• On Romney’s tax returns: “He’s given us one year, but he gave John McCain 23 years of tax returns in 2008. And after they saw those, McCain’s people went with Sarah Palin.”
• Romney surrogate Ed Gillespie: He actually retired retroactively at that point. He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.
• Stop whining: During an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Emanuel pointed out that Romney’s protests made him look less than presidential. “Stephanie cited the law and it’s very clear,” Emanuel explained. “Either the filing with the SEC is accurate and his personal financial disclosure is not honest or that’s honest and the SEC [filing] isn’t. Both can’t be accurate.” “Give it up about Stephanie,” he continued. “Don’t worry about that. What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something or Putin says [something] to you? Are you going to whine as your way? You cannot do that.”
• Yes, THAT Karl Rove: Rove on Sunday said the Obama campaign had crossed the line with that suggestion and insisted that the notion Romney was involved with Bain after 1999 was “total boloney.” “The fact of the matter is if the president continues to make this charge — this outrageous charge — that Mitt Romney is guilty of felonious activity and committed a felony, that’s a big mistake,” Rove opined. “This is gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort.”
• “The fact is, there are a couple of years he may not have paid any taxes,” MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough predicted during Monday’s Morning Joe. “Maybe he’s concerned about that. But if it’s going to come out, he needs to get it out now so he has a couple of months to explain it.”
• “No, we will not apologize,” Obama said in an interview with WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia, the AP reports. “Mr. Romney claims he’s Mr. Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience,” he said. ”Mr. Romney is now claiming he wasn’t there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company.”
• On those tax returns: Kerry spokesperson Jodi Seth chastised the Romney campaign for the false allegation. “Months ago, the Romney team began making this false and convoluted excuse — the media investigated it and promptly reminded them that as a presidential candidate John Kerry had released twenty years of tax returns,” Seth said in a statement to TPM. “Still, months later they’re falling back on this same disproven excuse. In fact, if the Romney standard was the same as the Kerry standard for disclosure, the media would have the chance to review twenty years of Romney tax returns. Ed Gillespie should know better.”
• Romney’s Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut By…Romney – With these statements, it seems Romney was saying that because he remained involved in Bain matters during a transition period, he traveled to and from Massachusetts for several months. The problem for Romney is, he’s now insisting—and he signed a federal form declaring—he had no participation in Bain (besides owning the company and its various entities) once he headed to Utah. During this current controversy over his role at Bain, he has not said anything about a transition period.
Crazy, Racist and other weirdness:
• Iowa Republican says government illegitimate, declares herself U.S. Senator – An Iowa woman who was running for a state Senate seat has dropped that bid after deciding the U.S. government is a sham, and has instead unilaterally declared herself a U.S. Senator from the Republic of Iowa in an alternative government, the Republic for the United States of America. As Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register first reported, the candidate, Randi Shannon, had been running for the state’s 34th Senate district. However, she recently came to believe that the real U.S. government was replaced with an illegal one after the Civil War so, rather than continue her state-level pursuit, she dropped that bid and named herself a Senator of the what she thinks is the true government.
• Ugh: Billionaire Mitt Romney backer and fundraiser Donald Trump is responding to calls for Romney to release his tax returns by doubling down on his birther claims and insisting that President Obama should first release his college applications. “I don’t think Romney should give anything until such time as Obama gives his college records and applications,” Trump said on Fox & Friends, adding, “you will see things that you’re not going to believe”
• USAF and aerial spraying in Florida – The planes will be spraying the pesticide Dibrom for the last two hours of the day July 10th, 11th and 12th, ending operations about a half hour after sunsets. The Air Force last conducted spraying like this in South Florida last July. Residents are advised that aircraft will be flying as low as 150 feet. This newest round of mosquito control involves a large C-130 cargo plane based in Ohio to spray Homestead ARB and communities of Doral, West Sweetwater, Kendall, Homestead, Florida City and areas east of U.S. 1
• Minot AFB locked down when driver doesn’t stop – Officials at Minot Air Force Base are continuing to investigate why a driver failed to stop at the south gate of the base, causing a two-hour lockdown of the installation. Lt. Jose Davis tells The Minot Daily News (http://bit.ly/NlJmGy) that the incident happened just after 4 p.m. Thursday when traffic is heavy with people leaving at the end of the day. Davis said the driver was not speeding or doing anything suspicious but didn’t stop for some reason. In an unrelated incident Friday afternoon, base officials investigated a report of a suspicious package in the parking lot at the 5th Medical Group clinic on the east side of base. The package turned out to be a tool box left there by a contractor, Davis said.
• Over the weekend, the Red Cross declared the conflict in Syria to be a civil war. Due to the change in status, Syrian combatants will now be subject to the Geneva Conventions, and breaches in international humanitarian law will lead to prosecution for war crimes.
• Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused “Western colleagues” on Monday of trying to blackmail Russia into supporting a United Nations resolution on Syria that, he contended, would open the door to civil war.
• Egypt’s prosecutor general have ordered Hosni Mubarak, the convicted former president, back to prison nearly a month after he was moved to a military hospital in Cairo after reportedly suffering a stroke.
Weather:
• More ‘Unprecedented’ Weather Evacuates 250K in Japan – About 250,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes to avoid floods caused by torrential rainfall in south-west Japan, officials say. Also, “unprecedented” weather in Russia.
• Metro Vancouver and North American stargazers were treated to a rare and electrifying treat this weekend. As the result of a powerful solar flare on July 12, skywatchers had the chance to see the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. The light display, which was best seen outside Metro Vancouver due to a lack of light pollution, lit up the night sky with a shimmering display of blue, yellow, purple and green.
F.D.Brightly
Retired Retroactively [Shorter Question Everything]
• President Obama and Kids
Romney IS the problem:
• “The Problem”
• On Romney’s tax returns: “He’s given us one year, but he gave John McCain 23 years of tax returns in 2008. And after they saw those, McCain’s people went with Sarah Palin.”
• Romney surrogate Ed Gillespie: He actually retired retroactively at that point. He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.
• Stop whining: During an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Emanuel pointed out that Romney’s protests made him look less than presidential. “Stephanie cited the law and it’s very clear,” Emanuel explained. “Either the filing with the SEC is accurate and his personal financial disclosure is not honest or that’s honest and the SEC [filing] isn’t. Both can’t be accurate.” “Give it up about Stephanie,” he continued. “Don’t worry about that. What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something or Putin says [something] to you? Are you going to whine as your way? You cannot do that.”
• Yes, THAT Karl Rove: Rove on Sunday said the Obama campaign had crossed the line with that suggestion and insisted that the notion Romney was involved with Bain after 1999 was “total boloney.” “The fact of the matter is if the president continues to make this charge — this outrageous charge — that Mitt Romney is guilty of felonious activity and committed a felony, that’s a big mistake,” Rove opined. “This is gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort.”
• “The fact is, there are a couple of years he may not have paid any taxes,” MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough predicted during Monday’s Morning Joe. “Maybe he’s concerned about that. But if it’s going to come out, he needs to get it out now so he has a couple of months to explain it.”
• “No, we will not apologize,” Obama said in an interview with WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia, the AP reports. “Mr. Romney claims he’s Mr. Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience,” he said. ”Mr. Romney is now claiming he wasn’t there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company.”
• On those tax returns: Kerry spokesperson Jodi Seth chastised the Romney campaign for the false allegation. “Months ago, the Romney team began making this false and convoluted excuse — the media investigated it and promptly reminded them that as a presidential candidate John Kerry had released twenty years of tax returns,” Seth said in a statement to TPM. “Still, months later they’re falling back on this same disproven excuse. In fact, if the Romney standard was the same as the Kerry standard for disclosure, the media would have the chance to review twenty years of Romney tax returns. Ed Gillespie should know better.”
• Romney’s Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut By…Romney – With these statements, it seems Romney was saying that because he remained involved in Bain matters during a transition period, he traveled to and from Massachusetts for several months. The problem for Romney is, he’s now insisting—and he signed a federal form declaring—he had no participation in Bain (besides owning the company and its various entities) once he headed to Utah. During this current controversy over his role at Bain, he has not said anything about a transition period.
Crazy, Racist and other weirdness:
• Iowa Republican says government illegitimate, declares herself U.S. Senator – An Iowa woman who was running for a state Senate seat has dropped that bid after deciding the U.S. government is a sham, and has instead unilaterally declared herself a U.S. Senator from the Republic of Iowa in an alternative government, the Republic for the United States of America. As Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register first reported, the candidate, Randi Shannon, had been running for the state’s 34th Senate district. However, she recently came to believe that the real U.S. government was replaced with an illegal one after the Civil War so, rather than continue her state-level pursuit, she dropped that bid and named herself a Senator of the what she thinks is the true government.
• Ugh: Billionaire Mitt Romney backer and fundraiser Donald Trump is responding to calls for Romney to release his tax returns by doubling down on his birther claims and insisting that President Obama should first release his college applications. “I don’t think Romney should give anything until such time as Obama gives his college records and applications,” Trump said on Fox & Friends, adding, “you will see things that you’re not going to believe”
• African Americans and Latinos pay 3 percent more than white homebuyers for their homes, according to a study of from the National Bureau of Economic Research that looked at two million home sales in four cities. The higher prices were not tied to income, wealth, or credit rating, suggesting discrimination may be a factor, the study said.
Military Industrial Complex:
• USAF and aerial spraying in Florida – The planes will be spraying the pesticide Dibrom for the last two hours of the day July 10th, 11th and 12th, ending operations about a half hour after sunsets. The Air Force last conducted spraying like this in South Florida last July. Residents are advised that aircraft will be flying as low as 150 feet. This newest round of mosquito control involves a large C-130 cargo plane based in Ohio to spray Homestead ARB and communities of Doral, West Sweetwater, Kendall, Homestead, Florida City and areas east of U.S. 1
• Minot AFB locked down when driver doesn’t stop – Officials at Minot Air Force Base are continuing to investigate why a driver failed to stop at the south gate of the base, causing a two-hour lockdown of the installation. Lt. Jose Davis tells The Minot Daily News (http://bit.ly/NlJmGy) that the incident happened just after 4 p.m. Thursday when traffic is heavy with people leaving at the end of the day. Davis said the driver was not speeding or doing anything suspicious but didn’t stop for some reason. In an unrelated incident Friday afternoon, base officials investigated a report of a suspicious package in the parking lot at the 5th Medical Group clinic on the east side of base. The package turned out to be a tool box left there by a contractor, Davis said.
• Mercenaries Sue Blackwater Over Fake Gun Tests
Middle East:
• Over the weekend, the Red Cross declared the conflict in Syria to be a civil war. Due to the change in status, Syrian combatants will now be subject to the Geneva Conventions, and breaches in international humanitarian law will lead to prosecution for war crimes.
• Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused “Western colleagues” on Monday of trying to blackmail Russia into supporting a United Nations resolution on Syria that, he contended, would open the door to civil war.
• Egypt’s prosecutor general have ordered Hosni Mubarak, the convicted former president, back to prison nearly a month after he was moved to a military hospital in Cairo after reportedly suffering a stroke.
Weather:
• More ‘Unprecedented’ Weather Evacuates 250K in Japan – About 250,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes to avoid floods caused by torrential rainfall in south-west Japan, officials say. Also, “unprecedented” weather in Russia.
• Metro Vancouver and North American stargazers were treated to a rare and electrifying treat this weekend. As the result of a powerful solar flare on July 12, skywatchers had the chance to see the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. The light display, which was best seen outside Metro Vancouver due to a lack of light pollution, lit up the night sky with a shimmering display of blue, yellow, purple and green.