• Or, ‘I’m White too, not like that other guy!’: In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa. “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”. Would restore Churchill bust to the White House.
• Romney, and Aryan Racial Theory as a basis for Foreign Policy:
Beyond the distasteful resemblances of this white supremacist discourse to the worst forms of rightwing extremism, the allegation astonishingly neglects to take account of who Barack Obama is.
Obama’s maternal grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, had English ancestry (among others), and some genealogists trace him back to the Earl of Norwich, who was a surety baron of the Magna Carta. Moreover, Stanley Dunham served in the US military in London and then on the continent during World War II, and was involved in saving Britain from Nazi Germany. You’d think that would be a basis for pretty warm feelings. And remember, it was Stanley Dunham who actually raised Barack Obama; he did not know his father.
In contrast, the Romney clan’s only practical relationship to Britain aside from ancestry was trying to convince Scots in Edinburgh in the 1920s to give up alcohol and caffeine and become Mormons. Aside from explosive mirth, I don’t know what other emotion that record might evoke among English Anglicans of the sort Romney appears to want to rub up against, but it certainly would not be warmth.
[Juan Cole]
Yet, MORE Romney!:
• EXCLUSIVE: Romney Bundler Tom Loeffler a registered foreign agent for Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).Romney’s campaign, while being highly critical of China and the Obama administration’s approach to it, has organized campaign fundraising events in Hong Kong for U.S. citizens living there. He has also come under fire for apparently profiting from Bain investments in a company that provides surveillance cameras for the Chinese government to spy on its own citizens.
• Mitt Romney Olympic Archive Still Off Limits:
More than a decade has passed since Mitt Romney presided over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but the archival records from those games that were donated to the University of Utah to provide an unprecedented level of transparency about the historic event, remain off limits to the public. And some of the documents that may have shed the most light on Romney’s stewardship of the Games were likely destroyed by Salt Lake Olympic officials, ABC News has learned.
…But the absence of publicly available records that detail the decisions he made while running the games has increasingly become an uneasy subject for the library, which has for months been receiving inquiries from journalists and other researchers trying to subject Romney’s version of the events to an analysis based on documents from the events.
The fact that the documents remained behind closed doors also could be politically awkward for Romney, who has already faced criticism for his decisions to keep secret some of his past tax records and some details about his investment holdings. And it carries echoes of the decision in Massachusetts by Romney aides to purchase and erase their hard drives shortly before Romney left office as governor.
[ABC]
Bachmann Flap:
• Today on Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney’s radio show, Mitt Romney foreign policy adviser John Bolton defended Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) call for the U.S. government to investigate suggestions that government employees — including a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — are affiliated with a Muslim Brotherhood plot to infiltrate the U.S. government.
• Members of the House Intelligence Committee are declining to stick up for their colleagues’ anti-Muslim allegations, saying that their conduct is unbecoming of someone in their position with access to classified information. None, however, is going so far as to call for them to give up their seat on the committee.
Aurora:
• The 6 Most Offensive Things Said in the Wake of the Aurora Shooting:
- Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert says the attack is the result of an attack on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and that the killings might have been avoided if the country returned to the ways of God.
- Mike Huckabee blames sin. The fervently religious politico-turned-pundit says we don’t have a gun problem or a crime problem, but a “sin problem” and blames–what else–a mythical encroaching secularization.
- Extremist evangelicals Jerry Newcombe and Fred Jackson blame the liberal media, say victims who aren’t Christian are in hell.
- Internet conspiracy theorists blame government, Obama, Illuminati.
- Russell Pearce blames victims. Here’s the sorry tale of former senator Russell Pearce, who had a far too typical reaction and shared it on Facebook. Early Saturday morning, the former Republican lawmaker took to Facebook to mourn the victims. He then wondered why none were “[b]rave” enough to stop the atrocity.
- The Daily Mail blames women. A common, and irritating, media narrative surrounding violence is that it’s fueled by sexual rejection: had some woman just taken pity on the poor man, he wouldn’t have acted out.
- (sorta). Rick Warren appears to blame the massacre on evolution, then says he didn’t. People were understandably outraged when the megachurch pastor tweeted, the afternoon of the massacre. “When students are taught they are no different from animals, they act like it.”
[Alternet]
• At least 3 men accused of making threats during or after watching the new Batman movie have been arrested in separate incidents, underscoring U.S. moviegoers’ anxieties and heightened security in the wake of a deadly mass shooting at a Colorado theater showing the film.
• STEWART: So you’re telling me it is too soon to even have a conversation about it? You’re telling me that to discuss the epidemic of gun violence in this country, for that, there is a waiting period. Yeah, I guess you’d hate to go into a conversation about guns all hot-headed and say something impulsively you’ll never be able to take back.
US politics:
• Right wing wants to tax the poor: Senate Republicans will press this week to extend tax cuts for affluent families scheduled to expire Jan. 1, but the same Republican tax plan would allow a series of tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class to end next year. [Hatch - R - Utah]
• The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing yesterday on Citizens United where Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) pushed for a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision. Sen. Baucus is not alone; yesterday activists delivered 1.9 million signatures supporting an amendment overturning Citizens United.
Latin America:
• Monsanto behind ousting of former Paraguay President Fernando Lugo. Monsanto over the years has converted much of Paraguay’s arable land into plantations that grow GM crops, something Lugo had shown signs of resisting.
• Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblower portal and media website WikiLeaks, has hired famed Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzón to spearhead his legal team as he seeks political asylum in Ecuador, the country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said on Tuesday.
F.D.Brightly
More flubs for Romney overseas [Shorter Question Everything]
• Or, ‘I’m White too, not like that other guy!’: In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa. “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”. Would restore Churchill bust to the White House.
• Romney, and Aryan Racial Theory as a basis for Foreign Policy:
[Juan Cole]
Yet, MORE Romney!:
• EXCLUSIVE: Romney Bundler Tom Loeffler a registered foreign agent for Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).Romney’s campaign, while being highly critical of China and the Obama administration’s approach to it, has organized campaign fundraising events in Hong Kong for U.S. citizens living there. He has also come under fire for apparently profiting from Bain investments in a company that provides surveillance cameras for the Chinese government to spy on its own citizens.
• Mitt Romney Olympic Archive Still Off Limits:
[ABC]
Bachmann Flap:
• Today on Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney’s radio show, Mitt Romney foreign policy adviser John Bolton defended Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) call for the U.S. government to investigate suggestions that government employees — including a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — are affiliated with a Muslim Brotherhood plot to infiltrate the U.S. government.
• Members of the House Intelligence Committee are declining to stick up for their colleagues’ anti-Muslim allegations, saying that their conduct is unbecoming of someone in their position with access to classified information. None, however, is going so far as to call for them to give up their seat on the committee.
Aurora:
• The 6 Most Offensive Things Said in the Wake of the Aurora Shooting:
[Alternet]
• At least 3 men accused of making threats during or after watching the new Batman movie have been arrested in separate incidents, underscoring U.S. moviegoers’ anxieties and heightened security in the wake of a deadly mass shooting at a Colorado theater showing the film.
• STEWART: So you’re telling me it is too soon to even have a conversation about it? You’re telling me that to discuss the epidemic of gun violence in this country, for that, there is a waiting period. Yeah, I guess you’d hate to go into a conversation about guns all hot-headed and say something impulsively you’ll never be able to take back.
US politics:
• Right wing wants to tax the poor: Senate Republicans will press this week to extend tax cuts for affluent families scheduled to expire Jan. 1, but the same Republican tax plan would allow a series of tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class to end next year. [Hatch - R - Utah]
• The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing yesterday on Citizens United where Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) pushed for a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision. Sen. Baucus is not alone; yesterday activists delivered 1.9 million signatures supporting an amendment overturning Citizens United.
Latin America:
• Monsanto behind ousting of former Paraguay President Fernando Lugo. Monsanto over the years has converted much of Paraguay’s arable land into plantations that grow GM crops, something Lugo had shown signs of resisting.
• Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblower portal and media website WikiLeaks, has hired famed Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzón to spearhead his legal team as he seeks political asylum in Ecuador, the country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said on Tuesday.