After Brief Role as Battleground, Indiana Exits,
Stage Right

post from FiveThirtyEight on 19 October 2012 05:23:03 PM. © FiveThirtyEight

Between the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, Indiana swung 22 percentage points to the left. But Mitt Romney is expected to win the state easily this year.

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http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/after-brief-role-as-battlegro
und-indiana-exits-stage-right/

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Former Prop 8 Advocate Defends Marriage Equality
In New Ad

post from ThinkProgress on 19 October 2012 05:15:50 PM. © ThinkProgress

David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values was supposed to be the star witness to defend California’s Proposition 8 when it was challenged in court in 2010. Though his intention was to obstruct marriage equality, he admitted on the witness stand that the children of same-sex couples would benefit from their parents marrying. This [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/24accdcb/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Clgbt0C20A120C10A0C190C10A533310Cformer0Eprop0E80Eadvocate0Edefends0Emarriage0Eequality0Ein0Enew0Ead0C/story01.htm

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Debunking David Brooks Sad Green Fairy Tale

post from ThinkProgress on 19 October 2012 05:10:51 PM. © ThinkProgress

In this post, I’ll debunk David Brooks’ error-riddled op-ed, “A Sad Green Story.” His piece is so myth-filled, it would be better termed a fairy tale. Brooks, of course, is the conservative who wants to be loved by progressives. But for every seemingly mavericky thing he says – ?I totally accept the scientific authorities who say that global [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/24acd6ab/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Cclimate0C20A120C10A0C190C10A525510Cdebunking0Edavid0Ebrooks0Esad0Egreen0Efairy0Etail0C/story01.htm

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Debunking David Brooks Sad Green Fairy Tail

post from ThinkProgress on 19 October 2012 05:10:51 PM. © ThinkProgress

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Female Cosplayer Gets Harassed At New York Comic
Con By So-Called Journalists

post from ThinkProgress on 19 October 2012 05:05:51 PM. © ThinkProgress

I had a nice time at New York Comic Con this year, but Mandy Caruso, an illustrator and (clearly very talented) costume designer who was cosplaying as Black Cat at the convention….did not. She’s described some of the unattractive, but still, sadly routine gawking and requests to pose for photographs she experienced. But things apparently [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/24ac9901/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Calyssa0C20A120C10A0C190C10A525610Cfemale0Ecosplayer0Egets0Eharassed0Eat0Enew0Eyork0Ecomic0Econ0Eby0Eso0Ecalled0Ejournalists0C/story01.htm

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Excellent News for Akin!

post from Talking Points Memo on 19 October 2012 05:01:19 PM. © Talking Points Memo

If you're a Republican and Rasmussen has you down by 8, you're losing. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/vPf6jr7bLY0/excellent_news_
for_akin.php

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TransCanada Temporarily Shuts Down Existing
Keystone Pipeline Due to Possible Safety Issues

post from Taylor Marsh on 19 October 2012 05:01:13 PM. © Taylor Marsh

Not that there would ever be a good time to have to shut down operations due to possible ?safety issues,? but the decision made by TransCanada to turn off an already existing Keystone pipeline as activists in several states work to stop construction of[...]

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ng-keystone-pipeline-due-to-possible-safety-issues/

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Another Full Blown Scandal Enveloping Deranged
North Carolina Closet Case Patrick McHenry

post from DownWithTyranny! on 19 October 2012 05:00:38 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

These days, when someone is looking for congressional scandals, they usually go to GOP criminal types like Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY), David "The Gangster" Rivera (R-FL) and Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), all of whom are barely avoiding indictments. But scandal has dodged diminutive little closet case Patrick McHenry for his entire career-- and not just the regular legalistic bribe taking that he and so many of his colleagues use to finance their careers-- and this year is no different.

McHenry started in politics working as a sleazy operative for Karl Rove in 2000 and it's been all downhill ever since. He only won the GOP congressional primary by using out of state college students, at least one of whom he was having a homosexual relationship with, some of whom voted in the primary illegally. After winning that first primary amid a voter fraud scandal there was the little matter of a gay triple homicide that involved one of his lovers and then matters like insulting American fighting men in Iraq and taking bribes from Countrywide in the midst of the mortgage scandal to help them cover-up their criminal activities. He's generally considered one of Congress' most corrupt and untrustworthy characters-- and that's saying a lot!

Like so many of the dubious characters that float in and out of McHenry's life, his close pal and confidant Wesley Clayton Golden is hardly a household name. He's a conservative activist and former Cherryville city councilman from McHenry's home town and he was arrested by the FBI yesterday as part of a massive bribery and extortion ring.

Police in Cherryville took bribes, helped transport stolen goods and extorted money in a multi-state operation that raked in at least $750,000, according to federal indictments unsealed Wednesday.

FBI agents flocked to the Cherryville Police Department and several homes in Cherryville Wednesday morning, loading up boxes of evidence and making arrests.

Six Cherryville men were arrested, four currently working in Gaston County law enforcement.

One of those charged, Wesley Clayton Golden, 39, is a former captain in the Gaston County Sheriff?s Office who left the force earlier this year but continued to serve as a reserve officer. Golden also once served on Cherryville City Council and served on U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry?s 2010 Gaston campaign steering committee, which reads like a who?s who of the county?s most powerful Republicans. ...Beginning in August, Dellinger, Golden and Hoyle conspired with undercover law enforcement agents to provide "protection" for tractor trailers transporting through Gaston County what all three believed to be stolen merchandise, according to the indictments filed Aug. 21 but only unsealed on Wednesday. ... On multiple occasions, "Dellinger, Golden, Crawford and Mauney used their credentials and legal authority to assist with the transfer of stolen goods and/or cash proceeds from the sale of stolen goods, in exchange for monetary bribes," according to the release. Hendricks's role in the scheme was to assist Crawford and Mauney by acting as a lookout. Hoyle represented himself as a law enforcement officer, according to the release.

In several instances Dellinger, Golden and Hoyle provided armed escorts for undercover agents when they took cash to a safety deposit box at a Charlotte bank, indictments say.

In February Golden started a local branch of Prodigy Payment Systems [aka- Encore Payment Systems, a shady operation], a credit card processing firm, with offices at 1422 Burtonwood Drive in Gastonia. He was active in local politics and also was a licensed firearms trainer, according to his Facebook page.

Blue America is backing progressive Democrat and state Rep. Patsy Keever in the congressional contest. Her campaign put out this statement yesterday:

You may not remember, but Congressman Patrick McHenry was one of only twenty House Republicans to vote against reinstating House ethics rules after they suspended them to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He not only knowingly protected a felon in Congress, but he voted against reinstating rules that punished those who broke the law in Washington.

He voted against key legislation on ethics issues too like the DISCLOSE Act, which helps eliminate corporate and anonymous money in our politics, and he opposed a stronger STOCK Act, which makes it illegal for member of Congress to commit insider trading. He opposed them both!

That is a pattern, folks. Plain and simple-- and we have a chance to do something about it.

If you'd like to contribute to Patsy's campaign, you can do it here.

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/10/another-full-blown-scandal-enveloping
.html

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Maddow: Romney's Examples of How He's Not Bush
Yeah, No.

Maddow debunks Romney's list of ways he's unlike Bush

Click here to view this media

During the second presidential debate, undecided voter Susan Katz expressed to the governor her concern that a Romney presidency might be a return to the policies of the Bush Administration that hurt the economy, asking the governor how he would be different from President Bush.

Romney then proceeded to list a number of ways his policies were different from those of the Bush Administration, but as a quick fact-check (with video clips... my favorite kind) clearly shows, Romney's policies are exactly the same as the Bush Administration.

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http://crooksandliars.com/mugsy/maddow-romneys-examples-how-hes-not-bush-yea

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Mitt Romney stars in new Obama ad: 'Let Detroit
go bankrupt'

This is a fantastic new ad from the Obama campaign:

Brian: "They came up and said you are definitely laid off?everybody as of right now."
Karen: "What was I going to do for my children? Are they going to have a home?"
Miles: "Without President Obama's rescue of the auto industry, Ohio would have collapsed."
George: "Mitt Romney would have just let us go under- just let them go...bankrupt."
Romney: "Yeah, that's...that's exactly what I said, the headline that you read which is, said: "let Detroit go bankrupt."
Karen: "And for him to just say? let them fail."
George: "How can you say something like that? It's just beyond me."

It's just a brutal ad?but the amazing thing is that the guy who delivers its most brutal attack is Mitt Romney, on himself, when he says, "Yeah, that's what I said: Let Detroit go bankrupt." Juxtaposed with the people whose livelihoods he would have so callously thrown down the drain, it's easily one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, ads of the campaign. And that last question?"How can you say something like that?"?that's not a question that Mitt Romney can answer. All he can do is hope that people don't see the ad.

There's less than 20 days to go: please chip in $5 to help President Obama get ads like this on the air in the closing days of the campaign.