Republican Platform

Cut taxes on the rich and increase them on the poor. Cut spending on regulatory agencies, consumer[...]

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http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2012/05/republican_platform.html

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Open Thread

enlargeCredit: Ed Stein

Open thread below...

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Open thread for night owls: Keystone
propagandists hamstring reporters

At the National Resource Defense Council, Danielle Droitsch writes:

An Alberta government sponsored report criticizing the European Union?s own independent analysis of climate emissions from tar sands has created a political debate but misses the science. A study released yesterday by the Jacobs Consultancy paid for by the Government of Alberta tries to crunch numbers to make tar sands less of a climate problem but in fact cherry-picked certain facts to make tar sands productionDanielle Droitschseem ?cleaner.? In fact, NRDC has shown that multiple independent studies have confirmed that Canada?s tar sands emissions are some of the most carbon-intensive oil on earth and a new study can?t change that fact.

There isn?t any secret about why the Alberta government commissioned this ?new? study.  They are directly engaged in aggressive lobbying effort to European Union government who is considering whether to treat tar sands as different from conventional crude oil. The EU is developing a clean fuels policy aimed at reducing the climate emissions from transport fuels by six percent by 2020. As part of the development of this policy, they are identifying the climate emissions from different types of oils (or feedstocks) including  tar sands. In short, the European Union?s own independent research (which found tar sands is 23 percent higher than a standard conventional fuel in the EU) threatens Canada?s efforts to export its carbon intensive fuel overseas. My colleague Simon Mui reported on this EU sponsored study which reinforced how tar sands is among the dirtiest forms of crude oil anywhere on earth.

Unfortunately, the Government of Alberta study was initially released to reporters who were forbidden from soliciting a critique of the study. The Edmonton Journal said ?reporters who agreed to the embargo?s terms were barred from seeking advance third-party comment on the report before its release.? An advance third-party comment on the report would have revealed serious concerns about the data used in the report as evidence the EU was overstating the carbon impact of tar sands.  In essence, journalists?and therefore the public?were misled about the performance of tar sands extraction process prompting one-sided stories.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008:

John McCain once said:

The fact is if you want to drain the swamp, take the money away from the bigtime ... lobbyists, they lose their power and influence.

But that was then and this is now, because John McCain has named Doug Goodyear, the CEO of a consulting firm that "earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients" to manage this summer's GOP convention.

Tweet of the Day:

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.

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Connecting With the People

Any speechwriter knows that in constructing persuasive rhetoric it's important to take big, abstract ideas and communicate them through the stories of people. It isn't always easy, and you can't make every speech one long story about your Aunt Gladys, but if your speeches are nothing but facts and figures then they make it very hard for your audience to connect to what you're saying on an emotional level. From what I've seen, Mitt Romney doesn't do this very often when he's on the stump. When he does touch on individuals, it's often vague and brief, the "I met a guy the other day..." who illustrates a point and then is quickly abandoned.

This is notable because the whole connecting-with-people thing is something Romney has a bit of a political problem with. And it's certainly something the Obama campaign is emphasizing. Look at this ad the campaign just released discussing the auto bailout:

You'll notice, first, that Obama is in shirtsleeves. Then we see him, dressed similarly casually, with a series of ordinary people in ordinary settings?auto workers around a table in what looks like the break room at a plant, in a diner, in someone's kitchen, out in a field. And finally we get to the factory where cars are being built. These images tell the story of the auto bailout through Obama's concern for and connection to the people who were most directly affected by it. The implicit contrast, of course, is with Mitt Romney, who, we're meant to assume, probably discussed the issue of the bailout with a few of his CEO buddies before penning that now-infamous "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op-ed.

That isn't to say that Obama doesn't also sometimes call in from 30,000 feet?see this ad, for example, which is entirely devoted to a graphical data presentation, with no narration whatsoever (bestill my quant geek's heart!). But he makes things much more personal than Romney does. When he talked about his newfound support for same-sex marriage, he put it in the context of a conversation with his daughters. And even though Malia and Sasha have been kept largely away from the press, these kinds of discussions give Americans a sense of Obama as a father of adolescent girls. Mitt Romney's children, on the other hand, are to most people an undifferentiated collection of squeaky-clean Mormon young manhood with slightly odd and difficult-to-remember names like Tagg, Tink, Turf, and Torp. The fact that Romney's kids are grown makes it harder for him to make us think of him as a dad.

Fair or not, who would have thought that we'd see an election where the Democrats are the ones making us think that their guy is the one you'd want to have a beer with? I'm sure this is driving Republicans batty. They think Obama is a failure, and Romney is a smart and accomplished person who can turn things around, yet he's being pummelled for seeming elitist, socially awkward and inauthentic. Kinda sucks, doesn't it? Well, now you know how we felt in 2004. And 2000. And 1988. And so on. Well, Republicans, you created the modern authenticity fetish. Eventually it was bound to come back and bite you in the ass.

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Thursday Stuff

I give you the latest from the ?Willard Mitt The Bully?campaign?


Romney Courts Hispanic Vote With Animated Sombrero-Wearing Parrot
?who is course is wrong again, as noted here?

?and I thought the best way to respond to Willard Mitt?s latest idiocy was to present Kyle in Indiana; I have no idea who this young man is, but I admire his courage and his love of country for doing what he did and making this video (yes, I said ?love of country??for more, click here)?

?and all of this just kind of put me in the mood to hear this tune once more.


Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2012/05/thursday-stuff_10.html

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Late Night FDL: Penis Envy

Having read and heard a great deal about Romney's Cranbrook hazing story today, at first I sort of agreed with Greg Sargent that it was an insignificant incident, happened when he was a teenager, etc. But I'd then have to ask Sargent and others: Did[...]

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A sad day for child stars and bullies.

This is truly a sad day for the kid. Now I know what little kids feel like when they are told that there is no Santa Claus. Most of you who have been following me for awhile now know that I have a thing for a certain former child star. In fact, one of the reasons for this blog was to try and blow up enough so that she would take notice of me and reach out so that a brotha could put a major check off on his "bucket list".

Anywhoo, tonight I was slapped in the face by very cruel guy called reality. Lark, I am officially calling off my quest to find you. (You guys can lay off me on twitter now.) I know that pictures sometimes lie, but sorry Lark, I cannot turn a blind eye to the facts any longer: you are just not who you used to be.

Finally, I am not surprised to read that Flipper was a bully back in the day. Flipper said he just did some "dumb things". I guess none of his victims went out and killed themselves, so Mitt will probably take that as a win.

"WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney made a surprise appearance on Fox host Brian Kilmeade's radio show Thursday morning to respond to a lengthy Washington Post story on his time as a prep-school prankster and occasional bully of closeted gay students.

"They talk about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school," Romney said. "And they describe some that you just say to yourself, back in high school I just did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended by it, obviously I apologize."

?I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize," he added.

It's never quite clear whether a politician's high school years are fair game for political attacks. Romney suggested during the interview that the acts he was apologizing for were merely youthful indiscretions; the Post described him pinning a closeted gay classmate to the ground and cutting his long hair, for example. But with the story suggesting latent homophobia in an adolescent Romney and with President Barack Obama having endorsed same-sex marriage on Wednesday, the piece reverberated." [Source]

As it should have. Honestly, the more you hear about this guy is the scarier he seems.

The family dog on the roof? No big deal. Bully Gay classmate? No big deal. Make fun of disabled teacher? No big deal. Callously fire people from their jobs? No big deal. And on and on it goes.

"Asked if he has any doubt that what Romney did could be considered bullying, Maxwell responded, ?Oh my god, are you kidding?? I castigated myself regularly for not having intervened. I would have felt a lot better about myself had I said hey, enough.?

?When I saw the look on his (Lauber?s) face, it was a look I?ll never forget,? said Maxwell. ?When you see a victim, the sense of trust betrayed in this boy who was perfectly innocent for being different.?
?This was bullying supreme,? he said." [Source]

"I did some stupid things when I was in high school."

No Flipper bullying someone who is different is not just a "stupid thing." Playing drinking games is "stupid". This kind of thing causes young people to take their own lives. It's a little more than just "stupid".

Flipper, I am glad you apologized. Sadly, the kid you bullied in high school will not hear your apology; he died in 2004.









    



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http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/05/sad-day-for-child-stars-and-bullies.html

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Rupert Murdoch's former MySpace settles privacy
violation with FTC

Wow. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp really can't keep its nose clean these days. The violations occurred when MySpace was owned by News Corp as well as with the post-News Corp time period. MySpace will be "watched" by the federal government for twenty years because of this problem.Myspace social network has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it disclosed personally...

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With ABBA

Title: Dancing QueenArtist: ABBA

Let's dance! What's your favorite song to dance to?

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Isnt Bullying wrong whether it is done today or
40 years ago

So we have had a big push to stop bullying. We would like to stop bullying in schools and colleges. I remember as a teenager I went to the battle of the bands. This was a great show. Gambling. Texas Southern and other bands from historically Black colleges. It was outstanding. Great music and absolutely

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