• President Obama in Fairfax, Virginia: “Romnesia”:
But now that we’re 18 days out from the election, Mr. “Severely Conservative” wants you to think he was “severely kidding” about everything he’s said over the last year. He told folks he was “the ideal candidate” for the Tea Party, now suddenly he’s saying, “what, who, me?” He’s forgetting what his own positions are, and he’s betting that you will too.
I mean he’s changing up so much – backtracking and sidestepping. We’ve gotta name this condition that he’s going through.. I think it’s called “Romnesia.” That’s what it’s called. I think that’s what he’s going through.
Now, I’m not a medical doctor but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.
If you say you’re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work – you might have Romnesia.
If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care – you might have a case of Romnesia.
If you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be “delighted” to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases – man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia.
Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year I’m going to give a tax cut to the top 1 percent and then in a debate you say, I don’t know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks – you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you’ve probably got Romnesia.
If you say that you’re a champion of the coal industry when while you were Governor you stood in front of a coal plant and said, this plant will kill you – that’s some Romnesia.
So – I think you’re beginning to be able to identify these symptoms. And if you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can’t seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you’ve made over the six years you’ve been running for President, here’s the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions.
We can fix you up. We’ve got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease.
In other news
• Andrea Mitchell – Correcting Sen Hutchison Blunt amendment lets ALL opt out of contraception benefits not just religious employers http://nbcnews.to/Rm8s6k
• Engineers in London said this week that they’ve developed a new type of synthetic vehicle fuel that’s created out of water and thin air, literally by pulling carbon molecules out of the atmosphere and recycling them. Speaking to a conference this week put on by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, researchers with Air Fuel Synthesis, Ltd. said they’ve successfully married a synthetic fuel production technique that dates back to World War II with modern atmospheric carbon capture and sequestration methods. The resulting product, they said, works in all current vehicles, can be blended with conventional fuels, and just might be a game changer for human energy and the fight against climate change if it’s ever produced on a large enough scale.
• Angry Republicans target soup kitchen where Paul Ryan staged photo-op. These people would do well to remember that Paul Ryan is the one who invited himself to the soup kitchen for a photo-op. Paul Ryan is the one who washed clean dishes in the hopes of scoring political points. And if Republicans are made [sic] about it, they’ve got no one to blame but Paul Ryan. The last thing in the world they should do is take it out on the charity—and the homeless and hungry people who depend on it.
• For the second time in a week, a Colorado field office for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has been targeted. KUSA-TV reported Friday that the campaign’s field office in Conifer, Colorado, was found with swastikas spray-painted on it. According to The Denver Post, a spokesperson for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department said a deputy answering a vandalism report that morning found three windows and five campaign signs for the president had been vandalized, though he did not know what had been spray-painted on them.
• Sidwell Friends, the Washington D.C. private school that both Obama daughters attend, was evacuated Thursday due to a suspicious package, police officials say. Araz Alali, a spokesman for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, said that the scene is now clear and that there is no evidence that the threat was directed at the First Family.
• During a press conference call Friday afternoon, Democratic Massachusetts state Senator Karen Spilka debunked Mitt Romney’s claims of bipartisanship. She said many legislators– including Republicans — would say that Mitt Romney not only wasn’t bipartisan, but he didn’t even know where that aisle was. Sen. Spilka recounted that at one point, after she had been working with Romney for weeks, he still didn’t know who she was. Romney then came to her district and still didn’t know who she was. In retelling this to a Republican colleague, the colleague told her not to feel bad because Romney didn’t know who the Republican legislators were either. He said, “Karen, don’t feel so badly. He doesn’t know who we are either.”
• A third instance of fraudulent voter registration has been uncovered in the important swing state of Virginia, where a Republican consultant has been arrested and thousands of discarded voter registration forms were recovered from a dumpster earlier this week. According to the Not Larry Sabato blog, a law student at James Madison University registered to vote on campus, but found when she tried to verify the change online, found that her form had never been submitted.
• Lebanon was reeling Saturday after a top security official was killed in a bombing that was blamed on Syria and also raised fears the country is being sucked into the war ravaging its neighbour. The authorities have called a day of national mourning for those killed in Friday’s powerful rush-hour explosion in Ashrafieh, an upmarket mostly Christian district of Beirut. Officials said Internal Security Forces (ISF) intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan was among at least three people who died — one of the highest-profile killings since the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Both the ISF and the Red Cross reported a lower death toll than the information ministry’s figure of eight reported overnight.
• Efraim Halevy, former director of Israeli spy agency the Mossad, said today that he disagreed with the idea of setting so-called “red lines” for Iran’s nuclear program. Talk of placing red lines on Iran’s nuclear program is meant to refer a point at which the Islamic Republic would presumably be met with a military response should it decide to cross. Halevy emphasized a need for leadership from “people who are solution oriented and not war oriented.” “I think the use of the red line creates clarity on the one hand and it also creates a commitment that not always can be met. And therefore, I personally felt that the use of a red line is not conducive to the ultimate aim.”
F.D.Brightly
Romnesia
Shorter Question Everything
• President Obama in Fairfax, Virginia: “Romnesia”:
In other news
• Andrea Mitchell – Correcting Sen Hutchison Blunt amendment lets ALL opt out of contraception benefits not just religious employers http://nbcnews.to/Rm8s6k
https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/status/259367205014220800
• Engineers in London said this week that they’ve developed a new type of synthetic vehicle fuel that’s created out of water and thin air, literally by pulling carbon molecules out of the atmosphere and recycling them. Speaking to a conference this week put on by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, researchers with Air Fuel Synthesis, Ltd. said they’ve successfully married a synthetic fuel production technique that dates back to World War II with modern atmospheric carbon capture and sequestration methods. The resulting product, they said, works in all current vehicles, can be blended with conventional fuels, and just might be a game changer for human energy and the fight against climate change if it’s ever produced on a large enough scale.
• Angry Republicans target soup kitchen where Paul Ryan staged photo-op. These people would do well to remember that Paul Ryan is the one who invited himself to the soup kitchen for a photo-op. Paul Ryan is the one who washed clean dishes in the hopes of scoring political points. And if Republicans are made [sic] about it, they’ve got no one to blame but Paul Ryan. The last thing in the world they should do is take it out on the charity—and the homeless and hungry people who depend on it.
• For the second time in a week, a Colorado field office for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has been targeted. KUSA-TV reported Friday that the campaign’s field office in Conifer, Colorado, was found with swastikas spray-painted on it. According to The Denver Post, a spokesperson for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department said a deputy answering a vandalism report that morning found three windows and five campaign signs for the president had been vandalized, though he did not know what had been spray-painted on them.
• Sidwell Friends, the Washington D.C. private school that both Obama daughters attend, was evacuated Thursday due to a suspicious package, police officials say. Araz Alali, a spokesman for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, said that the scene is now clear and that there is no evidence that the threat was directed at the First Family.
• During a press conference call Friday afternoon, Democratic Massachusetts state Senator Karen Spilka debunked Mitt Romney’s claims of bipartisanship. She said many legislators– including Republicans — would say that Mitt Romney not only wasn’t bipartisan, but he didn’t even know where that aisle was. Sen. Spilka recounted that at one point, after she had been working with Romney for weeks, he still didn’t know who she was. Romney then came to her district and still didn’t know who she was. In retelling this to a Republican colleague, the colleague told her not to feel bad because Romney didn’t know who the Republican legislators were either. He said, “Karen, don’t feel so badly. He doesn’t know who we are either.”
• A third instance of fraudulent voter registration has been uncovered in the important swing state of Virginia, where a Republican consultant has been arrested and thousands of discarded voter registration forms were recovered from a dumpster earlier this week. According to the Not Larry Sabato blog, a law student at James Madison University registered to vote on campus, but found when she tried to verify the change online, found that her form had never been submitted.
• Lebanon was reeling Saturday after a top security official was killed in a bombing that was blamed on Syria and also raised fears the country is being sucked into the war ravaging its neighbour. The authorities have called a day of national mourning for those killed in Friday’s powerful rush-hour explosion in Ashrafieh, an upmarket mostly Christian district of Beirut. Officials said Internal Security Forces (ISF) intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan was among at least three people who died — one of the highest-profile killings since the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Both the ISF and the Red Cross reported a lower death toll than the information ministry’s figure of eight reported overnight.
• Efraim Halevy, former director of Israeli spy agency the Mossad, said today that he disagreed with the idea of setting so-called “red lines” for Iran’s nuclear program. Talk of placing red lines on Iran’s nuclear program is meant to refer a point at which the Islamic Republic would presumably be met with a military response should it decide to cross. Halevy emphasized a need for leadership from “people who are solution oriented and not war oriented.” “I think the use of the red line creates clarity on the one hand and it also creates a commitment that not always can be met. And therefore, I personally felt that the use of a red line is not conducive to the ultimate aim.”