via David Lawder, Reuters Massive U.S. government spending cuts and tax hikes due next year will cause even worse economic damage than previously thought if Washington fails to come up with a solution, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Wednesday. Without action by Congress to avoid a “fiscal cliff,” Americans should expect a “significant recession” … Continue reading
via Anthony Gucciardi, Nation of Change Monsanto is doing its absolute best to ensure that you do not know what you are putting into your mouth, now confirmed to have donated $4.2 million in an attempt to fight the California GMO labeling initiative that could very well put them out of business. You see, if … Continue reading
via Evan McMorris-Santoro, Talking Points Memo Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. “First of all, from what I … Continue reading
via Jeff Zeleny, The New York Times Four years ago, John Brooks cast his ballot for Barack Obama, becoming one of the voters won over by his promise for changing Washington. This time, he had been undecided, but he said Mitt Romney made his decision easier by placing Representative Paul D. Ryan on the Republican … Continue reading
via M.S. Bellows, Jr., The Guardian There has been much speculation about why Romney refuses to disclose earlier tax returns. Could it be as simple as an address? Friday’s exchange of letters between the election campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, in which Romney rejected Obama’s offer to drop the tax return issue if … Continue reading
via Elizabeth Hewitt and Abby Ohlheiser, Slate The Obama campaign has an offer for Team Romney: Release five years’ worth of tax returns and they’ll stop asking to see more. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina released an open letter to the candidate on Friday outlining the deal: “If the governor will release five years of … Continue reading
via Susan Page, USA Today They could turn a too-close-to-call race into a landslide for President Obama— but by definition they probably won’t. Call them the unlikely voters. A nationwide USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll of people who are eligible to vote but aren’t likely to do so finds that these stay-at-home Americans back Obama’s re-election … Continue reading
via Bob Egelko, Politics Blog, The San Francisco Chronicle Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate cements Romney’s own 180-degree turnabout on abortion. Ten years ago, as a candidate for governor, Romney promised to “protect the right of a woman to choose,” and pledged not to change “our pro-choice laws in Massachusetts.” … Continue reading
via Basil Katz, The Huffington Post Last week, federal prosecutors appealed a U.S. judge’s order barring enforcement of part of a law that permits indefinite military detention for those deemed to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces.” Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest in May ruled in favor of activists and … Continue reading
via Jonathan Easley, The Hill’s Ballot Box A plurality of Americans are not enthusiastic about Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday. Forty-two percent said they viewed Ryan’s candidacy as a “fair” or “poor” move by the Romney campaign, compared to 39 … Continue reading
via Brian Montopoli, CBS News The Commission on Presidential Debates have announced the moderators for the three presidential debates and the vice presidential debate set to take place in October. Among them is the first female presidential debate moderator in two decades. CNN’s Candy Crowley is set to moderate a town hall-style debate on October … Continue reading
via Matt Williams, The Guardian Mitt Romney’s decision to put Paul Ryan on the White House ticket has seemingly done that rarest of things in American politics: delighted both sides of the party divide in equal measure. Republican grandees gushed over the youngish star of the GOP, even those – such as former House speaker … Continue reading
via Nicholas Confessore and Michael D. Shear, The New York Times The fund-raising machine behind Mitt Romney and the Republican Party once again outperformed President Obama and the Democrats last month, raising $25 million more in July than the president and his Democratic allies. Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee took in $101.3 million … Continue reading
via Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post Devra Davis, a long-ignored evangelist on the health dangers of cellphones, finally feels like she’s been heard. As soon as next week, Congress is expected to say that a year-long investigation by the Government Accountability Office has found the Federal Communications Commission’s cellphone-safety regulations are woefully out of date. … Continue reading
via Nick Wing, The Huffington Post President Barack Obama signed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 into law last week, providing a wide-ranging package of benefits to military personnel and enacting new restrictions on protests of service member funerals. “We have a moral sacred duty to our men … Continue reading
via Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News Support for same-sex marriage rose among voters of all political stripes in recent years, but it surged so much among Democrats that the partisan divide on the issue is wider than ever, according to a national survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. Sixty-five percent of Democrats are now … Continue reading
via Reid J. Epstein and Byron Tau, Politico Democrats are set to include a pro-gay marriage plank in their convention platform for the first time in history, party sources confirm to Politico. The language was approved unanimously by a 15-member platform draft committee, and now heads for approval by the full platform committee in August. … Continue reading
via Sheldon Alberts, The Hill Mitt Romney holds thin advantages over President Obama on leadership, personal values and honesty, according to a new poll for The Hill. The poll, conducted for The Hill by Pulse Opinion Research, suggests voters see little difference between the candidates on character issues that Democrats have cited as key to … Continue reading
via Julie Bolcer, The Advocate New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn filed a brief Wednesday joining their constituent, Edith Windsor, in asking the Supreme Court to hear her challenge against the Defense of Marriage Act. Windsor, 83, is suing the federal government over $363,000 in estate taxes she was … Continue reading
via Lauren Kelly, Alternet, Salon [Editress’ Note: You can only vote for politicians once every few years. You can vote with your wallet every single day. Make change happen.] — 1. Chick-fil-A It won’t be news to many readers that Chick-fil-A’s owner is deeply entrenched in conservative politics and social issues. The chain has … Continue reading
via Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), San Gabriel Valley Tribune Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, represents California’s 29th Congressional District. Three weeks ago, in a decision all but lost in the tumult over the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the Justices overturned a century-old Montana law that prohibited corporate spending in that state’s elections. In … Continue reading
via Justin Sink, The Hill’s Ballot Box The joke might be over. Comedian Stephen Colbert’s super-PAC raised only $5,690 in June, the second straight month that the organization brought in less than five figures. The totals pale in comparison to the committee’s performance last year, when the group raised more than $825,000. Colbert began the … Continue reading
via Justin Sink, The Hill’s Ballot Box A majority of Americans believe Mitt Romney should release more of his tax returns, evidence that the Obama campaign’s push for fuller disclosure from the Republican nominee could be gaining traction. Of those surveyed in the USA Today poll released Thursday, 54 percent of all voters and 53 … Continue reading
via Scott Shane, The New York Times For streamlined, unmanned aircraft, drones carry a lot of baggage these days, along with their Hellfire missiles. Some people find the very notion of killer robots deeply disturbing. Their lethal operations inside sovereign countries that are not at war with the United States raise contentious legal questions. They … Continue reading
via Michael Cooper, The New York Times How well the new health care law succeeds in covering millions of the poorest Americans will depend largely on undecided governors of both parties, who gathered here this weekend and spoke of the challenges of weighing the law’s costs and benefits in a highly charged political atmosphere and … Continue reading