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NEWS FLASH

Romney To Unveil Vice Presidential Pick On Saturday | Mitt Romney will announce his vice presidential pick on Saturday morning in Norfolk, Virginia as he kicks off the “Plan For A Stronger Middle Class” bus tour. The kick off will occur on the USS Wisconsin. Romney aides told reporters on Friday that they expect the announcement of the running mate and the convention to be worth a double digit bounce in the polls for the candidate.

Update

NBC News reports: “Sources say Rep. Paul Ryan is Romney’s Vice Presidential pick.”

Politics

Obama Praises Clinton Aide Targeted By Bachmann: ‘Huma Is An American Patriot’

By Judd Legum on Aug 10, 2012 at 10:01 pm

Michele Bachmann and four other Members of Congress have targeted Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, suggesting in a letter to the State Department that she is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Bachmann, without a shred of evidence, asserts that Abedin may be part of a larger “infiltration” of the American government by the group.

Bachmann has stood by her false allegations and has even picked up support from high profile Republicans like Newt Gingrich. (Other Republicans, like John McCain, have denounced Bachmann’s attacks.)

Tonight, President Barack Obama publicly praised Abedin, calling her an “American patriot’ and saying that he personally has relied upon her counsel. From the transcript of his remarks:

They are entrepreneurs and lawyers, community leaders, members of our military, and Muslim American women serving with distinction in government. And that includes a good friend, Huma Abedin, who has worked tirelessly — (applause) — worked tirelessly in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and most exhaustingly, at the State Department, where she has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear. Senator Clinton has relied on her expertise, and so have I.

The American people owe her a debt of gratitude — because Huma is an American patriot, and an example of what we need in this country — more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit. So, on behalf of all Americans, we thank you so much. (Applause.)

Hillary Clinton referenced the controversy last month, saying that Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt had “no place in our politics.”

Election

Viewpoint: Romney Angers Veterans And Nuns

By Guest Blogger on Aug 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Our guest blogger is John Boccieri, a former Congressman from Ohio and U.S. Air Force Instructor Pilot.

I’ve been honored to serve Ohio in both Statehouse chambers and in the United States Congress. And if there is one thing I’ve learned about Ohioans, it’s that you don’t cross those who dedicate their lives to service and expect to get elected.

Unfortunately for his campaign, Governor Romney has managed to upset both veterans and nuns this week.

Gov. Romney began the week by infuriating veterans when his efforts to bolster his campaign through blatant lies about the Commander-in-Chief backfired. Seeking the votes of Ohio veterans, Romney intentionally misconstrued the President’s lawsuit against the Ohio Secretary of State and Attorney General as an attack on our service members. This transparent political move angered veterans and active military members – like me – throughout the country, who rightfully resent his misuse of the goodwill and respect we have earned through our sacrifices.

Here are the facts that Mitt Romney eagerly distorted: In an effort to reduce lines at the polls, Ohio instituted an early voting period that extended through the Monday before Election Day. However, after the 2008 election, partisan conspiracy theorists, bitter about the Democrats’ historic victory, blamed this early voting period for the President’s success in Ohio. After conservatives took over the state legislature, they fought to push back the early voting deadline. They were able to do so for all voters except active duty military, who enjoy special protection under federal law.

President Obama’s suit seeks to reinstate the early voting period for all Ohioans. He wants service members to continue to be able to vote early, as well as every other Ohioan – including the state’s 913,000 veterans and our military family members who are not protected by the special federal law. Our voting rights are sacred and the numbers we’re talking about should alarm everyone. In 2008 alone, 93,000 voted during this early voting time period. More than enough to sway the outcome of this election.

Governor Romney’s campaign twisted the intent of this lawsuit, and falsely claimed that the President was attacking the rights of military voters. Knowing our country’s deep appreciation for the contributions of our military, his campaign is attempting to manipulate the goodwill of voters and turn them against the President. Lying about our men and women in uniform in this disgraceful manner is politics at its dirtiest, and Governor Romney’s tactics have angered veterans and military personnel throughout the country. We who serve do not appreciate our work and sacrifice being turned into false fodder for his personal political gain.

As if using military service members in his campaign smears was not unscrupulous enough, Governor Romney’s campaign has also spent the last week levying insults at our nation’s struggling poor. His most recent attacks focus on welfare and welfare reform, charging that the President has not been as hard on those in poverty as his democratic predecessor President Bill Clinton.

Not only have these accusations angered President Clinton, who has adamantly rejected this characterization of himself and the current president, but they have also upset nuns working for social justice. Yesterday, Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of the Catholic organization NETWORK, issued an invitation to Governor Romney to join her and her Sisters for a day of service, where he can witness firsthand (as the nuns do every day) the hardship faced by Americans living in poverty.

Misleading voters, abusing veterans, vilifying the poor, angering nuns – these are not the campaign tactics of a successful candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. There are moral standards in politics, and Governor Romney is going to learn that when the election returns come in from Ohio.

NEWS FLASH

Higher Education Can Add Over 10 Years To Life Expectancy | Wonkblog’s Sarah Kliff digs up a new study revealing yet another way inequality shapes every aspect of our lives: Possessing a college education or higher can in some cases add over a decade to a person’s lifespan, versus if they have less than a high school diploma. The gap stands at 12.9 years for white men specifically, for women at 10.4 years, and somewhat smaller for Hispanics and African-Americans. The divide has also widened substantially in the last twenty years. In sum, Americans with less than a high school education have a life expectancy little better than what could be expected in the mid-20th Century, which is consistent with previous findings that gains in life span since then have accrued almost entirely to the upper half of the income distribution:

Economy

New York City Council Speaker Blocks Paid Sick Day Law Despite Popular Support

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Aug 10, 2012 at 6:00 pm

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D)

New York City’s paid sick leave bill is backed by grassroots labor activists, a veto-proof majority of the city council, the New York Times editorial board, and even some celebrities. However, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) is blocking the measure from coming up for a vote, claiming it would have a negative effect on small businesses.

The city’s proposed law would require businesses that employ 20 or more people to give their employees at least nine paid sick days each year; those with 19 or fewer employees would be required to provide five paid sick days. Currently, over a million New Yorkers are left with equally undesirable options when confronted with an illness: go to work sick or go without pay. Passing the Paid Sick Days Act would help New York City employees gain the labor protections that are already nationally mandated in 163 other countries around the world.

Nevertheless, Quinn refuses to bring the bill to a vote in the city council — dealing a blow to struggling service sector employees, who are disproportionately female:

Women in low-wage, service sector jobs make up the lion’s share of workers without sick leave.

“They are waitresses, cashiers and home health aides. Many are immigrants; few have political clout. Yet their work contributes to the economic growth of the city,” said Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

“It’s time to make paid sick days for New York’s working women and men a reality,” Poo added. “We’re going to push and prod and call on Speaker Quinn to bring this important measure up for a vote.”

The National Domestic Workers Alliance has partnered with other progressive allies to launch a petition pressuring Quinn to reconsider her stance and allow New York to join the other cities — including San Francisco, Seattle, and Connecticut — that have already enacted paid sick day laws.

Justice

Voters Kicked Off The Rolls In New Mexico Include Voting Rights Activist, Wife Of State Representative

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:50 pm

More than 170,000 people have been purged from New Mexico’s voter rolls — and among them are a prominent voting rights activist, as well as the wife of a Democratic state representative.

State Rep. Brian Egolf (D) told the AP that his wife received a letter saying that the state government considered her an inactive voter, and that she would need to, essentially, re-register before she could vote in the fall.

In an even more ironic move, a woman whose job is to ensure voting rights for New Mexicans was rendered an “INACTIVE” voter by the state. Diane Wood, the Voting Rights Director for Common Cause New Mexico, has been an active voter since 1971, and has dedicated her life to making sure other people have the same right.

Wood released a video expressing her disappointment:

Yesterday, I got a postcard… telling me I had to maybe confirm my address when I went to vote. I’m not even sure what I would need to confirm my address, because I’ve looked over the statute, since I do voting rights, and it doesn’t even have anything in the statute telling me how I would confirm that. I’m just shocked that I took my job to fight for other people’s right to get their vote counted, and now I’m having to fight for my own.

About 14 percent of New Mexico’s registered voters were mailed the same letter that Wood and Egolf’s wife received, because, according to New Mexico’s Secretary of State Dianna Duran, the state is required to begin the voter purge and will send the mailing to anyone whose address bounced back since 2005.

Those people will still be able to vote without verifying their information until 2014, though many may be confused by the letter, which is arriving right before the 2012 elections.

LGBT

Meet Tammy Smith, America’s First Openly Gay General Officer

By Guest Blogger on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Brig. General Tammy Smith and her wife Tracey Hepner

Tammy Smith has been promoted to the rank of brigadier general in a private ceremony today, making her the first openly gay flag officer to come out while serving in the U.S. military. Less than a year after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Smith — who served in Afghanistan last year — is now the most senior openly gay public military figure.

Smith discussed her promotion with Stars and Stripes, focusing on the honor of the opportunity rather than her sexual orientation:

“All of those facts are irrelevant,” she said. “I don’t think I need to be focused on that. What is relevant is upholding Army values and the responsibility this carries.” [...]

Stars and Stripes interviewed Smith last summer before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal was finalized. Speaking under a pseudonym, she said she had no plans to come out to her colleagues, but was looking forward to the relief of knowing that her career wouldn’t be threatened if she was found out.

“Finally my partner and I will be able to go out and have drinks together without worrying,” she said then.

Smith’s promotion marks an important milestone, and while the fight for equality continues, the future is bright for the LGBT military community: The Air Force Academy graduated its first openly gay cadets this past May. For her part, Smith has been extremely humble: “For me, the story is about the promotion and the opportunities it brings.”

– Steven Perlberg

Politics

Romney To Obama: Let’s Agree Not To Discuss My Business Record Or Tax Returns

By Igor Volsky on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:09 pm

Mitt Romney — who has placed his business record at the centerpiece of his presidential campaign — is now asking President Obama to stop discussing his tenure with Bain Capital.

During an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, the former Massachusetts governor asked Obama to avoid discussing “business or family or taxes or things of that nature”:

“[O]ur campaign would be — helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that nature.” [...]

“[W]e only talk about issues. And we can talk about the differences between our positions and our opponent’s position.” Romney said of his own campaign: “[O]ur ads haven’t gone after the president personally. … [W]e haven’t dredged up the old stuff that people talked about last time around. We haven’t gone after the personal things.”

The Obama campaign has turned Romney’s business past into a campaign issue, noting that the the governor himself touts that experience as his “main calling card” for setting the country on the right track.

Until recently, Romney seemed to agree. “Look, I’m very proud of my experience at Bain Capital. I hope people understand that I was investing other people’s money for them and was compensated if we were highly successful,” he told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow on July 23. “That’s the kind of record which I’m pretty proud of.”

Top surrogate and adviser John Sununu echoed this argument during a Romney campaign conference in May, saying, “I think the Bain record as a whole is fair game, and what you have to do is do an honest evaluation.”

Alyssa

Guest Review: ‘The Bourne Legacy’

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:06 pm

Note: I was out of town during the critics screenings of The Bourne Legacy. Alan Pyke was kind enough to review it for me.

By Alan Pyke

Making a decent fourth Bourne movie is a large lift, but not because franchise star Matt Damon wanted out. The Robert Ludlum books are kind of a mess even by spy fiction’s serpentine standards, to say nothing of the Eric Van Lustbader sequels, and the original trilogy of films set a high bar. The Bourne Legacy clears it, though, with room to spare.

I went into the Tony Gilroy adaptation of the fourth book expecting very little, as you may be. But the fourth installation delivers, with compelling photography, tense choreography, and solid performances from Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner (as a brand-new uber spy, not an attempt to reboot Jason Bourne). The basics are familiar: One member of an elite, biochemically engineered corp of barely-authorized government spooks has gone off the program, and the shadowy officials who created him determine to get rid of him. But where the Jason Bourne character was made sympathetic through his attempts to clarify his amnesia and hitman’s guilt, Renner’s Aaron Cross is simply presented as savvy enough to escape the termination of the program that created him. We root for Cross only because he’s being targeted by irresponsible bureaucrats because his usefulness no longer exceeds his threat to their position.

Renner starts off tangling with wolves and drones in the Alaskan mountains, and it takes him awhile to get linked up with Weisz’s willfully-ignorant-of-her-work’s-implications scientist. Weisz’s life has just been torn apart by a coworker’s psychotic break (Zeljko Ivanec of Damages and Heroes fame). Renner’s arrival should be just the latest in a chain of pathologically violent controlling forces in her life, but this is a movie, and Renner’s spy is more interested in escape than revenge, so things move in a more predictable direction. But Gilroy doesn’t put his two lovely leads in bed, or even (hardly) in longing eye contact. That’s a saving grace, but also probably born of necessity. The centerpiece here is Renner turning his mental and physical prowess against the paper-pusher spies (led by Ed Norton) who created him.

It’s a hell of a centerpiece. Gilroy shoots the fight scenes in the often-frustrating close-in style of the latter two Damon flicks in this series, but the camera seems to have taken a crucial half-step back. There’s a balance between the digestibility of the movements that made the first Bourne flick so fun, and the crunching kinetics of the Paul Greengrass followups. Renner acts with the same economy of motion that made Damon’s Bourne so fun to watch, and the camera lets you enjoy his precision without letting you voyeurize it. (Damon also pops up– Gilroy smartly layers in snippets of the third flick, to show that we’re operating on a familiar time frame but in a deeper corner of the spookocracy.)
Read more

Justice

Jonesboro Police Chief On Chavis Carter: Shooting Yourself While Handcuffed Is ‘Quite Easy’

By Aviva Shen on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:04 pm

Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas continue to investigate the mysterious shooting of 21-year-old Chavis Carter, who police officers said killed himself while handcuffed in the back of a squad car. Media attention and community tensions have escalated since Carter’s death on July 28th. Early in the investigation on August 1st, Police Chief Michael Yates admitted that the alleged suicide seemed “bizarre” and “defied logic at first glance” but maintained that witnesses and a dashboard camera backed up the officers’ account. A week later, Yates seems to have doubled down, telling CNN’s Randi Kaye that, in fact, it could be “very possible” and “quite easy” for someone who is experienced with being arrested:

CNN: Is it even possible physically to be handcuffed behind your back and somehow pull the trigger on a gun that you weren’t holding when you were handcuffed?

YATES: For the average person that’s never been in handcuffs, that’s never been around inmates and people in custody would react exactly the same way that you just did, about how can that be possible. Well the fact of it is, it’s very possible and it’s quite easy.

It’s not clear how familiar Chavis Carter was with handcuffs or inmates, but the outstanding warrant that originally raised the cops’ suspicions was for a first time offense of selling marijuana.

Watch the CNN segment:

The police have said repeatedly that the dashboard camera and witnesses place the officers outside the car at the time of the shooting. But Yates told CNN that the dashboard video does not actually show the moment the gun was fired, nor does it capture Carter sitting in the back seat.

Carter’s mother says she has hired an attorney from the Johnnie Cochran law firm because police won’t tell her anything while the investigation is open. The autopsy, which could help shed light on the angle and distance at which the bullet entered Carter’s head, is expected to be released soon.

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