Wednesday Reads: Running Late?
Posted: October 10, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, Barack Obama, Diplomacy Nightmares, Foreign Affairs, Global Financial Crisis, Greece, hunger, Libya, Mitt Romney, morning reads, Spain | Tags: Benghazi attacks, Merkel 36 Comments »Good Morning!
Hope this is not too late, I was falling asleep last night as I started to write this morning’s post.
In Greece, this image is a disturbing greeting to Merkel…Greek police fire tear gas as 40,000 vent a nation’s anger during Merkel’s visit
From high-school students to pensioners, tens of thousands of Greek demonstrators swarmed into Athens yesterday to show the visiting German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, their indignation at their country’s continued austerity measures.
Flouting the government’s ban on protests, an estimated 40,000 people – many carrying posters depicting Ms Merkel as a Nazi – descended on Syntagma Square near the parliament building. Masked youths pelted riot police with rocks as the officers responded with tear gas.
Austerity…it is driving the people to desperation.
Crisis-stricken Spaniards turn to Red Cross for help
Spain’s Red Cross has launched its first campaign specifically designed to help the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards living in poverty as a result of the country’s economic crisis.
The charity already helps two million people in Spain each year, around 80 per cent of whom live below the poverty line, earning a monthly income of €628 (£506) or less.
But in a sign of the harsh times besieging the country, the “Now More Than Ever” appeal aims to widen the charity’s assistance to a further 300,000.
The campaign begins today, on Little Flag Day, traditionally the date when small armies of tin-rattling Red Cross volunteers descend on the streets of Spanish cities in the charity’s most high-profile annual drive to replenish its coffers.
Meanwhile, further economic storm clouds gathered yesterday as the International Monetary Fund provided the latest sign that there will be no let-up in the gloom surrounding the Spanish economy, predicting the country will miss its deficit targets for both 2012 and 2013.
The IMF also forecast that the Spanish economy will shrink by 1.3 per cent in 2013, more than double the government’s prediction of 0.5 per cent. Worldwide, only Greece has a bleaker economic outlook.
This cartoon caught my eye last night as well:
More information is coming out of the Obama Administration over Benghazi. State Department: No video protest at the Benghazi consulate
Prior to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi late in the evening on Sept. 11, there was no protest outside the compound, a senior State Department official confirmed today, contradicting initial administration statements suggesting that the attack was an opportunistic reaction to unrest caused by an anti-Islam video.
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, two senior State Department officials gave a detailed accounting of the events that lead to the death of Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The officials said that prior to the massive attack on the Benghazi compound by dozens of militants carrying heavy weaponry, there was no unrest outside the walls of the compound and no protest that anyone inside the compound was aware of.
In fact, Stevens hosted a series of meetings on the compound throughout the day, ending with a meeting with a Turkish diplomat that began at 7:30 in the evening, and all was quiet in the area.
“The ambassador walked guests out at 8:30 or so; there was nobody on the street. Then at 9:40 they saw on the security cameras that there were armed men invading the compound,” a senior State Department official said. “Everything is calm at 8:30 pm, there is nothing unusual. There had been nothing unusual during the day outside.”
I don’t know why the Obama people are mucking this up…it seems to me they are playing into Romney’s hands.
Romney has changed his position once again on abortion. Romney says abortion legislation isn’t part of his agenda | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs
Mitt Romney today said no abortion legislation is part of his agenda, but he would prohibit federally-funded international nonprofits from providing abortions in other countries.
“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” the GOP presidential candidate told The Des Moines Register’s editorial board during a meeting today before his campaign rally at a Van Meter farm.
But by executive order, not by legislation, he would reinstate the so-called Mexico City policy that bans U.S. foreign aid dollars from being used to do abortions, he said.
President Barack Obama dropped the policy on his tenth day in office, Romney said.
Romney has said he opposes abortion, except in instances of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is threatened.
The Obama campaign quickly seized on Romney’s abortion comments Tuesday, sending out a news release accusing Romney of contradicting himself because he has said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Obama’s Iowa spokeswoman, Erin Seidler argued that Romney contradicted himself because has said he supports the Hyde Amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions.
However, the Hyde Amendment is already part of current law. And Romney has said he would appoint justices who are not activist judges.
Romney aides rejected the idea that he contradicted himself.
Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said: “Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life and will be a pro-life president.”
All the while, Ann Romney is accusing Obama of showing ‘poor sportsmanship’
Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, equated President Obama’s campaign to a petulant child during an interview Tuesday after being asked about charges from the president’s campaign that her husband had “lied” during last week’s debate.
“I mean, lied about what? This is something he’s been saying all along. This is what he believes. This is his policy, these are his statements,” Ann Romney said in an interview set to air Wednesday on Fox News. ”I mean, lie — it’s sort of like someone that’s, you know, in the sandbox that like lost the game and they’re just going to kick sand in someone’s face and say, ‘you liar.’ I mean, it’s like they lost, and so now they just are going to say, OK, the game, we didn’t like the game. So to me, it’s poor sportsmanship.”
Geez, she is worried about his mental health and then calling Romney out on his lies is “poor sportsmanship.”
I will end with this nugget from Fox’s Crowley: Paul Ryan Is The “Author” Of GOP’s “Entire Intellectual Framework” And “A Borderline Professional Athlete”
Sorry for the sparse links and commentary. I am still in a semi-awake state this morning.
Sima
bostonboomer
dakinikat
fiscalliberal
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
And then there is this: Romney Pledges to Keep Tax Deductions for Mortgages – NYTimes.com
Toyota to hold world’s biggest car recall for 16 years – Bottom Line
I am going back to bed, this is strange indeed.
Ann Romney sounds a bit unhinged!
Doesn’t she mouse?
So it wasn’t a lie that 50% of green companies helped by the stimulus went bankrupt when less than 1% did? What was that then? That’s just one example. I’m getting a little fed up with the Romney’s comparing the President of the U.S. to a spoiled child. I’d say that comparison works better with Ann Romney.
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/04/960881/romney-admits-pushing-misinformation-in-debate/
Statements of untruth which appear to be lies to the likes of us outsiders are not lies to a made Mormon, especially one high up in the church. Mormons are given sanction –even the duty– to lie to non-Mormons if it will increase the strength and power of the Mormon church.
Romney was given sanction (meaning in this situation the freedom, even duty) to say to the voters of MA whatever was necessary to get him elected governor, which was an important step to getting him into the WH. He could say things which went against his own beliefs and principles, against the church’s principles and tenets, in order to win votes.
I guess it’s not a lie to him or Ann if he’s doing it for a good cause. The good will not be for the voters, of course.
Mystery monkey of Tampa Bay attacks elderly woman | wtsp.com
This monkey has been causing problems for 3 years.
As for the Beghazi situation, I don’t know that characterizing it as the Obama administration “mucking up” makes sense. There where lots of embassy attacks under Bush, and I can’t ever recall this kind of scrutiny of them. To expect people thousands of miles away to instantly know what happened doesn’t sound realistic to me.
I don’t think we should buy into the false narrative created by Darrell Issa and Jason Caffetz–who is a close friend of Mitt Romney’s and a campaign surrogate.
Of course that is what Issa wants………
Susan Rice’s original talking points originally came from the CIA, so it appears everyone now has 20-20 hindsight.
What I mean is them being on different pages…one admin says one thing, one admin says the other and then the President says something else. Should just keep to one comment until everything is sorted out, like any other crime scene press conference…
JJ,
Monica Crowley isn’t moderating a debate. No one from Fox News is. You’re thinking of Candy Crowley of CNN.
BB I was about to write that too.
I think you could just go into the post and edit that line if JJ isn’t around.
I fixed it. Hope you don’t mind, JJ!
Thanks BB, I am really off, don’t know why but after sleeping for 18 hours straight I still feel like crap.
It could happen to anyone, JJ. Sorry you don’t feel good. This cold keeps coming back for me. I feel good for a day or two and then if I do too much I get exhausted and feel bad again. I’m getting tired of it.
Whew, less than a month away from the election and Romney has just declared “his love of women” with his latest position on the right to an abortion issue! Thank goodness for us women that this man has found a platform and is sticking to it at long last.
Does he think we are all this stupid? When people declare their opposition to the rights of gays and women – and even if they lack the ability to change these laws at the moment – what they are essentially testifying to is their opposition to equal rights which shoud be enough to send them packing.
But according to today’s headlines Romney is “surging” in the polls! The word “surging” is being tossed around like a Frisbee and all due to his one “debate” where he monopolized the 90 minutes with one lie piled on another that went virtually unchallenged because President Indifferent decided he would not come out to play and the moderator lacked the ability to tell him to color within the lines!
The GOP pundits are “gloating” about the “new” Romney which has caused me to turn off the tv. since it is doing nothing to sustain my blood pressure if this guy manages to pull out a win in the face of his miserable issues and lack of facts.
Bristol Palin, an untalent, is managing to hold on during the dancing eliminations of the show Dancing With the Stars against better performers and it appears to be happening for Romney during the last few weeks of the election.
Not sure how much more I can take if the American electorate is this stupid and so easily fooled by the same mediocrity that gives rise to Romney and Bristol Palin.
Insanity abounds.
There is another debate between Brown and Warren tonight at 7PM. It’s in Springfield.
I know. I tried to get tickets but they were gone on the first day the announcement was made.
I am trying to entice a friend to drive downtown just to see if we could maybe get in somehow, or at least catch a glimpse, but not sure if she is all that interested in going. Downtown after dark is not really all that safe these days.
Anyway, I am volunteering for Warren’s campaign with a meeting to be held next week.
It is the least I can do: maybe driving people to the polls, phone banking, or carrying a sign. Whatever it takes.
Not sure if you remember, but 4 years ago, on a frigid day in January, I hauled myself out to an appearance from Hillary Clinton that took place here in Springfield.
It had to be 20 degrees and the sun was shining. Had to park almost a mile away owing to the interest of the crowd who showed up. Stood in a line that was almost a mile long for over an hour only to be told that she was running an hour late and I had to give in to “nature calling” so I left.
I was able to catch a livefeed from Springfield College on my computer but I was disappointed in not having the chance to at least see her in person. It took a few hours for my feet to thaw out but I was glad that I at least made the attempt.
I understand the reluctance of my friend in not wanting to travel downtown to Symphony Hall since it has become almost a “war zone” down there after dark and I am sure the parking area will be far from the venue.
No, Pat. I forget all about that Hillary story. You’re probably wise to just watch the debate tonight on TV. If you can, stop by here to join the live blog too!
Wonder if the Des Moines Register is aware of this from politicalwire…
Every time Romney says something like that, his campaign walks it back. Does he even know what he believes?
For about 1 minute. Then the weathervane spins and he forgets about his last claim.
14 year old girl who spoke out for girls’ education was shot by the Taliban. She’s in the hospital. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-pakistan-girl-familybre8990t7-20121010,0,6995068.story?page=2
That is a courageous and spirited girl. May she live in safety.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19893309
Bill Clinton on “Moderate Mitt” …
http://core.talkingpointsmemo.com/tv/videos/clinton-happy-to-see-old-moderate-mitt
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/joe-walsh-debate-tammy-duckworth-dress-photo.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
I loved her response! My computer died this morning, and I’m really mad and still swollen and “still jacked up on drugs” because looking at the computer is about all I feel like doing. I am using my husband’s computer for this comment and then I have to get off. He logs in from work and I will get in the way of his work. Gee, I just re-read that comment I just wrote, what was so crazy shit. I’m off to do laundry on drugs it should turn out well.
Feel better soon, PD. Your computer too!
Looks as if the national polls are beginning to level out
Rasmussen Tracking
10/7 – 10/9
1500 LV
Romney 48
Obama 47
Romney +1
Gallup Tracking
10/3 – 10/9
2721 LV
Obama 48
Romney 48
Tie
Another reversal
“A new University of North Florida poll conducted from October 1 to October 9 shows President Obama with a four point lead over Mitt Romney, 49 percent to 45 percent.”
I am not sure what is wrong with me…completely out of it. Signing off until I get my brain back in order.
Arrests at Bain-Owned Sensata Plant | Occupy America
This is unbelievable, that idiot with the deer headed alter is running unopposed.
Paul Broun Running Unopposed – Paul Broun and What the Democrats Cannot Do – Esquire
One more, seriously…Tennessee: Transcript Reveals Scott DesJarlais Urged Mistress to Have Abortion | At the Races
Here is Pierce’s take on it: Scott DesJarlais Abortion Quotes – There Is Nothing Sacred About the Politics of Ladyparts – Esquire