It’s still not funny [Shorter Question Everything]

• Romney leaves note for reporters

• Obama Campaign Says Mitt Romney’s Joke Is No Laughing Matter:

…whether Romney realized it or not, the quip at the end of the note — “erased your hard drives” — provided an awkward reminder of a 2011 Boston Globe investigation revealing that before Romney left office as governor of Massachusetts in late 2006, “11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server.”
[abcnews/Michael Falcone, Emily Friedman/16 Jun 2012]

Immigration:

http://twitter.com/thinkprogress/status/214363914459295744

• Romney Repeatedly Refuses To Say Whether He Would Undo New Obama Immigration Policy – This morning on CBS, Mitt Romney was asked twice whether he would continue Obama’s new policy on immigration, ending deportations for DREAM-eligible youth. Romney flatly refused to take a position.

• Romney Refuses to Say if He Would Undo Obama’s Immigration Policy – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday repeatedly refused to say if he would dismantle a recently-announced Obama administration policy that allows certain young undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S.

• Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Arrests 6-Year-Old Undocumented Immigrant – The sheriff said his deputies arresting child suspected of being an illegal immigrant the same day Obama implemented the policy is a coincidence.

More US Politics:

• Romney: President Has the Power to Act Unilaterally Against Iran:

The notion of Constitutional Separation of Powers has gotten muddied over the last ten years or so, thanks in great part to the Republicans and the wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan, costing trillions in American blood and treasure. It appears that they agree with Nixon’s declaration that it’s not illegal if the President does it, at least when it comes to a Republican president.

A quick perusal of right wing outlets show a plethora of poutrage over what they perceive as President Obama’s overreach as the Chief Executive of the nation. No later than ten minutes after Mitt Romney uttered these words, Lindsey Graham was reaching for his smelling salts over Obama’s new immigration stance.

But we all know that overreach only applies when it’s a Democratic president. That’s why Mitt Romney can tell host Bob Schieffer point blank that he has the right to act unilaterally against Iran.

ROMNEY: …I can assure you if I’m president, the Iranians will have no question but that I will be willing to take military action if necessary to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world. I don’t believe at this stage, therefore, if I’m president that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The President has that capacity now….

[Crooks and Liars/Nicole Belle/17 Jun 2012]

• Shades of Sarah Palin as Mitt Romney Bombs On Face The Nation:

Even with Bob Schieffer being as gentle as only the corporate media can, there is no escaping the conclusion that Mitt Romney bombed his first non-Fox Sunday morning interview….At times Romney’s babbles and dodges reminded one of another Republican candidate who avoided the mainstream media at all costs, but unlike Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin actually had more broadcast interviews early in her campaign than Mitt Romney has. By design, Romney has been more sheltered from the mainstream press than Sarah Palin was in the early fall of 2008. One look at Romney on Face The Nation was all it took to explain why. Romney doesn’t possess Palin’s happy ignorance, but he shares with her an inability to give a straight answer and a genuine lack of substance.
[PoliticusUSA/Jason Easley/17 Jun 2012]

Racism:

• Christian missionary group with pig’s head taunt Arab-Americans at Dearborn festival:

Tensions flared Friday evening at the annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn as members of some Christian missionary groups — including one called the Bible Believers — taunted Arab Americans with a pig’s head and signs that promoted hatred of Islam. “You’re gonna burn in hell,” one missionary shouted at a group of young Arab-American boys listening to him speak on Warren Avenue, where the festival takes place. The festival continues today in Dearborn, but the members of the Bible Believers won’t be there because they’ll be protesting a gay festival in Ohio, said Arab Festival organizers. The three-day festival is the largest public gathering of Arab-Americans in the U.S.; it has drawn Christian missionaries for years, but in 2009, some become more aggressive, leading to arrests and legal feuds.
[freep/16 Jun 2012]

• President Obama Maintains His Dignity When Faced With Racist and Bigoted Attacks

Courts:

• GOP Rep. On Health Care Law: ‘Repeal Anything That Is Left Standing’ After SCOTUS Decision:

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans intend to seek quick repeal of any parts of the health care law that survive a widely anticipated Supreme Court ruling, but don’t plan to push replacement measures until after the fall elections or perhaps 2013. Instead, GOP lawmakers cite recent announcements that some insurance companies will retain a few of the law’s higher-profile provisions as evidence that quick legislative action is not essential. Those are steps that officials say Republicans quietly urged in private conversations with the industry. Once the Supreme Court issues a ruling, “the goal is to repeal anything that is left standing,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a member of the party’s leadership.
[HuffingtonPost/AP/17 Jun 2012]

• ‘Citizens United’ Gets Renewed Scrutiny:

As early as Monday, the Supreme Court could decide to revisit its landmark Citizens United ruling of two and a half years ago. That case gave corporations the green light to spend unlimited amounts in political campaigns. Now, a Montana case could lead the high court to take a second look at Citizens United.
[npr/DAVID WELNA/18 Jun 2012]

Space:

• America’s X-37B top-secret spaceplane returns to Earth – Super-secret spaceplane the X-37B landed back at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday after 469 days of mysterious missions in space.

• Pilotless US space plane lands after 469 days in orbit:

Washington – A pilotless space plane developed by the US Air Force has landed safely back on Earth after spending 469 days in orbit, officials said. The robotic X-37B, a sort of miniature space shuttle weighing just five tonnes and measuring some 29 feet (8.8 meters) long, touched down Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in western California, the Air Force said in a statement. The reusable plane had launched from Cape Canaveral in southern Florida in March 2011 carrying “secret” equipment, feeding media speculation about its true mission.
[AFP/17 Jun 2012]

CBRNE:

• U.S. government faulted over risk of pathogens escaping lab:

(Reuters) – The Department of Homeland Security underestimates the risk that human error could allow pathogens to escape from a proposed $1 billion lab designed to study lethal animal-borne diseases, a U.S. advisory panel warned on Friday. The department’s risk assessment was “overly optimistic” about the chances of mistakes leading to a release of infectious material from the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility planned for Manhattan, Kansas, according to a report by the National Research Council.
[reuters/Kevin Murphy/15 Jun 2012]

In Passing:

• RODNEY G. KING, 1965-2012 – Police Beating Victim Who Asked ‘Can We All Get Along?’:

LOS ANGELES — Rodney G. King, whose 1991 videotaped beating by the Los Angeles police became a symbol of the nation’s continuing racial tensions and subsequently led to a week of deadly race riots after the officers were acquitted, was found dead Sunday in a swimming pool at the home he shared with his fiancée in Rialto, Calif. He was 47. There was no evidence of foul play, the Rialto police said. Mr. King, whose life was a roller coaster of drug and alcohol abuse, multiple arrests and unwanted celebrity, pleaded for calm during the 1992 riots. More than 55 people were killed and 600 buildings destroyed in the violence.
[nytimes/JENNIFER MEDINA/17 Jun 2012]

Europe:

• Russia Bans 11 U.S. Officials Over Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib:

Russia barred 11 serving and former U.S. administration officials for human rights abuses at facilities including Guantanamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The ban on entry to Russia was enacted last year in retaliation for a U.S. visa ban for 11 Russian officials accused of playing a role in the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said in an e-mailed statement. “These people are linked to high-profile human rights abuses, including torture and abuse of detainees in special prisons set up by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency in Guantanamo, Bagram in Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib in Iraq,” Ushakov said. Russia hadn’t previously made public the exact nature of its response to the U.S. visa ban, which was announced in July last year.
[businessweek/Henry Meyer and Stepan Kravchenko/17 Jun 2012]

• Center-Right New Democracy Wins in Greece, But May Have Trouble Forming Government

• Socialists Win Majority in French Parliament – Media:

PARIS – French President François Hollande’s Socialist Party has won a majority in the country’s parliamentary election run-off on Sunday, AFP reported referring to the country’s pollsters.
The Socialists dominated the first round last week and pollsters predicted they will win the most seats in the lower house.
According to TNS Sofres and CSA, socialists have won between 312 and 326 seats; 289 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly.
[RIA Novosti/17 Jun 2012]

Egypt:

• Muslim Brotherhood declares Mursi Egypt’s president:

The Muslim Brotherhood declares its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, has won Egypt’s presidential run-off. The victory over Mubarak’s former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, is claimed ahead of the official announcement of the ballot results on Thursday.
The party claims to have won 52.5 per cent of votes cast, based on a count of 97.6 per cent of the country’s 13,100 polling stations. Khaled Qazzaz, a Muslim Brotherhood official, said Shafik had 47.5 per cent of the votes counted.
[rt/18 June 2012]