:14:34 PM EST
This is a really boring time of the presidential contest. Romney killed the suspense for his convention by naming his shitty running mate two weeks early. Congress is out on recess. People are wrapping up their summer vacations. But, I’ll tell you what. In years past, we typically got our butts kicked in August. Remember 2004, with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, or 2009, with the outbreak of Tea Party maniacs at all the town hall meetings? This year has been different. Team Romney has been on the defensive pretty much non-stop since the second he arrived in London for the Olympics in July.
Romney hasn’t exactly been helping himself. His gaffes on his foreign trip were self-inflicted. His decision not to disclose his tax returns is his own. And the selection of a no rape/incest/health exception Medicare butcher as his running mate was opposed by his own advisers, for obvious reasons.
Still, the Obama team deserves credit for keeping their boot on the neck of the Romney campaign for a half dozen weeks in a row. This time, we were not unprepared for August.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/23/121434/338
Defending the indefensible
By Steve Benen – Thu Aug 23, 2012 11:00 AM EDT
Just two weeks ago, Mitt Romney suggested attack ads rejected by “the various fact-checkers” shouldn’t be on the air. Yesterday, the Republican added a caveat: when “the various fact-checkers” denounce his ads, they should be ignored as biased liberals.
To briefly recap, President Obama didn’t weaken the work requirement in welfare law; Romney has lied nearly every day for two weeks, including more than once yesterday, saying the opposite of the truth. Literally every independent fact-checker that’s looked at the claim has reached the same conclusion: Romney’s smear has no basis in fact.
Yesterday, asked why he keeps repeating a claim disconnected from this plane of reality, Romney told the Des Moines Register he has no use for independent journalists who examine the issue “in the way they think is most consistent with their own views.”
Yesterday, Romney campaign chairman John Sununu went a little further.
The full transcript of Sununu’s interview with Wolf Blitzer is online, and I’ll gladly give credit to the CNN host for pressing the Republican to defend his obvious falsehood. In fact, Blitzer literally read “the precise language from the Health and Human Services memo outlining what the states who seek this flexibility” can do.
And yet, the Romney campaign surrogate stuck to the lie anyway.
My favorite part came when Sununu explained what it would take for Team Romney to stop lying.
——————————————————————————–
BLITZER: [E]very major fact checking organization out there says he has not — has not gutted, has not gutted by any means the work requirements.
SUNUNU: All they need to do is have HHS send out a hard letter making sure that the only things that will qualify under the work requirement is hard training and the — and the cooperative programs with employers and define it in such a way that what was allowed before is all that’s allowed in the future…. That’s all that’s required.
Really, that’s all that’s required? Because that “hard letter” already exists — the Obama administration published it (pdf) two months ago.
In it, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “Our goal is to accelerate job placement by moving more Americans from welfare to work, and no policy which undercuts that goal or waters down work requirements will be considered.”
There is no ambiguity.
Romney and his team know this, but they keep telling the same racially charged lie — five videos, including three broadcast ads, in just two weeks — because they just don’t give a damn. Confronted with reality, they’re not embarrassed or ashamed; they just stick to the lie, assuming voters won’t know the difference.
It’s the era of post-truth politics, and Romney wants to test what he can get away with.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/23/13435389-defending-the-indefensible?lite
Election 2012: Missouri Senate Missouri Senate: McCaskill (D) 48%, Akin (R) 38%
Source: Rasmussen Reports
What a difference one TV interview can make. Embattled Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has now jumped to a 10-point lead over her Republican challenger, Congressman Todd Akin, in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race. Most Missouri Republicans want Akin to quit the race while most Missouri Democrats want him to stay.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Show Me State finds McCaskill earning 48% support to Akin’s 38%. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.
Read more: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_senate_elections/missouri/election_2012_missouri_senate
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GOP takes tough platform approach
Filled with strict stances, most conservative plan in party history to be unveiled
TAMPA, Fla. — Republicans next week will likely adopt what veteran platform writers said is the most conservative platform in their history after the drafting committee voted to keep strict pro-life, pro-defense and traditional marriage planks intact.
When the national convention’s 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternates assemble Monday, each of them will find a printed form of the document on their seats and they will be asked to vote it up or down. They have always approved it in the past.
“The [Republican National Committee] platform appears to be the most conservative platform in modern history,” platform committee member and tea party organizer Russ Walker told The Washington Times.
Building on the influences of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and the tea party movements, the GOP’s platform now includes a whole section “dedicated to restoring constitutional government” by bringing together constitutional issues that in the past had been sprinkled throughout the platform, said James Bopp Jr., chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution.
Read more: GOP takes tough platform approach – Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/21/gop-takes-extreme-platform-approach/
BRILLIANT!
Posted at 09:19 AM ET, 08/23/2012
The Morning Plum: The Obama campaign’s theory of the presidential race
By Greg Sargent
Should President Obama be trying to persuade voters that the economy is recovering?
Some Democratic strategists think that could jar against public perceptions that things aren’t really getting better. They believe voters don’t want to hear Obama telling them things are improving. And yet, you’d think that it’s imperative that Obama rebut Mitt Romney’s charge that he’s failed to turn the economy around, that Obama has had his four years, that he hasn’t shown he has the answer to people’s problems, and that Romney does have the answer to them. How can Obama do that without doubling down on the claim that things really are getting better for people?
The Obama campaign is out with a new ad in seven swing states featuring Bill Clinton that sheds some light on this difficulty:
What we’re seeing here, I believe, is the beginning of the Obama campaign’s pivot to a more concerted effort to draw a contrast between what an Obama second term would look like and what a Romney presidency would look like. And yet, paradoxically, Clinton needs to reach into the distant past to draw this contrast.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
Ametia,
in response to that ridiculous article by Kevin Williamson, I think that the 3CHICS POTUS SWAGGA VIDEO should be reposted FRONT PAGE.
Can you provide more context? I haven’t read the article.
National Review: Women ‘evolved’ to prefer superior rich men like Romney
A deputy editor for the conservative National Review magazine has come to the sexist conclusion that “Mitt Romney should get 100 percent of the female vote” because his wealth makes him superior to Barack Obama, “[f]rom an evolutionary point of view.”
“The conventional biological wisdom is that men select mates for fertility, while women select for status — thus the commonness of younger women’s pairing with well-established older men but the rarity of the converse,” Kevin Williamson wrote in the Aug. 27 issue of the magazine. “Age is cruel to women, and subordination is cruel to men.”
“You want off-the-charts status? Check out the curriculum vitae of one Willard M. Romney: $200 million in the bank (and a hell of a lot more if he didn’t give so much away), apex alpha executive, CEO, chairman of the board, governor, bishop, boss of everything he’s ever touched,” he continued, noting that “high-status animals” like Romney tend to have more male offspring.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/22/national-review-women-evolved-to-prefer-superior-rich-men-like-romney/
Barack Obama came from a single parent household , to the South Side of Chicago to the PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES.
Barack Obama once lived up above a Harold’s Chicken Shack.
He now lives in THE WHITE HOUSE.
that’s American exceptionalism personified.
The man has SWAGGER.
As a woman, that SWAGGER means something.
women prefer men who actually did things on their own.
not mofos who were born on third and think they should be worshipped for crossing home.
Those who knew Romney best
By Steve Benen – Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:12 AM EDT.
There’s some debate about which state counts as Mitt Romney’s “home” state, but he was governor of Massachusetts, and that’s a state he’s going to lose badly. That’s not unexpected given the Bay State’s political leanings, but I continue to think it’s a mistake to dismiss this too quickly.
PPP’s newest Presidential poll in Massachusetts finds no change in the race from June. Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by 16 points, 55-39. […]
Massachusetts voters simply don’t think much of their former Governor. Only 39% of voters have a favorable opinion of Romney to 55% with an unfavorable one. They don’t look back on his tenure as chief executive very fondly — 42% approve of the work he did in that job but 46% disapprove…. Romney can’t match the Scott Brown formula for being successful as a Republican in a blue state.
If Romney’s elected president, he’ll be the first candidate to win the White House while losing his home state since before the Civil War.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/23/13433999-those-who-knew-romney-best?lite
all up in my uterus, but asking Willard for his tax returns is an invasion of privacy.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m96c24MrVM1rs90lqo1_500.jpg
Here you go, let’s let folks see just how up in our UTERUSES these MOFOS are trying to do
Romney and Mr. ‘Spastic Tubes’
By Steve Benen
Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
When Todd Akin first scoffed at the notion that rape victims can get pregnant, he defended himself by pointing to the medical judgment of someone named Dr. John Willke, former president of the National Right to Life Committee, who has been pushing this argument for many years.
Indeed, just this week, Willke told the New York Times rapists don’t impregnate their victims because, “This is a traumatic thing — she’s, shall we say, she’s uptight. She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic.”
Biologically, this is deeply stupid and wholly rejected by physicians, but politically, it’s also become rather important — and not just because of Akin.
As Rachel noted on the show, Willke has also been a Mitt Romney ally and campaign surrogate. Josh Marshal had this item last night.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/23/13432808-romney-and-mr-spastic-tubes?lite
Rev. Al had on the author who wrote the book about President Obama’s stimulus.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755884/#48758128
Rep. Paul Ryan tried to distance himself from Rep. Todd Akin, by saying that “rape is rape” and that Akin’s comments were outrageous. But in 2011 ryan and Akin co-sponsored the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” that used the language “forcible rape”. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Il., and MSNBC’s Krystal Ball discuss Ryan’s position.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755884/#48757777
As Abortion restrictions increase across the country, women in Texas are doing desperate actions. They are going to MEXICO for help.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48759449
Rachel Maddow talks with a Wisconsin reporter about Paul Ryan and his extremism.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48759294
Rachel Maddow points out the clear political and policy connections between the Romney ticket and the extreme, absolutist anti-abortion movement, and encourages the political media to hold Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to account for their legislative deeds and political associations instead of taking them at their word as they try to distance themselves from their own record.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48759281
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone :)