Tag Archives: climate change

Bill Clinton on Mitt Romney, global warming, and Hurricane Sandy

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gifsfln: Bill Clinton goes there on Mitt Romney and climate change.

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Joe Romm: How Does Climate Change Make Superstorms Like Sandy More Destructive: Climate science explains how global warming can make a superstorms like Sandy more destructive in several ways:

  1. Warming-driven sea level rise makes storm surges more destructive. In fact, a recent study found “The sea level on a stretch of the US Atlantic coast that features the cities of New York, Norfolk and Boston is rising up to four times faster than the global average.”
  2. “Owing to higher SSTs [sea surface temperatures] from human activities, the increased water vapor in the atmosphere leads to 5 to 10% more rainfall and increases the risk of flooding,” as Kevin Trenberth explained to me in a 2011 email about Hurricane Irene. He elaborates on that point for Sandy here and for all superstorms in this article.
  3. “However, because water vapor and higher ocean temperatures help fuel the storm, it is likely to be more intense and bigger as well,” Trenberth added (see another of his articles here). Relatedly, warming also extends the range of warm SSTs, which can help sustain the strength of a hurricane as it steers on a northerly track into cooler water (much as apparently happened for Irene). September had the second highest global ocean temperatures on record and the Eastern seaboard was 5°F warmer than average (with global warming  responsible for about 1°F of that).
  4. The unusual path of the storm — into the heavily populated east coast rather than out to see — was caused by a very strong blocking high pressure system that recent studies have linked to warming.  Meteorologist and former Hurricane Hunter Jeff Masters has an excellent analysis of this, “Why did Hurricane Sandy take such an unusual track into New Jersey?“

Morning coffee

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saveplanetearth:

“These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change.” ––James Hansen, NASA Climate Scientist


via: christopherstreet

Rising oceans, healing the planet are highly mockable ideas to Mitt Romney and his base:

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Here’s an example of the help Mitt will provide to American families:

And here’s what Obama said, in context, from June 2008 when he accepted the Democratic nomination for president:

If we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

Mitt Romney said federal disaster relief is an “immoral” debt, “makes no sense at all”

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Mother Jones: With Hurricane Sandy set to make landfall in the Mid-Atlantic, Mitt Romney’s policies for federal emergency management seem as relevant as ever. And the candidate’s budget, as described below, isn’t the only indication Romney would slash funding: As the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim noted, the presidential candidate suggested during a GOP primary debate that he would diminish [FEMA's] role and leave responsibility for helping imperiled Americans to the states.

Huffington Post: [Mitt Romney was asked by John King, the debate moderator] if FEMA should be shuttered so that states can individually take over responsibility for disaster response.

Mitt Romney: “Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?…”

John King: “Including disaster relief, though?”

Romney: “We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.”


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Mother Jones (cont): “The Ryan budget makes no mention of FEMA or the Department of Homeland Security of which it’s a part. In fact it makes no mention of any specific cuts to non-entitlement programs. We can’t say for sure, in other words, the extent to which disaster funding would be scaled back. But the overall math suggests that it would be drastic. The Ryan budget proposes reducing total non-entitlement spending from 12 percent of GDP to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2050. As my colleague Kevin Drum put it:

Defense spending alone amounts to 4% of GDP, and it’s vanishingly unlikely that this will ever fall much below 2-3% of GDP. This means that all domestic spending will decline from about 8% of GDP to 1-2% of GDP by 2050. That’s prisons, border control, education, the FBI, courts, embassies, the IRS, FEMA, housing, student loans, roads, unemployment insurance, etc. etc. It’s everything. Whacked by about 80% or so.

“[...] the GOP ticket’s likely cuts to disaster management and weather forecasting budgets would come at a time in which, fueled by climate change, natural disasters are becoming increasingly more potent and expensive. There were 14 billion-dollar disasters in the United States in 2011—the most on record.“

It’s all part of the austerity measures that Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan would implement to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy and greater military spending than is necessary. Those things, to Mitt Romney, are not an “immoral” debt — those debts makes sense to Mitt Romney.

Those are the Republican Party’s priorities — what are yours?

Meanwhile in North America: Hurricane Sandy, an earthquake, and a tsunami warning

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Stay safe, everyone!


Front page: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/


Hurricane Sandy update: Storm track as of 9 a.m. Sunday: The storm has tracked up the East Coast and is currently about 260 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, NC., and 395 miles south of New York City. Maximum sustained winds were clocked in at 75 mph, with higher gusts, and the storm is churning northeast at a steady 10 mph, the National Weather Service says. The center of the hurricane will move parallel to the southeast coast of the United States today and tonight and start moving towards the coastal Mid-Atlantic states by Monday night. The leading edge of Sandy is forecast to hit the Garden State this afternoon, strengthening as it merges with a cold weather system to the west.

peterfeld: From the NYC summary (click through for other regions):

The worst of Sandy is forecast to converge between New York City to the Delmarva on the coast Monday into Tuesday with conditions deteriorating rapidly Sunday night. Problems ranging from travel delays and inconveniences to major damage and life-threatening conditions are to be expected with this storm. […] Salt water can spread over some rail yards and perhaps into subway stations. Some low-lying communities can take on feet of water. […]

Wind gusts in the neighborhood of 60 to 80 mph are a strong possibility in the New York area even if the center heads for Delaware or South Jersey. This can down trees, send loose items airborne. Funneling effect between the buildings can make walking extremely difficult. Windows could be dislodged from some skyscrapers, as the winds will be much stronger several hundred of feet above the ground.

accuweather: Updates: Sandy’s Catastrophic Impacts on the Northeast

This live blog is tracking the latest info on Hurricane Sandy, along with specific information for each region and major city in its path.

coalspeaker:

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7.7 magnitude quake hits Canada’s British Columbia: “A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 hit Canada’s Pacific coastal province of British Columbia late Saturday, setting off a small tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, officials said.”

Hawaii tsunami downgraded as threat recedes: “Neil Abercrombie said early on Sunday the island was lucky to avoid more severe surges after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Canada. But he said that beaches and harbours remained closed.”

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Other considerations: 

Newspaper Coverage Ignores Connection To Climate Change: There is a ton of coverage on the “Frankenstorm,” but you aren’t getting the full story. Here’s why.

Hurricane Sandy and the election: ”What I’m seeing a lot of right now is an assumption that Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath will hurt Obama more than Romney. This strikes me as a case of not thinking things all the way through. Yes, Sandy will hit a region where President Obama is mostly doing well and it’s sure to depress turnout. But keep in mind, we’re not extremely concerned with the popular vote. If, for example, only three people turn out in Massachusetts and two vote for Obama, the president wins twelve electoral college votes. Turnout is only a factor when compared to the other candidate’s turnout — and Romney voters will face similar challenges.”

Stephen Colbert’s shorter Mitt Romney acceptance speech: F*#k the planet!

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source: sandandglass

Steven Benen remarks on the ignorance of Romney’s ‘jokey’ delivery and his audience’s laughter about the matter of rising sea levels and climate change:

Romney said, “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

That’s great news for those of us who don’t have families on this planet.

Now, as a factual matter, Romney’s promise is itself rather strange. How “you and your family” will benefit from less access to affordable health care, less access to education, and fewer investments in roads and infrastructure is something of a mystery.

But even putting that aside, the aspect of Romney’s comments that was simply astounding was the ignorance. The Republican treated rising sea levels as a punch-line, as if the very idea of addressing the climate crisis is ridiculous and those who take this seriously are fools worthy of mockery.

Indeed, the Republican audience took their cues, literally laughing at Obama’s efforts to address global warming.

Also notice that, in Romney’s mind, there’s a distinction — the nation can deal with the climate crisis or we can help families, as if the two have nothing to do with one another.

When people in the future look back at Romney’s contempt for the idea of “slowing the rise of the oceans,” and his party’s willingness to bury their hands in the sand, history will not be kind.

Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech: NINE issues he decided he wouldn’t talk about

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Long on biography but short on policy.

Think Progress lists 9 items Romney either didn’t bring up — or that were mentioned in passing — in his acceptance speech last night. “[F]or a candidate who chose Paul Ryan as his running mate to signal a willingness to take on big challenges, Romney spent precious few — if any — words discussing some of the country’s most pressing problems and even less time explaining how a Romney/Ryan administration would solve them:”

  1. – 0 mentions of Financial Reform: Even as millions of Americans struggle with the effects of the Great Recession caused by Wall Street malfeasance and scores of others continue to deal with the fallout of the foreclosure fraud scandal, Romney has said that he will repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, but has yet to detail what, if anything, he would put in its place.
  2. — 0 mentions of Climate Change: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” Romney said to loud laughter. It’s too bad that he and most of the GOP delegates don’t believe in the very real threat of global warming.
  3. – 0 mentions of Immigration: “We are a nation of immigrants,” Romney said, without explaining how he would help the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Romney has not said if he would rescind Obama’s temporary directive permitting young undocumented immigrants to work in the country, though his advisers have suggested that he would.
  4. – 0 mentions of Romneycare: The convention speakers didn’t tackle Romney’s greatest accomplishment as governor, the enactment of universal health care coverage in Massachusetts. Romney promised to repeal Obamacare, but did not say what he would replace it with.
  5. – 0 mentions of Afghanistan or Syria: Romney did not mention how he planned to address the nation’s largest ongoing wars or one of the most important ongoing humanitarian crises on Earth. This may be because the Romney campaign has been unable to meaningfully distinguish its policies from those of the Obama administration on either of these crucial issues.
  6. – 0 mentions of Social Security: Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, has proposed Social Security privatization schemes that would have cost retirees dearly if they had been in place during the financial crisis.
  7. – 0 mentions of Veterans: Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Romney has ignored veterans issues. After he spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last month, veteran advocates said they were “still waiting for Romney to spell out how he would do better than his opponent.” “We haven’t … heard any specific plans yet from Governor Romney or his campaign,” said Bob Wallace, executive director at the Washington office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, echoing the sentiment of many advocates.”
  8. – 1 mention of Medicare: Romney criticized Obama for cutting $716 billion cuts from Medicare — reductions that are also included in Paul Ryan’s budget. But did not explain what his own controversial reforms. Under Romney’s “premium support” plan, seniors would have to spend significantly more for health care.
  9. – 1 mention of Housing: Romney did say, “when the realtor told you that to sell your house you’d have to take a big loss” — but that’s all. The Federal Reserve bank of New York anticipates that millions of Americans will face foreclosure this year and next, but Romney has yet to release a housing plan, beyond telling homeowners in foreclosure-battered Las Vegas “don’t try and stop the foreclosure process,” just “let it run its course and hit the bottom.”

Mitt Romney is a firm believer in keeping secrets, which includes his policy plans. Romney has restricted voters to a ‘need to know’ access, meaning they don’t need to know until after they vote for him.

Photos: the President inspecting drought-stricken crops in Iowa

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firstfamily: President Obama inspects drought-stricken corn with farmer Roger McIntosh as he visits the McIntosh farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa

Related: I wonder how many drought-stricken farmers still want LESS government in their lives?

NOT climate change: melting ice sheets, glaciers shedding icebergs, severe U.S. drought

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NASA image of Greenland ice sheet melting in July 2012

“The Greenland ice sheet melted at a faster rate this month than at any other time in recorded history, with virtually the entire ice sheet showing signs of thaw. The rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed scientists, and deepened fears about the pace and future consequences of climate change. In a statement posted on Nasa’s website on Tuesday, scientists admitted the satellite data was so striking they thought at first there had to be a mistake. [...] It was the second unusual event in Greenland in a matter of days, after an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke off from the Petermann Glacier. But the rapid melt was viewed as more serious.”

— NASA warns 97 percent of Greenland ice sheet surface melted in four days

Meanwhile in the U.S., via Political Wire:

The New York Times reports that “The drought that has settled over more than half of the continental United States this summer is the most widespread in more than half a century. And it is likely to grow worse.”

“The government has declared one-third of the nation’s counties — 1,297 of them across 29 states — federal disaster areas as a result of the drought, which will allow farmers to apply for low-interest loans to get them through the disappointing growing season… Fifty-five percent of the continental United States — from California to Arkansas, Texas to North Dakota — is under moderate to extreme drought, according to the government, the largest such area since December 1956. An analysis released on Thursday by the United States Drought Monitor showed that 88 percent of corn and 87 percent of soybean crops in the country were in drought-stricken regions, a 10 percent jump from a week before.”

“The withering corn has increased feed prices and depleted available feeding land, putting stress on cattle farmers. A record 54 percent of pasture and rangeland — where cattle feed or where hay is harvested for feeding — was in poor or very poor condition, according to the Department of Agriculture. Many farmers have been forced to sell their animals. Because feed can account for nearly half of a cattle farmer’s costs, consumers could see a rise in the price of meat and dairy products, experts said. The high sustained heat has led the key components in milk, like fat and protein, to plummet more than usual”

US Drought Monitor, July 24, 2012

Here’s something to think about:

“WE’RE now in the midst of the nation’s most widespread drought in 60 years, stretching across 29 states and threatening farmers, their crops and livestock. But there is another risk as water becomes more scarce. Power plants may be forced to shut down, and oil and gas production may be threatened. Our energy system depends on water. About half of the nation’s water withdrawals every day are just for cooling power plants. In addition, the oil and gas industries use tens of millions of gallons a day, injecting water into aging oil fields to improve production, and to free natural gas in shale formations through hydraulic fracturing. Those numbers are not large from a national perspective, but they can be significant locally.”

— Will Drought Cause the Next Blackout? – NYTimes.com (via: randomactsofchaos)

What climate change?

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From Julia Whitty at Mother Jones:

Average national temperature records May 2011 to April 2012: NOAA/NCDC

Record average national temperatures from May 2011 to April 2012: NOAA/NCDC

The last 12 months were the hottest 12 months in US history since record-keeping began in 1895. This according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center‘s latest State of the Climate report.

United States Drought Monitor as of 1 May 2012.: climate.govUnited States Drought Monitor as of 1 May 2012.: climate.gov

The gnarly partner to all this heat is drought. The US Drought Monitor (USDM) map above shows the state of drought in the lower 48 as of 1 May 2012. That’s a lot of dry territory.

Climate change: Antarctica’s densest waters have reduced dramatically

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A report from Raw Story this morning about Antarctic waters and climate change:

THE DENSEST WATERS OF ANTARCTICA have reduced dramatically over recent decades, in part due to man-made impacts on the climate, Australian scientists said Friday.

Research suggests that up to 60 percent of “Antarctic Bottom Water”, the dense water formed around the edges of Antarctica that seeps into the deep sea and spreads out through the world’s oceans, has disappeared since 1970.

[...] They took temperature and salinity samples at stages of the journey to the Earth’s southernmost continent, also revealing that the dense water around Antarctica has become less salty since 1970.

Rintoul said the change was “likely reflecting both human impact on the planet as well as natural cycles”.

“And the human impact includes both the increase in greenhouse gases but also the ozone hole over Antarctica,” he said, adding that this hole had caused winds of the Southern Ocean to strengthen.

Read: Antarctic waters changing due to climate: study

“Ninety five percent of the glaciers in the world are retreating or shrinking… there is no scientific dispute about that“  – Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey, The Canary In The Coal Mine: Climate Change in Time Lapse Photography

WATCH a promo video from
http://www.extremeicesurvey.org
 –

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Some photos from the same website:
GL13283.jpg
A massive iceberg broken off the Greenland Ice Sheet, surrounded by lily pads of sea ice, in the process of breaking up at the edge of Disko Bay. Previous photo / Next photo

How seriously does the anti-science, rightwingnut think tank Heartland Institute take this threat? This seriously.

Now consider the most extreme result in some dystopian future:

Morning Bunker Report: Thursday 4.26.2012

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——————————WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY

DONALD TRUMP DECIDED TO MAKE AN ASS OF HIMSELF in Scotland’s parliament yesterday, demanding the country end plans for an offshore wind farm he fears will spoil the view at his exclusive new $750-million-pound ($1.2-billion) golf resort. In a typically blunt display, the New York property tycoon told an inquiry into renewable energy to stop the wind power efforts in the country’s north. “Scotland, if you pursue this policy of these monstrous turbines, Scotland will go broke,” he said. “They are ugly, they are noisy and they are dangerous. If Scotland does this, Scotland will be in serious trouble and will lose tourism to places like Ireland, and they are laughing at us.” [...] When challenged to produce hard evidence about his claims on the negative impact of turbines, Trump said: “I am the evidence, I am a world class expert in tourism.” The public gallery burst into laughter. – Yahoo!

MITT ROMNEY’S SPEECH INCLUDED THE WORD “America” a numbing 33 times. But there’s something else I want to note from Romney’s speech, something that both Republicans and Democrats do, and it drives me crazy: ”I’ll tell you about how much I love this country, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company. Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car.”  You see, Mitt Romney may not have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, but he has a pair of bootstraps that he inherited from his father, which he keeps in a small mahogany box and takes out and gazes upon every now and again to remind himself of how great it is for someone to have bootstraps, and pull himself up by them, if that’s what he needs to do. All he’s saying is, he knows from bootstraps. – Enough With “Only In America”

MARCO RUBIO AUDITIONS FOR ROMNEY AND THE BASE: U.S. may have to strike Iran (and Russia, and China…) — Rubio, a member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently campaigned with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and has been touted as a possible running mate. [...] “We should also be preparing our allies, and the world, for the reality that unfortunately, if all else fails, preventing a nuclear Iran may, tragically, require a military solution.” Rubio, also lambasted Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin’s preaching of “paranoia and anti-Western sentiments” and the “curtain of secrecy that veils the Chinese state.” “On the most difficult transnational challenges of our time, who will lead if we do not? The answer, at least today, is that no other nation or organization is willing or able to do so,” he said. – Raw Story

TEA PARTY FRESHMAN REP. SCOTT TIPTON (R-CO) relies on campaign contributions from oil and gas companies that he has a financial stake in. Public Campaign reports that one-third of Tipton’s first quarter fundraising comes from corporate PACs and party committees, while only 14 percent comes from small donors of less than $200. – ThinkProgress

BAD TOUCH: REP. FRANCISCO CANSECO (R-TX) CLAIMS TSA ASSAULTED HIM (they made him feel funny in his tummy) during a pat-down at the San Antonio International Airport. “The agent was very aggressive in his pat-down, and he was patting me down where no one is supposed to go,” Canseco told local network KENS 5. – Raw Story

REP. TODD AKIN (R-MO) says the federal government shouldn’t be involved in student loans at all: “America has got the equivalent of the stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in.” — TPM

PRESIDENT OBAMA / DEMOCRATS————————————————————

RON PAUL’S CAMPAIGN PULLED IN LESS MONEY FROM THE MILITARY last month than President Obama’s did, according to campaign finance numbers. Paul’s anti-war stances still draw more military donations than Mitt Romney, but the decline is another indicator of his campaign’s increasing status as more of a traveling libertarian speaking series than a traditional effort to win the presidency. On the Open Secrets blog: Overall, Paul retains the lead. Analysis of OpenSecrets.org data shows that so far in this election cycle, members of the military who donated more than $200 have given Paul’s campaign about $333,134, versus $184,505 to Obama and just $45,738 to Romney. But in March, Obama and Paul switched places. Members of the military sent $36,448 to Obama and just $17,733 to Paul. Even though Romney solidified his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, military donations to his campaign remained anemic — only $8,630. – Obama Overtakes Paul Among Military Donors

PRESIDENT OBAMA SAYS the amount of money poured into fighting the scientific consensus on climate change will push the issue into the presidential campaign. [...] “Part of the challenge over these past three years has been that people’s number-one priority is finding a job and paying the mortgage and dealing with high gas prices,” Obama said. “In that environment, it’s been easy for the other side to pour millions of dollars into a campaign to debunk climate-change science. “I suspect that over the next six months, this is going to be a debate that will become part of the campaign, and I will be very clear in voicing my belief that we’re going to have to take further steps to deal with climate change in a serious way,” he added. – POLITICO

THE WHITE HOUSE ON WEDNESDAY shocked lawmakers and advocacy groups by announcing that President Obama would veto a proposed national cybersecurity bill known as CISPA if it reaches his desk in its current form. [...] The ACLU is one of several advocacy groups staunchly opposed to CISPA over concerns that the bill’s language is so broad that it would allow companies and U.S. intelligence agencies to share unprecedented amounts of personally identifiable information about Web users without proper oversight and accountability. – White House Veto Threat Scrambles CISPA’s Prospects

FOX NEWS SUGGESTS President Obama’s appearance on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is somehow denigrating the office of the presidency. For instance, today on Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson said that it’s “nutso” for Obama to go on “these comedy shows” because it “lowers the status of the office.” – Obama Lowered “The Status Of The Office”? Bush Appeared On Deal Or No Deal

  • 9 presidential pols on late-night TV – 6. George W. Bush drew both laughs and groans on “Late Show with David Letterman” on March 1, 2000, when he told his host, who had recently undergone heart bypass surgery, “It’s about time you had the heart to invite me.” 8. Al Gore read a “Top 10” list of rejected Gore-Lieberman campaign slogans on the Sept. 14, 2000, episode of “Late Show with David Letterman.” No. 9: “Remember, America, I gave you the Internet, and I can take it away!” 9. Mitt Romney also used Letterman’s “Top 10” segment to jab himself on Dec. 20, 2011. The No. 1 thing Romney would like to say to the American people? “It’s a hairpiece.”

Morning Bunker Report: Saturday 4.14.2012

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————————————-WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY

Victoria Jackson: Only Communists And Fascists Believe In Climate Change – ”This is the opposite of capitalism. It is the opposite of free enterprise and what made America the greatest nation in the world. This bill would be supported by the occupiers, Valerie Jarett, Van Jones, Obama, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Communists, Fascists, Socialists, whatever you want to call it, it’s the government taking over. It’s the government picking the winners and losers. Even though it looks pretty on the outside it’s the way our country is being destroyed right now.” – Victoria Jackson, speaking in opposition to a proposed alternative energy bill in Florida.

Rep. Virginia Foxx says ‘I Have Very Little Tolerance’ for people with student loans: Foxx (R-NC) took on a unique enemy during a radio interview yesterday: people with student loans. Though many politicians sympathize with those who are saddled with exorbitant student debt, Foxx, who chairs the House subcommittee on higher education, had a different take. Appearing on G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show, the North Carolina congresswoman recounted her own experience paying for college, where she worked her way through and graduated after seven years. Foxx then pointed to her own experience as justification for why she has “very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt.” “There’s no reason for that,” she concluded… [ThinkProgress]

Mitt Romney plays to NRA interests in bid to win over conservative base – ”In his second term, [Obama] would be unrestrained by the terms of re-election,” Romney said. “Who will stand up for the rights of hunters and sportsmen, and those who act to protect their families? President Obama has not. I will.” [...] “Obama has spent his entire political career engaged in a stealthy assault on your right to keep and bear arms. [If he wins] re-election to the White House, [he] will be immune from elections and free to misuse his ever-increasing power,” LaPierre said. Other key figures in the NRA have gone even further in their assaults on Obama. Ted Nugent, the ageing rocker who sits on the NRA board, called the president an “anti-American monster in the White House” in comments promoted on the NRA website. The increasingly hysterical tone of the organisation’s pronouncements is only to be expected in an election year, observers of the NRA say. “For the guys running the NRA, every election has to be Armageddon. This year, it’s ‘Obama is one election away from repealing the second amendment and stealing your guns’ – even though he’s done nothing but expand gun rights,” said Mark Glaze, director of the bipartisan coalition of more than 650 US mayors, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. [image:jessesublett]

Mystery donor gives $10 million to Crossroads GPS group to run ads against Obama and Democrats – The huge contributions, which make the donors among the top political givers in recent history, offer new evidence of the altered world of campaign finance: After the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, spending by interest groups has risen dramatically. The landmark ruling allowed corporations, unions and nonprofit groups such as Crossroads GPS to spend money directly on electoral politics. Crossroads GPS and its sister group, American Crossroads, hope to spend up to $300 million in the 2012 election cycle, promoting conservative ideas and helping elect Republicans up and down the ballot.

———————————————————–——PRESIDENT OBAMA / DEMOCRATS

The Buffett Rule is not raising a tax, it’s closing a loophole. It’s a quirk of the tax code that certain millionaires who enjoy private-equity riches pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families, and approving the Buffett Rule would not only mean establishing a degree of fairness, it would also mean scrapping this loophole. The point is not lost on President Obama, who made this observation on Wednesday: “I’d just point out that the Buffett Rule is something that will get us moving in the right direction towards fairness, towards economic growth. It will help us close our deficit and it’s a lot more specific than anything that the other side has proposed so far.” [emphasis added] In other words, where Paul Ryan is vague and evasive, Obama is being direct and specific. The president is identifying actual loopholes he wants to see closed (Buffett Rule, corporate-jet loophole, tax subsidies for oil companies), which would total tens of billions of dollars in the coming decade. Meanwhile Republican leaders talk about loopholes, but choose not to back this talk up with anything substantive. [Maddow Blog]


image: cindyburkeoriginals

Obama likely paid higher tax rate than Romney in 2011 – Obama also pays a slightly lower rate than his own secretary, the White House said. “The tax code should not (be) written in a way that allows for the wealthiest Americans to pay taxes at a lower rate than middle-class Americans,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. The Democratic-controlled Senate plans a Monday vote on the Buffett rule, one day before the U.S. tax-filing deadline. Americans favor the rule by 60 percent to 37 percent, according to a Gallup poll released on Friday. [...] A Romney spokeswoman called the tax debate an attempt by Obama to distract attention from the slow pace of job creation on his watch. Romney himself said the Buffett rule and other tax increases proposed by the White House were an “assault on economic freedom.” 

WSJ: President Obama paid $162,000 in federal income taxes on $845,000 of income in 2011 — an effective tax tate of 19%. Compare that to Mitt Romney, who, wonder of wonders and miracle of miracles, only paid an effective tax rate of 14% on income of $3 million. And you wonder why Republicans hate the Buffett Rule. [via]