No one is going to believe that you spent that 2 minutes saying that you were just kidding.
And trying to deflect by waving around the oh so terrifying word “redistribution”? That’s not going to work either, except for the batshit crazy base. The wealthy have been fans of redistribution upward for ages now. One thing that the 14 year old tape of Obama displays is that Obama cared about people then, just like now. In other words, consistency. No wonder it looks so foreign to Romney.
• Romney’s Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked: …[T]here’s a slight problem. Politico’s Dylan Byers, the source for the debunking charge, quickly noted that he had done no such thing. He wrote: “there is nothing in my report that “debunks” the video. …More mysterious still, is why the Romney campaign wants to debunk a video containing remarks that the candidate doubled-down on in a follow-up press conference.”
• The Romney campaign, whose theme for the past few months has revolved around a sentence taken entirely out of context from an Obama speech (“you didn’t build that”), now has the nerve to claim that Romney’s remarks to private donors, which were recorded and published IN FULL by Mother Jones, took Romney out of context. Ann, they released the entire freaking speech. How much more context could there be?
A 14-year-old video of President Barack Obama promoted by the Romney campaign this week over a comment about “redistribution” also features the president pushing for marketplace “competition” and market-driven “innovation,” according to a complete record of his speech obtained by NBC News.
The president’s spokespeople have since explained that the speech was about using city government resources in a way that’s more fair and efficient, but Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has zeroed in on the word “redistribution,” and appears to have refocused his whole campaign squarely upon these few seconds of carefully edited audio.
“Frankly, we have two very different views about America,” Romney told Fox News on Tuesday. “The president’s view is one of a larger government. There’s a tape that just came out today where the president is saying he likes redistribution. I disagree.”
In footage promoted by the Romney campaign and Fox News, taken from a public speech then-State Senator Obama gave at Loyola University in Chicago, the president explains: “I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”
But that’s not all he said. In a portion of the footage that was edited out, Obama continues: “How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities?”
[rawstory]
• The full context of the 14 year old video of Obama saying the dreaded word “redistibution”. The Romney camp had, of course, edited the clip: “I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot. How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities.” Have no fear, redistibution of wealth upwards is hunky dory for the right wing.
Republicans have voted down legislation that would have established a $1bn jobs programme to put unemployed veterans back to work as firefighters and police officers and in public work projects.
…The bill, which had bipartisan support in the Senate and would have given priority to post-9/11 veterans whose employment prospects are three points below the national average, fell two votes short of the majority of 60 needed to waive Republican objections.
After the vote, at midday on Wednesday, Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee, accused Senate Republicans of “shocking and shameful” obstructive politics.
She said: “At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed, Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families.
“It’s unbelievable that even after more than a decade of war many Republicans still will not acknowledge that the treatment of our veterans is a cost of war. Today they voted down a fully paid-for bill that included bipartisan ideas to put veterans in jobs that will allow them to serve their communities. Jobs that would have helped provide veterans with the self-esteem that is so critical to their successful transition home.”
Murray said the bill had been extensively rewritten to include amendments by Republicans – eight of the 12 provisions in the bill were Republican-originated ideas. She said that the bill had even incorporated most of the provisions of a competing Republican bill, but to no avail.
[guardian]
• During a conference call with evangelicals on Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) called upon “Christian warriors” and “Christian soldiers” to “stand our ground” against President Barack Obama, who he said is trying to ”remove any trace of religion from American life,” a message inspired by “Satan” himself.
• Pennsylvania Republican condemns ‘lazy’ Americans without voter ID: Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe – “I don’t believe any legitimate voter that actually wants to exercise that right and takes on the according responsibility that goes with that right to secure their photo ID will be disenfranchised,” Metcalfe said. “As Mitt Romney said, 47% of the people that are living off the public dole, living off their neighbors’ hard work, and we have a lot of people out there that are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the ID they need. If individuals are too lazy, the state can’t fix that.”
• Consolation prize?: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) is stepping down as co-chair of the campaign to elect former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) president. According to CNN, Pawlenty has been tapped as president and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington-based group that lobbies for banks. Gov. Romney said that he will miss Pawlenty’s contribution to the campaign, but that the Minnesota governor and former state representative is taking up noble work as a banking lobbyist.
• A long-awaited report on the U.S. government’s controversial gun-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” released Wednesday found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew of the botched effort to trace the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels prior to its public unraveling in January 2011. The report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz said there is “no evidence that … Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation” before Congress began pressing him for information about it in early 2011.
• Italy’s highest appeals court has upheld guilty verdicts on 23 Americans, all but one of them CIA agents, accused of kidnapping a terror suspect. Their case related to the abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The man, known as Abu Omar, was allegedly flown to Egypt and tortured. The Americans were tried in absentia, in the first trial involving extraordinary rendition, the CIA’s practice of transferring suspects to countries where torture is permitted.
• Bring back the Arrow: A Canadian-made interceptor would serve our interests better than the troubled F-35 program, writes Lewis Mackenzie.
F.D.Brightly
Two minutes isn’t going to save you
Shorter Question Everything
No one is going to believe that you spent that 2 minutes saying that you were just kidding.
And trying to deflect by waving around the oh so terrifying word “redistribution”? That’s not going to work either, except for the batshit crazy base. The wealthy have been fans of redistribution upward for ages now. One thing that the 14 year old tape of Obama displays is that Obama cared about people then, just like now. In other words, consistency. No wonder it looks so foreign to Romney.
Two minutes
• The Supposedly “Missing” 2 Minutes of the Romney Video: CNBC’s Larry Kudlow gets it wrong trying to defend the Romney videos, and David Corn tells him so. The video’s backstory and the “missing” two minutes are explained in the clip below. And the Romney campaign’s claim to have debunked the video? Debunked.
• Romney’s Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked: …[T]here’s a slight problem. Politico’s Dylan Byers, the source for the debunking charge, quickly noted that he had done no such thing. He wrote: “there is nothing in my report that “debunks” the video. …More mysterious still, is why the Romney campaign wants to debunk a video containing remarks that the candidate doubled-down on in a follow-up press conference.”
• The Romney campaign, whose theme for the past few months has revolved around a sentence taken entirely out of context from an Obama speech (“you didn’t build that”), now has the nerve to claim that Romney’s remarks to private donors, which were recorded and published IN FULL by Mother Jones, took Romney out of context. Ann, they released the entire freaking speech. How much more context could there be?
Redistribution
• Obama praised ‘competition’ and markets in full video of ‘redistribution’ talk:
• The full context of the 14 year old video of Obama saying the dreaded word “redistibution”. The Romney camp had, of course, edited the clip: “I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot. How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities.” Have no fear, redistibution of wealth upwards is hunky dory for the right wing.
In other news
• Mitt Romney Dons Brownface For Forum With Mexicans
• Veterans’ bill voted down by GOP as Senate Democrats proclaim ‘new low’:
• During a conference call with evangelicals on Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) called upon “Christian warriors” and “Christian soldiers” to “stand our ground” against President Barack Obama, who he said is trying to ”remove any trace of religion from American life,” a message inspired by “Satan” himself.
• Pennsylvania Republican condemns ‘lazy’ Americans without voter ID: Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe – “I don’t believe any legitimate voter that actually wants to exercise that right and takes on the according responsibility that goes with that right to secure their photo ID will be disenfranchised,” Metcalfe said. “As Mitt Romney said, 47% of the people that are living off the public dole, living off their neighbors’ hard work, and we have a lot of people out there that are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the ID they need. If individuals are too lazy, the state can’t fix that.”
• Consolation prize?: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) is stepping down as co-chair of the campaign to elect former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) president. According to CNN, Pawlenty has been tapped as president and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington-based group that lobbies for banks. Gov. Romney said that he will miss Pawlenty’s contribution to the campaign, but that the Minnesota governor and former state representative is taking up noble work as a banking lobbyist.
• A long-awaited report on the U.S. government’s controversial gun-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” released Wednesday found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew of the botched effort to trace the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels prior to its public unraveling in January 2011. The report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz said there is “no evidence that … Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation” before Congress began pressing him for information about it in early 2011.
• Italy’s highest appeals court has upheld guilty verdicts on 23 Americans, all but one of them CIA agents, accused of kidnapping a terror suspect. Their case related to the abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The man, known as Abu Omar, was allegedly flown to Egypt and tortured. The Americans were tried in absentia, in the first trial involving extraordinary rendition, the CIA’s practice of transferring suspects to countries where torture is permitted.
• Bring back the Arrow: A Canadian-made interceptor would serve our interests better than the troubled F-35 program, writes Lewis Mackenzie.