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01 Feb 2012 14:27

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Politics: Mitt Romney provides his opponents with tailor-made gaffe

  • I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich; they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.
  • Mitt Romney • Speaking to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien this morning. There’s a few different reasons this will, and likely should, be seen as a gaffe. Romney’s political opponents now have footage of him saying he’s not concerned about the very poor, which isolated from his broader point feeds the very narrative that is most damaging to him, that of the disaffected millionaire. Snipping the quote and excising his real point about the Americans in between would be somewhat disingenuous. Even taken in full context, though, he is suggesting the very poor and very rich are somehow equally undeserving of a President’s attention, which is a peculiar philosophical position in and of itself, and one we suspect won’t play well with a great deal of people. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jan 2012 20:23

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Politics: Mitt Romney projected as winner of the GOP Florida Primary

  • Mitt’s it!: ABC News, among other outlets, has projected that Mitt Romney is the winner of the 2012 Florida GOP Primary. This was not a surprising result — he’d led chief rival Newt Gingrich in the polls by double digits coming into today, and by double digits it seems he will win. He presently leads Gingrich by about 16%, with close to 50% of all Florida precincts reporting. Newt Gingrich is projected to place in second, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul trailing in third and forth, respectively. Now, the campaigns move on to Nevada (though both Paul and Santorum left Florida early, ceding their chances in Florida to get a head-start in the Silver State), where Newt Gingrich faces a tall order indeed; his campaign has nowhere near the organization and ground game that Romney’s does there, and after this decisive loss he needs a roaring comeback to stay viable. (Photo by Erik Hersman) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jan 2012 19:46

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Politics: Florida exit polls show evangelicals rare bright spot for Gingrich

  • 36% Mitt Romney’s level of support from evangelical voters in today’s Florida GOP primary, exit polls show
  • 40% Newt Gingrich’s level of support — better a cheater than a Mormon for Florida’s evangelicals? source
  • » Pardon us if that seems reductive, but how evangelical voters relate to Mitt Romney’s faith, and Newt Gingrich’s lack of faithfulness, has been a critical question in the GOP nominating process. In a barrage of exit polling coming out of Florida tonight, this seems to be one of the few positives Gingrich can take away; while not a staggering advantage by any stretch, his personal baggage risks making him deeply unpalatable to a moralistic, Christian electorate. In the short-term, however, it seems he’s staying afloat with those voters, at least enough to keep Romney at his back.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jan 2012 19:24

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Politics: Exit polling shows GOP debates played big role

  • 2 of 3Florida voters call debates a big factor source
  • » The early exit polling tells the tale, and it’s an especially concerning one for Newt Gingrich. The GOP debates held in Florida, particularly the most recent one, were widely thought have been won by Mitt Romney. Gingrich himself never had a worse debate than that, just prior to Florida voters having to make up their minds. That Gingrich is likely to lose tonight is no shocker — heading into today he was polling behind by double-digits. However, considering it was his sharp, aggressive debate demeanor that propelled him to victory in South Carolina, to now be losing that medium to Mitt Romney has to sting, and is an essential issue for his campaign going forward.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jan 2012 15:39

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Biz: Petition demands humane work practices in production of Apple products

  • 35,000 sign petition for an “ethical” iPhone source
  • » And that’s just the first 24 hours: Apple’s production chain in China has gotten a ton of ink lately, exposing the dire workplace conditions and inhumane treatment that are present in the production of the iPhone (author’s note: in the interests of full disclosure, I’m an iPhone user, and am thus as guilty of neglecting these implications as anyone). In response, a petition has been circulating urging Apple to install hard and fast regulations for how their manufacturing workers are treated in advance of the release of the iPhone 5. Says the petition: “Can Apple do this? Absolutely. According to an anonymous Apple executive quoted in The New York Times, all Apple has to do is demand it, and it’ll happen.”
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jan 2012 15:28

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Politics: Virginia AG investigating fraudulent Gingrich signatures

  • A costly “mistake?”: It’s been reported that the Attorney General of Virginia will hold an investigation into the Gingrich campaign’s ballot petition, which was submitted to the state containing nearly 1,500 fraudulent signatures. In admitting this fraud issue publicly, Gingrich dismissed it as a “mistake,” which drew criticism when compared to the harsh condemnation he voiced on nearly identical signature issues in ACORN’s voter registration drives. Adding insult to injury, the Gingrich petition fell short of the signature total needed to appear on the ballot, meaning the Virginia GOP presidential primary will feature only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) source
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31 Jan 2012 14:44

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World: Former head of Royal Bank of Scotland stripped of knighthood

  • Fred Goodwin was the dominant decision-maker at RBS at the time. In reaching this decision, it was recognised that widespread concern about Fred Goodwin’s decisions meant that the retention of a knighthood for ‘services to banking’ could not be sustained.
  • A British Cabinet Office spokesman • Remarking on the decision to strip Fred Goodwin, the former chief of the Royal Bank of Scotland, of the knighthood he received in 2004. Goodwin presided over RBS during its acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007, during the height of the financial and banking sector crisis; a risky move that failed utterly. The British taxpayer was forced to fund a bailout of RBN thanks to Goodwin’s aggressive acquisition, to the tune of 45 billion pounds. Said Labour Party leader Ed Milliband: “…I think it is only the start of the change we need in our boardrooms. We need to change the bonus culture and we need real responsibility right across the board.” source
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31 Jan 2012 14:13

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Politics: Gingrich robocall says Romney forced Holocaust survivors to eat non-kosher

  • A heavy slur, sloppily made: The Gingrich campaign has, in an effort to both court and inflame Florida’s large Jewish population, made a startling accusation. As you can hear above, a robocall claims Romney vetoed a bill to fund kosher food in Massachusetts nursing homes, which meant that Holocaust survivors were, “for the first time,” forced to eat non-kosher. In reality, Romney did veto a bill providing additional funds, but it never took effect (overruled by the state legislature), nor would it have forced anyone to eat non-kosher; it maintained present funding levels, and nursing homes without kosher kitchens would offset with other sources of kosher cuisine, saving nearly $600,000. Assuming the true context of this tactic is widely realized, we guess this won’t endear Newt to the Jewish community. Or anybody else. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2012 14:36

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World: More deaths as apparent sectarian violence in Iraq continues

  • 17 Iraqis killed in bombings and shootings today source
  • » Deciphering the discord: The state of affairs in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces (not to suggest Iraq was an entirely safe place when those forces were there, obviously) has somewhat undeniably deteriorated, plagued by mass attacks of a sectarian nature. Today was one such grisly example — as the political struggle for representation between Shiite and Sunni has intensified, it has been shadowed by an increasing frequency of attacks, apparently by sectarian militants (al-Qaeda in Iraq among them).
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2012 14:06

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World: Americans, son of Ray LaHood among them, barred from leaving Egypt

  • It’s absolutely an escalation. To have a strategic U.S. ally issue bans against American citizens is deeply troubling.
  • Scott Mastic, Mid-East regional director of the International Republican Institute • Speaking on the state of affairs in Egypt, where American members of the IRI, a pro-democracy group, have been barred from traveling pending apparent investigation by the military government. This is, perhaps, the unpleasant flip-side of the coin in Egypt, after yesterday’s anniversary of the protests (along with many reports yesterday that women were in great personal danger as darkness fell on Tahrir Square). This story takes on a personal nature for one prominent member of the U.S. government — Sam LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is the IRI’s director in Egypt, and has explicitly been forbidden to return home. “It’s gotten more serious,” he said. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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