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Election

Republicans Who Criticized Obama As Foreign Policy Novice, Say Romney’s Missing Experience Is A Plus

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 12, 2012 at 12:30 pm

The same Republicans who criticized President Obama for lacking foreign policy experience in 2008 are now stepping in to defend the dismal international relations record of Romney-Ryan ticket.

Former House Speaker New Gingrich (R) and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on Sunday argued that Romney and Ryan are actually better equipped to lead on international relations than Obama and Biden:

GINGRICH: I think it’s an advantage that they’re not part of the current mess….Mitt Romney has the same amount of foreign policy experience as Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan defeated the Soviet empire decisively in 8 years. I would rather have Romney and Ryan rethinking everything than have the current team continue.

PAWLENTY: Romney and Ryan have a terrific national security policy team around them…Governor Romney spent his entire career in global business arrangements, transactions and traveling and understanding different countries, cultures and geography.

Watch it:

But both Gingrich and Pawlenty were happy, in 2008, to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows at do the opposit — attack Obama and Biden for not having the foreign policy chops they deemed necessary.

In the fall of 2008, Gingrich asked Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, “Who do you trust more to deal with the dangerous world … somebody who has read about it and sort of vaguely thought about it but hasn’t really collided head-on with it?”

Pawlenty echoed a similar line. “He basically graduated from law school, went on to be a community organizer and a law professor; went to the U.S. Senate and began running for president essentially the day he arrived,” he said of Obama on Meet The Press in 2008, “So what is it in his background, Tom, that would give him that same type of requisite wisdom and judgment and insight on national security matters or foreign affairs matters or anything else?”

NEWS FLASH

GOP Chairman: Romney Is Not Ready To Lead on Day One Without Ryan | Appearing on Meet The Press on Sunday, Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus admitted that Romney would only be ready to lead “on day one” with Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI) by his side. “Combined, these guys are ready on day one,” he said, suggesting that without Ryan, Romney would not be prepared to assume the responsibilities of the office on day one. Watch the remark:

Climate Progress

Flashback: Paul Ryan’s Big Oil Budget Halts Clean Energy Innovation

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 12, 2012 at 12:25 pm

Mitt Romney has turbo-charged his support for Big Oil by selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate. The House-passed Ryan budget would retain $40 billion in tax breaks over a decade for Big Oil while demanding huge cuts in the budget for innovation and clean energy. In addition, the Romney-Ryan budget would provide $2.3 billion in new tax breaks for the five largest oil companies. This 2011 post ran after Ryan first introduced his radical plan.

By CAPAF’s Daniel J.  Weiss and Richard W.  Caperton

House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposed FY 2012 budget resolution is a backward-looking plan that would benefit big oil companies at the expense of middle-class Americans. It retains $40 billion in Big Oil tax loopholes while completely eliminating investments in the clean energy technologies of the future that are essential for long-term economic growth.

This budget would lock Americans into paying high, volatile energy prices. It would ensure that millions of clean energy jobs are created oversees–not here in the United States. It is a path backward to Bush-Cheney Big Oil energy policies that cost jobs and harm American competitiveness. In short, the Ryan plan ensures that we lose the high-stakes competition for the $2 trillion worldwide clean tech market.

Ryan claimed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his plan “rolls back expensive handouts for uncompetitive sources of energy, calling instead for a free and open marketplace for energy development, innovation and exploration.” This is false. Ryan’s proposal actually violates his assertion in two ways. It maintains wasteful subsidies for Big Oil, while cutting valuable investments in the clean energy technologies of the future.

Let’s consider each of these in turn. First, Ryan’s plan would continue “welfare” for big oil companies.

Read more

Election

Conservatives Try To Paint Radical Ryan Budget As A Moderate Proposal

By Adam Peck on Aug 12, 2012 at 11:26 am

Rich Lowry, the editor of conservative magazine National Review, appeared on a Meet The Press roundtable this morning to defend vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) widely panned budget plan as a moderate solution built upon the foundations of the Bowles-Simpson tax proposal, which both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have opposed.

Responding to charges that Romney’s plan cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans, Lowry tried to deflect criticism by saying that the Romney/Ryan plan is really a version of Bowles-Simpson:

LOWRY: Democrats always refer to it as a tax cut. but it’s not a tax cut. It’s designed to be revenue neutral. It’s based on the template of the Bowles-Simpson plan, which has been subject to bipartisan acclaim, and the 1986 tax reform which was one of the great bipartisan accomplishments in this town over the last 30 years. And if you study the effects of that ’86 tax reform, which lowered rates and closed loopholes, it actually increased the share that the rich were paying. So this is not some fantasy.

But as fellow panelist Rachel Maddow was quick to point out, if the architect of the Romney/Ryan budget is such an admirer of Bowles-Simpson, he has a funny way of showing it: Paul Ryan voted against Bowles-Simpson, and helped blow up the so-called “Gang of Six” that was responsible for proposing a deficit-reduction budget.

Watch the exchange:

While it’s true that Bowles-Simpson would lower the marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, it would also increase tax revenue across the board by an estimated $1 trillion by upholding the estate tax and levying hefty taxes on capital gains and dividends at the same rates as income, a proposal strongly opposed by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Still, Lowry’s assertion echoed recent similar arguments from Romney and his campaign’s surrogates, which have tried to paint its own tax plan as a moderate solution to the nation’s debt. During the primaries, Romney outlined his tax plan by saying he would “move our tax system in the direction of the Bowles-Simpson Commission’s recommendations.” And last week, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page also tried to tie Romney’s tax plan to Bowles-Simpson. But Forbes Magazine — headed by editor in chief Steve Forbes, a vocal Romney surrogate and supporter — called the comparison “absurd.”

NEWS FLASH

Romney Demanded ‘Several’ Years Of Tax Returns From Potential VP Candidates | Former Minnesota governor and Mitt Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty was caught off guard when asked how many years of tax returns he had to turn over to the Republican campaign as part of the vice presidential vetting process, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “Several,” Pawlenty said, careful not to reinvigorate the issue or contradict Romney’s resistance to release more than two years of returns. A top aide to Romney has admitted that the campaign received “several years” of income tax returns “from potential running mates.” Watch it:

Update

During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Ryan said he provided Romney with several years of tax returns, but will only release two years publicly.

Climate Progress

Photos: Animals Struggle To Beat The Heat

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 12, 2012 at 11:01 am

by Harsha Nahata

July was the hottest month ever recorded in the U.S. with 3,135 record temperatures set. The heat, together with the excessive drought facing 63 percent of the nation, have animals across the U.S. struggling to stay cool and find food. Here are a few examples of how animals are adjusting to the heat.

  • Zoo Animals Struggle In The Heat: At zoos around the country, animals are having trouble coping with constant triple-digit temperatures. Zookeepers at Henson Robinson Zoo in Springfield, Illinois, for example, are monitoring animals to ensure they don’t fall sick, allowing animals to spend more time in sheltered areas and replenishing water and even frozen food.

  • More Black Bear Encounters: The heat has Black Bears coming out of hiding, as they look for food in a water-scarce habitat. Most of the country is facing drought, which has dried up their stock of berries and greens. Because of the depletion in their food supply, bears are turning to alternatives — combing through garbage, breaking through screens, and looking inside cars to find food. In northern New York state, a bear broke into a candy store looking for sweet treats to munch on.

  • Number Of Fish Kills Rise: The record heat has raised water temperatures as well. With bodies of water in the Midwest reaching up to 97 degrees, more fish than usual are dying off. Reports suggest that fish are dying in the tens of thousands. Fish kills are common year round, as part of a natural cycle. But this year the record heat and drought have increased this number, leading to “tens of thousands” of fish kills, worse than ever before in the Midwest.

The mild winter and record hot summer have taken their toll on animal behavior and survival in a variety of ways. For instance, Chicago has seen a decline in its squirrel population, as more older squirrels survive a milder winter and compete for resources, leaving newborns more vulnerable. Lemurs, which usually do what they can to steer clear of water, lately have made exceptions to seek relief in cooler, wetter parts. The shortage of food due to the drought combined with a loss in appetite because of the heat have also affected farm animals like cattle and pigs, making some thinner and less healthy. Overall the heat has caused some animals to become lethargic and lose their appetites, also placing them at risk for heatstroke.

– Harsha Nahata is an intern with the ThinkProgress War Room.

Politics

Romney Campaign Doubles Down: He ‘Would Have Signed’ The Ryan Budget

By Rebecca Leber on Aug 12, 2012 at 11:00 am

Just moments after Mitt Romney announced Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his vice presidential nominee on Saturday, his campaign tried to distance itself from Ryan’s signature House budget. Although Romney has admitted he would sign the Ryan budget if it crossed his desk, calling it “marvelous” and an “important step”, the campaign’s internal talking points were careful to avoid endorsing the Republican blueprint: “Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance,” they argued.

But a day later, the campaign switched tactics and went back to embracing the document, insisting that Romney would have happily signed it into law:

TOP ROMNEY ADVISER ED GILLESPIE: Well, as Governor Romney has made clear, if the Romney, sorry, if the Ryan budget had come to his desk as a budget, he would have signed it, of course, and one of the reasons that he chose Congressman Ryan is his willingness to put forward innovative solutions in the budget.

RNC CHAIRMAN REINCE PREIBUS: First of all, he did embrace the Ryan budget. He embraced it.

Watch it:

Romney’s support for Ryan’s plan is understandable. After all, if the budget were to become law, the former Bain Capital executive would have paid $177,650 out of a taxable income of $21,661,344, for a cool effective rate of 0.82 percent.

Health

Republican Chairman: Obama Is ‘Stealing’ From Seniors And Has ‘Blood On His Hands’

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 12, 2012 at 10:16 am

On NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus reiterated the false claim that the Affordable Care Act guts Medicare, claiming that President Obama’s attempt to increase the program’s solvency amounts to “stealing” from America’s seniors.

“If any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it’s Barack Obama,” Priebus insisted:

PRIEBUS: This president stole — he didn’t cut Medicare — he stole $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare. If any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it’s Barack Obama. He’s the one that’s destroying Medicare.

Watch it:

But Obama’s health care law extends the solvency of Medicare, and has already saved seniors $4 billion on prescription drugs. The savings reduce the growth rate of reimbursement rates and don’t affect beneficiaries.

Ryan’s plan, conversely, preserves all of the savings included in the reform law, uses them for deficit reduction and transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans.

The Congressional Budget Office found that the budget would reduce federal spending per Medicare beneficiary by 35 to 42 percent in 2050 and new recipients could pay up to $1,200 more by 2030 and more than $5,900 in that year.

Climate Progress

On Clean Energy, The Military’s Biggest Fight Is With Congress

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 12, 2012 at 9:47 am

Photomatt28, via Flickr

by Clint Wilder, via Clean Edge

For two days in mid-July, 100 miles off the northern coast of Oahu in Hawaii, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz played host to the first large-scale demonstration of the Navy’s Great Green Fleet. More than 70 aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft, and helicopters, as well as destroyers and other ships, participated in the biannual Rim of the Pacific naval exercises with sailors and pilots from 21 other nations. A 50-50 biofuel/petroleum blend powered virtually all of the Navy’s ships and aircraft.

“The military has done a lot of things that start a tidal wave throughout our culture, and I think this is one of those things,” Navy Lt. Commander Jason Fox, an E-2 Hawkeye pilot, told Forbes.

Meanwhile, stateside in the deserts of California, SunEdison is constructing the massive 350 MW Oro Verde solar PV plant in Kern County that will power part of Edwards Air Force Base where the plant is located. SunPower is preparing for the October opening of a 14.8 MW solar plant at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. And SolarCity’s SolarStrong initiative for military residential PV installations across the U.S. continues to progress, with last month’s announcement of solar deployments on 850 Air Force Base residences in California and Colorado.

All these activities are part of the U.S. military’s major push into clean energy, a trend presented in this space earlier this year by Environmental Entrepreneurs co-founder Nicole Lederer. In a very bumpy year for the clean-tech industry, the Pentagon’s development of clean energy continues to be one of the brightest lights. It is creating markets and jobs, and seeding next-gen technology developments. At the same time, organizations like Veterans Green Jobs and Airstreams Renewables are promoting training and hiring of military veterans in the clean-tech sector.

The Pentagon has ambitious goals to reduce fossil-fuel use in both combat operations and on bases; the Navy and Air Force, for example, both aim to get half their fuel from non-petroleum sources by 2020. And with good reason: fuel convoys to supply infantry in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven to be one of the most vulnerable aspects in the war theater. In an all-too-common example on July 18, a bomb planted by the Taliban destroyed 22 NATO tanker trucks in northern Afghanistan. This occurred in the same week as the Navy’s Great Green Fleet exercises occurred in Hawaii, showcasing a better way.

But now, in Congress, a great deal of this may be in jeopardy.

Read more

Climate Progress

How Wireless Charging Could Speed Up The Electric Car Market

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 12, 2012 at 8:26 am

San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. recently announced that it has partnered with the automaker Renault for a field trial of its new wireless electric vehicle charging system later this year in London.

According to Forbes:

“The California-based company signed a memorandum of understanding with Renault to work on the field trial and to figure out how to integrate the wireless charging technology into Renault’s cars. Qualcomm also announced on Tuesday that Delta Motorsport, an automotive engineering company in the United Kingdom, plans to put Qualcomm’s wireless technology into its electric cars, which will then be used for the same field trial in London later this year.”

The goal of the trial is to test both the commercial and technical viability of wireless electric vehicle charging. Qualcomm would also like to gain an understanding of the potential challenges of deploying and integrating wireless charging on a large scale.

The device, a pad that the company is calling Halo, is placed under a parked vehicle and communicates wirelessly with a corresponding receiver on the underside of a car. The Halo stays off until the receiver pad, which is unique to each vehicle, is in range. Once that happens the pads pass a current between them, charging the car’s batteries without the need for any sort of plug.

From EE Times:

“The technology is based on inductive charging across the air gap between a transmitting pad in the road surface and a receiving pad on the underside of a vehicle.It typically works at frequencies below 300-kHz but the final details are not yet decided and subject to standards negotiation. It is not yet clear whether the technology uses simple inductive magnetic coupling or resonant inductive coupling.”

Through the Halo, Qualcomm hopes to tackle one of the most significant challenges to the electric vehicle market: the lack of a suitable charging infrastructure. Currently EV charging stations are fairly major installations, requiring extensive wiring, and in many cases, EV drivers must take great pains to seek them out. (Though some cities are taking major steps to become more EV friendly.) The Halo, however, holds the promise of a small, potentially portable, low-maintenance, and infrastructure-free method of EV charging.

One of the most exciting things about this new technology is the potential for wireless, in-motion charging.

Read more

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