It’s not the birth certificate, or the school transcripts. What it comes down to is a segment of the US population that refuses to accept that a Black man could be an American, refuses to accept that he could be smart enough, or good enough, because they certainly don’t think he’s white enough. This birther garbage is just throwing a white sheet over the same old racism. Make no mistake – Romney is 100% for this sort of thing. He’s brought it up, he’s backed it and he’s getting ahead on it.
Racist garbage:
• Mitt Romney – Mexican Anchor Baby – Releases Fake Birth Certificate: Note that the certificate has a “date issued” on it of January 18, 2012. So Romney has been sitting on this for five months waiting for the right time – which must have come today as Trump was still beating the drums of this conspiracy….Romney still refuses to release more than a single year of his tax returns. [newscorpse/Mark/30 May 2012]
• Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter: “Mitt Romney’s continued embrace of Donald Trump and refusal to condemn his disgraceful conspiracy theories demonstrates his complete lack of moral leadership. Now he’s even standing by silently as Trump assails John McCain’s courage in standing up to the most extreme and hateful voices in the Republican Party—all in order to raise money for himself. If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump because he’s so concerned about lining his campaign’s pockets, what does that say about the kind of president he would be?”
• Donald Trump Lets Loose With Birther Rant After Romney Reaffirms Support: “You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said, according to CNN. “But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.” [talkingpointsmemo/Benjy Sarlin/29 may 2012]
• Just prior to fundraiser with birther Donald Trump, Romney releases his birth certificate.
• ‘Transcripters‘ challenge Obama’s grades
• Open Thread – Romney App Misspells “America”. Really.
• Romney Campaigns Against Green Jobs While Solar Industry Is ‘Flourishing’ In His Home State
• Dirty Tricks In Wisconsin: Secret Group Shuts Down Phones Of Scott Walker’s Democratic Challenger With Spam Texts
FLAME:
• UN to issue warning on Flame computer virus: “This is the most serious [cyber] warning we have ever put out,” said Marco Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the UN’s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union. The confidential warning will tell member nations that the Flame virus is a dangerous espionage tool that could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure, he told Reuters news agency in an interview on Tuesday. …Evidence suggests that the Flame virus may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections. Kaspersky Lab said the Flame virus is unprecedented in size and complexity, with researcher Roel Schouwenberg marveling at its versatility. Schouwenberg said there is evidence to suggest that the people behind Flame also helped craft Stuxnet. Many suspect Stuxnet was the work of Israeli intelligence. Israel’s vice premier did little to deflect suspicion about the country’s possible involvement in the attack. [aljazeera/29 May 2012]
• Netanyahu deputy hints at Israeli involvement in Iran cyber attack – In Israel’s first official comment on Flame worm, which was revealed on Monday to have infected computers in Iran and various Arab countries, Vice PM Ya’alon says such steps ‘reasonable’ in face of Iranian threat.: Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon hinted on Monday at possible Israeli involvement in the Flame bug, which was revealed to have targeted computers in Iran and the West Bank on Monday. “Anyone who sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat – it’s reasonable [to assume] that he will take various steps, including these, to harm it,” Ya’alon said Tuesday morning in an interview with Army Radio. “Israel is blessed as being a country rich with high-tech, these tools that we take pride in open up all kinds of opportunities for us,” he added. According to experts at internet security company Kaspersky who first detected the virus, Flame was most likely created by a state actor, and is capable of transferring files, screenshots, audio recordings and keystrokes from infected computers. Ilan Proimovich, Kaspersky’s representative in Israel, told Army Radio that the worm “does not operate independently, but is controlled by a remote computer, and thus only when it receives an order does it start working. For this reason, it is difficult to detect, because it is not always active.” [Haaretz/29 may 2012]
Julian Assange:
• Julian Assange Loses Extradition Appeal – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face sex crime allegations, the Supreme Court has ruled.
• Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years in prison for war crimes: Judges at an international war crimes court have sentenced Liberia‘s former president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for war crimes during the long-running civil war in Sierra Leone. Taylor was found guilty last month of 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting rebels between 1996 and 2002 in return for conflict diamonds. He was convicted of offences including murder, rape, sexual slavery, recruiting child soldiers, enforced amputations and pillage. Delivering the sentence on Wednesday, Judge Richard Lussick said Taylor’s crimes were of the “utmost gravity in terms of scale and brutality”. [guardian.co.uk/Owen Bowcott and agencies/30 May 2012]
• US denies reports it parachuted soldiers into North Korea: The United States military has denied reports attributed to the head of its special forces in South Korea that his men have been parachuted into North Korea to gather intelligence on the regime’s network of underground military facilities. Brigadier General Neil Tolley was quoted in a Japan-based foreign affairs magazine as telling a conference in Tampa, Miami, last week that elite US troops are conducting “special reconnaissance” missions in the North. The Diplomat magazine reported that the troops have been dropped behind North Korean lines to identify and map the locations of Pyongyang’s extensive network of underground bases. The network includes munitions factories and underground artillery positions, all of which are linked by hundreds of miles of tunnels that have been excavated all the way up to the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas. [telegraph/Julian Ryall/29 May 2012]
F.D.Brightly
It all comes down to being Black [Shorter Question Everything]
It’s not the birth certificate, or the school transcripts. What it comes down to is a segment of the US population that refuses to accept that a Black man could be an American, refuses to accept that he could be smart enough, or good enough, because they certainly don’t think he’s white enough. This birther garbage is just throwing a white sheet over the same old racism. Make no mistake – Romney is 100% for this sort of thing. He’s brought it up, he’s backed it and he’s getting ahead on it.
Racist garbage:
• Mitt Romney – Mexican Anchor Baby – Releases Fake Birth Certificate: Note that the certificate has a “date issued” on it of January 18, 2012. So Romney has been sitting on this for five months waiting for the right time – which must have come today as Trump was still beating the drums of this conspiracy….Romney still refuses to release more than a single year of his tax returns. [newscorpse/Mark/30 May 2012]
• Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter: “Mitt Romney’s continued embrace of Donald Trump and refusal to condemn his disgraceful conspiracy theories demonstrates his complete lack of moral leadership. Now he’s even standing by silently as Trump assails John McCain’s courage in standing up to the most extreme and hateful voices in the Republican Party—all in order to raise money for himself. If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump because he’s so concerned about lining his campaign’s pockets, what does that say about the kind of president he would be?”
• Donald Trump Lets Loose With Birther Rant After Romney Reaffirms Support: “You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said, according to CNN. “But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.” [talkingpointsmemo/Benjy Sarlin/29 may 2012]
• Just prior to fundraiser with birther Donald Trump, Romney releases his birth certificate.
• ‘Transcripters‘ challenge Obama’s grades
• Open Thread – Romney App Misspells “America”. Really.
• Romney Campaigns Against Green Jobs While Solar Industry Is ‘Flourishing’ In His Home State
• Dirty Tricks In Wisconsin: Secret Group Shuts Down Phones Of Scott Walker’s Democratic Challenger With Spam Texts
FLAME:
• UN to issue warning on Flame computer virus: “This is the most serious [cyber] warning we have ever put out,” said Marco Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the UN’s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union. The confidential warning will tell member nations that the Flame virus is a dangerous espionage tool that could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure, he told Reuters news agency in an interview on Tuesday. …Evidence suggests that the Flame virus may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections. Kaspersky Lab said the Flame virus is unprecedented in size and complexity, with researcher Roel Schouwenberg marveling at its versatility. Schouwenberg said there is evidence to suggest that the people behind Flame also helped craft Stuxnet. Many suspect Stuxnet was the work of Israeli intelligence. Israel’s vice premier did little to deflect suspicion about the country’s possible involvement in the attack. [aljazeera/29 May 2012]
• Netanyahu deputy hints at Israeli involvement in Iran cyber attack – In Israel’s first official comment on Flame worm, which was revealed on Monday to have infected computers in Iran and various Arab countries, Vice PM Ya’alon says such steps ‘reasonable’ in face of Iranian threat.: Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon hinted on Monday at possible Israeli involvement in the Flame bug, which was revealed to have targeted computers in Iran and the West Bank on Monday. “Anyone who sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat – it’s reasonable [to assume] that he will take various steps, including these, to harm it,” Ya’alon said Tuesday morning in an interview with Army Radio. “Israel is blessed as being a country rich with high-tech, these tools that we take pride in open up all kinds of opportunities for us,” he added. According to experts at internet security company Kaspersky who first detected the virus, Flame was most likely created by a state actor, and is capable of transferring files, screenshots, audio recordings and keystrokes from infected computers. Ilan Proimovich, Kaspersky’s representative in Israel, told Army Radio that the worm “does not operate independently, but is controlled by a remote computer, and thus only when it receives an order does it start working. For this reason, it is difficult to detect, because it is not always active.” [Haaretz/29 may 2012]
Julian Assange:
• Julian Assange Loses Extradition Appeal – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face sex crime allegations, the Supreme Court has ruled.
• Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years in prison for war crimes: Judges at an international war crimes court have sentenced Liberia‘s former president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for war crimes during the long-running civil war in Sierra Leone. Taylor was found guilty last month of 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting rebels between 1996 and 2002 in return for conflict diamonds. He was convicted of offences including murder, rape, sexual slavery, recruiting child soldiers, enforced amputations and pillage. Delivering the sentence on Wednesday, Judge Richard Lussick said Taylor’s crimes were of the “utmost gravity in terms of scale and brutality”. [guardian.co.uk/Owen Bowcott and agencies/30 May 2012]
• US denies reports it parachuted soldiers into North Korea: The United States military has denied reports attributed to the head of its special forces in South Korea that his men have been parachuted into North Korea to gather intelligence on the regime’s network of underground military facilities. Brigadier General Neil Tolley was quoted in a Japan-based foreign affairs magazine as telling a conference in Tampa, Miami, last week that elite US troops are conducting “special reconnaissance” missions in the North. The Diplomat magazine reported that the troops have been dropped behind North Korean lines to identify and map the locations of Pyongyang’s extensive network of underground bases. The network includes munitions factories and underground artillery positions, all of which are linked by hundreds of miles of tunnels that have been excavated all the way up to the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas. [telegraph/Julian Ryall/29 May 2012]