International NYT: Romney tries to rewrite history

PJ:  I certainly hope that the Democrats show a little more honesty during their convention.  You can always hope....
 
The International Herald Tribune

Editorial

Mr. Romney Reinvents History

Published: August 30, 2012 611 Comments

Mitt Romney wrapped the most important speech of his life, for Thursday night’s session of his convention, around an extraordinary reinvention of history — that his party rallied behind President Obama when he won in 2008, hoping that he would succeed. “That president was not the choice of our party,” he said. “We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than divides us.”

The truth, rarely heard this week in Tampa, Fla., is that the Republicans charted a course of denial and obstruction from the day Mr. Obama was inaugurated, determined to deny him a second term by denying him any achievement, no matter the cost to the economy or American security — even if it meant holding the nation’s credit rating hostage to a narrow partisan agenda.

Mr. Romney’s big speech, delivered in a treacly tone with a strange misty smile on his face suggesting he was always about to burst into tears, was of a piece with the rest of the convention. Republicans have offered precious little of substance but a lot of bromides (“A free world is a more peaceful world!”) meant to convey profundity and take passive-aggressive digs at President Obama. But no subjects have received less attention, or been treated with less honesty, than foreign affairs and national security — and Mr. Romney’s banal speech was no exception. 

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/opinion/the-hidden-subject-in-tampa.html

UK: Ryan called out for lies

PJ:  During the 2008 election, Sarah Palin said that she was honest but it was clear to many, including the McCain campaign, that she lied constantly. She lied about not supporting the 'bridge to nowhere' when she had actually supported it...she lied about building a pipeline that to this day has yet to be built...she lied saying that her husband had never been a member of a Secessionist
political party* when he had indeed been a member for more than six years** (and she neglected to say that she was a supporter of that party as a video *** that she had produced clearly proved)...she lied about being vindicated of all wrong doing in her Troopergate ruling when the bi-partisan commission charged with the investigation had found her guilty.   Her fans said she was honest because she said that she was; they ignored the reality.  

Is Paul Ryan using the same formula for his VP run? He says that he only speaks the hard truth then lies to make his points.  Will Republicans blindly defend him because he says that he's honest even when caught in lies.  Will his supporters defend him for no other reason than partisan loyalty? 
Does the truth no longer have a place in US politics? 

*http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501763_162-4407224.html

**  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26524024/ns/politics-decision_08/t/palin-spouse-was-member-states-rights-party/#.UEEEWqO0KSo   

*** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI
 
The Telegraph

US election 2012: Paul Ryan attacked for 'lies' about Obama

Paul Ryan was facing a backlash on Thursday as critics seized on a number of distortions and factual inaccuracies scattered throughout his speech to the Republican convention.

By Raf Sanchez,

Even Fox News, the staunchly conservative cable network, published a column by a liberal commentator accusing Mr Ryan of trying to "set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech."

The Wisconsin congressman gave a harrowing account of the closure of General Motors plant in his hometown of Janesville, saying "a lot of guys I went to high school with" lost their jobs after President Barack Obama failed to keep a campaign promise to keep the factory open.

In fact, Mr Obama made no such promise and the factory closed its doors in December 2008 – one month before the President took office.

Mr Ryan also attacked Mr Obama for not heeding the recommendations of a bipartisan commission tasked with forging a plan to reduce America's federal deficit.

The President did ignore the commission's findings but so did Mr Ryan. The congressman served as a member of the committee but refused to endorse its final report and blocked its recommendations from being voted on by Congress.

Read it at the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9509764/US-election-2012-Paul-Ryan-attacked-for-lies-about-Obama.html

Jon Stewart is an American breath of fresh air

Scroll down to enjoy the video:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-blasts-truth-teller-paul-ryan-for-inaccuracies-in-vp-acceptance-speech/

Germany: What German papers say about Romney/Ryan

Der Spiegel
 

The World from Berlin 'Romney Message Too Closely Tailored to White Men'

 

The front page of the left leaning Die Tageszeitung took aim at the Romney/Ryan Republican ticket on Thursday.

Wither the Republicans? The party's national convention this week has revealed a GOP that seems unconcerned about alienating minority voters. Despite poor economic data, German commentators on Thursday argue that candidate Mitt Romney will have trouble getting elected as a result.

The party's economic and social policies, argue German newspapers on Thursday, are sharply dividing the country and will make it tough for the Romney/Ryan ticket to appeal to minority and women voters, who overwhelmingly supported Obama four years ago.  

Read it at Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-commentators-take-aim-at-the-republican-national-convention-a-852964.html

Germany: Ryan more dangerous than Sarah Palin

Der Spiegel

Romney Running Mate Ryan More Dangerous than Sarah Palin

A Commentary by Gregor Peter Schmitz  in Tampa, Florida

With Palin now largely an object of ridicule, it is easy to forget just how engaging she was four years ago when she made her opening speech as John McCain's vice presidential candidate. Immediately, she transfixed both the convention and millions watching on television. And her speech culminated in the now famous sentence that the only difference between a "hockey mom" and a pitbull was lipstick.

The world listened with fascination because they sensed the fighting spirit of a woman who was once nicknamed "Barracuda" on the basketball court. And they also listened in fear. Within half and hour, Palin had, in the view of many Europeans, ousted George W. Bush as the defining symbol of a hard and sometimes ruthless America.
                                                                       * * *
Ryan's own philosophy calls for making cuts that will affect the weak. Ryan would like to see the introduction of a voucher system to replace Medicare and supports the repeal of President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, which would affect the 30 million Americans who would receive health insurance under his reform. But cuts would also reach further, to government protection against epidemics, for example, or even to fire fighters. In Ryan's stripped-down state, there would be little money available for such luxuries.

But wouldn't such a slash-and-burn approach actually reduce America's massive debt? Many experts believe it is very unlikely. After all, Ryan also wants to give more to the rich. He would reduce their taxes, so that Mitt Romney, say, who has an estimated personal fortune of around $250 million, would only face a tax rate of 0.82 percent.

                                     * * *
Palin was not able to prove herself as a leader of the angry conservatives, for want of expertise and ideas. Ryan, on the other hand, knows exactly what he wants to achieve in the White House -- better, in fact, that his boss Romney does. It is strange that the number two has a plan ready, but the number one does not, wrote The Economist.

Mitt Romney, 65, will be quickly forgotten among Republicans, should he lose the election. Paul Ryan, 42, however, is likely to win, even if he loses now at Romney's side. He still has many years to influence the American right.

Read it at Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/paul-ryan-represents-the-conservative-wing-of-a-conservative-party-a-853015.html

UK: "Ryan baldly lied"

The Guardian

Paul Ryan's speech: a round-up of his most audacious untruths

Mitt Romney's running mate made a series of attacks against Obama, from Medicare to GM. But did he get his facts straight?

• Tom McCarthy

In his barnstormer of a speech to the swooning crowd at the Republican national convention on Wednesday night, Paul Ryan laid a mound of misdeeds at President Obama's door. To sustained applause from the floor, the vice-presidential candidate accused Obama of raiding Medicare, lying to auto workers and turning his back on the poor. But the speech (transcript here) was not always at pains to adhere to the historical record. At times, we are disappointed to report, Ryan baldly lied. Here's a round-up of Ryan's most audacious untruths:

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/30/paul-ryans-speech-audacious-untruths

Also not to be missed... from satirist Andy Borowitz of The New Yorker

Ryan Launches Campaign Theme of Lying About Everything

Posted by Andy Borowitz

 

“The question was, how many whoppers could you pack into one speech?” the campaign adviser Tracy Klugian said. “All I can say is, when Fox News accuses a Republican of lying, you know you’ve witnessed something historic.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08/ryan-launches-campaign-theme-of-lying-about-everything.html#ixzz255MDLXYE

 

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08/ryan-launches-campaign-theme-of-lying-about-everything.html#ixzz255LoVsxp

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08/ryan-launches-campaign-theme-of-lying-about-everything.html

International edition NYT: No successful person is an island

The International Herald Tribune

The Secret Weapon: All of Us

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

In short, taxes don’t just smother. They can also fuel growth — when they’re invested in highways or the Internet, in colleges or early childhood education. They can create opportunities, as they did for Sher Valenzuela. 

Or for Romney himself. He built his Bain empire partly because he was smart and hard-working, but also because of a great education and because of tax breaks for debt financing. Tax loopholes helped him build his fortune, and other loopholes gave him the low tax rates to retain it. 

If the Republican convention wishes to highlight and explain Romney’s success, it should have a moment of silence to honor our infernal tax code. 

Who built this country? Entrepreneurs, yes. But so did schoolteachers and railway construction workers. Doctors and truckers. Scientists and soldiers. You didn’t build it, Mitt Romney — we all built it.

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/opinion/kristof-the-secret-weapon-all-of-us.html

International edition NYT: They built this Romeny!

The International Herald Tribune

Renovating Mitt Romney

By GAIL COLLINS

The Republicans have been holding a convention to nominate him for president! I am telling you this on the off chance that you haven’t been paying attention. Perhaps you feel as if you’ve already met Mitt Romney and don’t require another introduction. Perhaps you feel as if you’ve met him a lot. But this is entirely different because the party’s mission this week is to construct an entirely new, improved, warmer, more lovable version. 

They built this Romney! 

“We built it” is one of the themes here, at the government-underwritten convention in a government-subsidized convention center in a city that rose on the sturdy foundation of government-subsidized flood insurance. But no taxpayer dollars were expended in the attempt to put together a New Mitt.

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/opinion/collins-renovating-mitt-romney.html?_r=1

UK: Obama and a second term?

The Economist

Four more years?

A president who has had a patchy first term now needs to make a convincing case for a second one

The defence of Mr Obama’s record comes down to one phrase: it could all have been a lot worse. He inherited an economy in free fall thanks to the banking crash and the fiscal profligacy that occurred under his predecessor; his stimulus measures and his saving of Detroit carmakers helped avert a second Depression; overall, he deserves decent if patchy grades on the economy (see article). Confronted by obstructionist Republicans in Congress, he did well to get anything through at all. Abroad he has sensibly recalibrated American foreign policy. And there have been individual triumphs, such as the killing of Osama bin Laden.
But this does not amount to a compelling case for re-election, in the view of either this paper or the American people. More than 60% of voters believe their country to be on the wrong track. Mr Obama’s approval ratings are well under 50%; almost two-thirds of voters are unimpressed (however harshly) by how he has handled the economy. Worn down by the difficulties of office, the great reformer has become a cautious man, surrounded by an insular group of advisers. The candidate who promised bold solutions to the country’s gravest problems turned into the president who failed even to back his own commission’s plans for cutting the deficit.

Were he facing a more charismatic candidate than Mitt Romney or a less extremist bunch than the Republicans, Mr Obama would already be staring at defeat. The fact that the president has had to “go negative” so early and so relentlessly shows how badly he needs the election to be about Mr Romney’s weaknesses rather than his own achievements. A man who four years ago epitomised hope will arrive in Charlotte with a campaign that thus far has been about invoking fear.
Mr Obama must offer more than this, for three reasons. First, a negative campaign may well fail. The Republicans are a rum bunch with a wooden leader; but Mr Romney’s record as an executive and governor is impressive, and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, is a fount of bold ideas. Mr Obama’s strategy of blaming everything on Republican obstructionism will strike many voters as demeaning.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21561890

Canada: Where in the world is Sarah?

National Post

Republicana non grata: Where in the world is Sarah Palin?

By Allen Able

Ms. Palin could have done the legwork to serve as a delegate herself, but, as the state’s Republican party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, told me, “She didn’t participate in any of our process.”

Mr. Ruedrich, an oil-drilling man, allowed that Ms. Palin’s fame and infamy might have led to a small spike in tourism — “Maybe some folks saw her and decided to take that trip they’d always dreamt of” — but that blip had been snowed under by the Great Recession anyway.

Read it at the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/29/republicana-non-grata-where-in-the-world-is-sarah-palin/

Canada: Ryan is no Palin

Macleans Magazine

Why Paul Ryan is no Sarah Palin

by Luiza Ch. Savage





Palin came up through grassroots politics, a small-town city council member and mayor before becoming Alaska’s governor. Her out-of-the-blue selection sent the press into a feeding frenzy of trying to figure out who she was: her influences, her ideas, her record. Who was this woman and what did she stand for, really? When Katie Couric famously asked her what newspapers she reads, Palin took it as a condescending gotcha question, not the softball it was probably meant to be.

Congressman Paul Ryan could not be more different from Palin. While he styles himself as a homespun Wisconsinite, he’s more a creature of Washington, DC and the product of a conservative movement that has been engaged in ideological purification of the Republican Party. Romney’s pick was less about the man himself, and more as an embrace of a specific collection of ideas, influences and personal networks he represents. Ryan is the product of Capitol Hill staff meetings and conservative Washington think tanks. He is the result of an evolution within the Republican Party that began well beyond the financial crisis and the Tea Party rallies.



Read it at Macleans:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/08/29/why-paul-ryan-is-no-sarah-palin/

The Newsroom

If only....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGAvwSp86hY&feature=player_embedded

Canada: Romney as candidate vs the GOP's platform

PJ:  "Truth in advertising" laws really should extend to political campaigns:

"Even so, there was a consistency of message throughout, made explicit by the monoton0us invocation of the phrase We Built It, a reference to President Obama’s supposed declaration to small business people that they “didn’t build that.” (The quote is wildly out of context: the “that” to which he referred was the road that runs by their business.) "


National Post

Andrew Coyne: Romney gives Americans a chance to pick the candidate and skip the party

Andrew Coyne

Even so, there was a consistency of message throughout, made explicit by the monoton0us invocation of the phrase We Built It, a reference to President Obama’s supposed declaration to small business people that they “didn’t build that.” (The quote is wildly out of context: the “that” to which he referred was the road that runs by their business.) Every one of the speakers sang the praises of self-reliance and individual initiative — as distinct, one was made to understand, from the smothering embrace of government. Virtually every one, it should be said, had some story of triumph over adversity — penniless parents, an autistic child — to back it up: these are not your stereotypical country club Republicans. Even Mrs. Romney, she of the two Cadillacs and the Olympic horse, told persuasively of past struggles.

Read it at the National Post:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/29/andrew-coyne-republican-speakers-skip-red-meat-social-issues-in-tampa/

Canada: Nut throwing fiasco at GOP opens racism claims

National Post

Race enters the fray at GOP convention after nut-throwing fiasco

Sarah Boesveld



It took just a handful of nuts to pry wide open discussion about the GOP’s so-called problem with race at this week’s Republican National Convention.

Outrage, mainly from Democrats and liberal-leaning media outlets, flowed forth after two unruly convention goers tossed peanuts at a black CNN camerawoman during the pageantry and jeered, “This is how we feed animals.”

Mitt Romney’s team took pains to vehemently denounce it telling the National Post, “The incident was extremely inappropriate, it was ugly and despicable and has no place whatsoever within the Republican party and should not be a part of our political discourse.”

Read it at the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/29/race-enters-the-fray-at-gop-convention-after-peanut-fiasco/

Germany: "moderate" and "Republican" no longer go together

Der Spiegel

The Death of Moderation Republicans Have Become a Party of Naysayers

An Analysis by Gregor Peter Schmitz

Mitt Romney has succeeded in securing the Republican nomination in Tampa this week. And while he may want to govern as a statesman, he won't be able to count on his party for support. For years, many US conservatives have given up political responsibility in favor of hardline ideology.  

Candidate Romney showed a lot of heart: He wanted to support minorities, and he spoke out against new military deployments outside America's borders. And when voters expressed an interest in his finances, the contender was quick to present his tax return.

But does that sound like the Mitt Romney who was officially declared his party's presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week? Of course not. The "nice" Mr. Romney was Mitt's father George. In 1968, he campaigned to become the Republican Party presidential candidate -- without success. At the time, the Michigan governor was considered to be a run-of-the-mill Republican. "George Romney would be booed at this year's convention," wrote one New York Times author. That's because his political positions would no longer be considered radical enough.

For some time now -- at the very latest since their infiltration by the Tea Party movement -- America's conservatives have become suspicious of any form of compromise. According to US historian Geoffrey Kabaservice, who recently wrote a book on the death of moderation in the party, the words "moderate" and "Republican" no longer go together.

The softie style of George Romney has become passé. His son Mitt knows this and has adapted to the times. He wants to build a new fence along the border to Mexico that is twice as secure as the current one in order to keep out illegal immigrants. He also wants to increase defense spending and is as secretive about his own taxes as Coca-Cola is about the ingredients in its soft drink.

Read it at Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/mitt-romney-s-republicans-are-a-party-of-naysayers-a-852817.html

UK: Rousing Ryan speech

The Guardian

Paul Ryan speech: VP pick tries to galvanise GOP behind Romney

Republican vice-presidential candidate rouses otherwise listless audience in Tampa, arguing moral case to oust Obama

By Ewen MacAskill

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, won a series of standing ovations during a primetime keynote address to the party's national convention in which he set out the case for small government and prepared the ground for Mitt Romney's big speech on Thursday night.

Although Ryan failed to generate the same level of excitement as Sarah Palin at the 2008 convention, he did enough in Tampa to fire up what had been a listless event, dogged by bad weather and lack of enthusiasm over Romney.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/30/paul-ryan-speech-rnc-romney

UK: Ryan praises unpopular Romney

The Guardian

Paul Ryan sets out Romney stall but no one is buying

The running-mate had rousing words for the RNC but the main man is the least popular presidential nominee in nearly 30 years

By Gary Younge

For a party that has gone to extraordinary lengths to stress its links to small business, Republicans are terrible salespeople. They have had just one task this week: to market Mitt Romney. The trouble is no one's buying it.

At first sight the problem seems to be presentational. The contributions from the stage are wooden; the jokes flat; signs of oratorical flare rare. Time and again with just a handful of exceptions, a speaker came to the podium to great cheers only to dampen the enthusiasm with their actual speech.

Yet the sense you get from the floor is of a party barely going through the motions. Missing their cues to clap and boo, they respond as though they're watching vaudeville by satellite – it's as though they're not even there. Spend an hour on the convention floor in Tampa and you'd be forgiven for thinking the Tea party has switched to decaf.

Read it at The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/30/paul-ryan-romney-stall-buying

With all the noise from the GOP convention, let's look at reality about the deficit

PJ:  If you read anything in the American press about the deficit it will usually focus on republican claims that President Obama's administration has exploded the deficit.  The graph below from the CBPP shows that the enormous growth in the US federal deficit came not from measures imposed to ward off a depression during the Obama-era but from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan coupled with the revenue shortages from the Bush-era tax cuts.  

Canada: Palin upset about Fox's cancellation of her spots

Montreal Gazette

Palin says she's sorry Fox cancelled her interviews because she wanted to honour McCain

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Four years ago, she was the star of the Republican National Convention. Now Sarah Palin is upset about getting the hook from the television network where she is working.

The former vice-presidential candidate posted on her Facebook page Wednesday that she's "sorry Fox (News Channel) cancelled all my scheduled interviews" for the evening. She said she wanted to honour John McCain, who selected her as his running mate in 2008.

Fox executive Bill Shine said the network's plans changed because the Republicans had to condense their schedule of speeches from four nights to three because of Hurricane Isaac. He said Fox looks forward to having Palin back soon.

The former Alaska governor is a paid Fox contributor. She was on the network Monday and Tuesday nights.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Palin+says+shes+sorry+cancelled+interviews+because+wanted+honour/7164267/story.html#ixzz24zTntefW

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Palin+says+shes+sorry+cancelled+interviews+because+wanted+honour/7164267/story.html#ixzz24zTPqBBu

Canada: Will Sarah Palin be the surprise speaker at the GOP convention

The Daily Mail

Luxurious Tampa house sparks Sarah Palin rumours at GOP convention

Joanna Slater

So we talked with Jeanne Wolf, the real-estate agent who represents the owners of the house. She said the home was rented for the week of the convention (price tag: $25,000) by a well-known Washington, D.C. lobbying firm that she declined to name.

Ms. Wolf said that she, too, had heard the rumours about Ms. Palin and suggested a possible source. “It’s the best house out there without a doubt,” said Ms. Wolf. “And they think she has good taste.”

Read it at The Daily Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-election/us-election-blog/luxurious-tampa-house-sparks-sarah-palin-rumours-at-gop-convention/article4507370/

International edition NYT: The Real Mitt Romney

PJ:  Could conservative columnist David Brooks be auditioning for spot on the satirical Onion? Regardless of his motivation, it's a fun read. 

The International Herald Tribune

Op-Ed Columnist

The Real Romney

By DAVID BROOKS

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man. 

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal. 

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired.

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/opinion/brooks-the-real-romney.html?_r=1

UK: Romney embraces his Mormon faith in public for the first time

The Guardian

Mitt Romney embraces his Mormonism in public after years of discretion

In a country where many still call his religion a 'cult', Republican candidate – and fellow Mormons – have often seen their beliefs used against them in public life

• Gary Younge
   

Every religion has its story. A narrative through which believers make sense of their faith. From the loaves and fishes to the creation story, religion is filled with tales of the fantastic. Every Sunday, Catholics are supposed to drink the blood and eat the flesh of Christ.

Christians and Jews are taught that Moses parted the Red Sea and led the Israelites to the promised land. Hindus have Hanuman, the monkey god who carried an entire mountain covered with the sanjivini herb to save the life of Lakshmana. Some take them literally; for others they are metaphors. If they weren't fantastical, there would be precious little to put your faith in.
Mormon prophet Joseph Smith 
 
Mormonism is no different. The religion started with Joseph Smith, a man in western New York who had many visions. During the 1820s he said an angel visited him and lead him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Christian history of ancient American civilizations.

It was one visit among many; he also claimed that the angels of Peter, James, John and John the Baptist visited him and endowed him with a range of priesthood authorities. Claiming that by the "by the gift and power of God" he translated the 500 pages in two months he published the Book of Mormon, organised the Church of Christ and was hailed as a prophet. The president of the church is still considered a prophet and God's spokesman to the world.

Smith's small but growing band of followers were chased out of New York and settled in Kirtland, Ohio, from which they were expelled, pushing them south and west to Jackson County, Missouri. Attempts to lay down roots there were scuppered when the governor issued a "Mormon extermination order" insisting they must "be treated as enemies".

They went north to Illinois where after a few years Smith and his brother were slaughtered by a mob. Brigham Young then took over and lead them westward where they settled in what was then Mexican land and would later become the state of Utah.

"Even though more than a century has passed and we don't face anything like that level of persecution now there's a live nerve ending in the Mormon consciousness that's informed by that history," explains Barlow, "that does make us more sensitive to being misrepresented."

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/27/mitt-romney-embrace-mormonism?newsfeed=true

UK: Weak Tea

The Economist

The Republican convention

Weak tea

Aug 27th 2012, 3:29 by J.F. | TAMPA

• 
  

 

 

MITT ROMNEY entered the 2012 Republican presidential primaries as the presumptive nominee. He had a sound track record and a lot of money. He finished third in the 2008 primaries (Mike Huckabee, the second-place finisher, declined to run this year), and has effectively spent the last six years running for president. It was his turn. Between presumptive and certain, however, lies a wide gulf, and at times during the primary various polls showed him trailing a disgraced former House speaker, a former senator who lost his last election by 18 points and did not appear too fond of separating church and state, a resolutely incurious Texas governor and a man who had never held elected office and whose election might not have thrilled America's allies in Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan. In retrospect it is easy to say that Mr Romney was never in any real danger: his campaign was broader, better organised and far better funded; Republicans ultimately fall in line after falling in love and so forth. Still, since winning the nomination his relations with the Republican base, particularly with the tea-party activists who have provided so much of the party's enthusiasm since 2008, have involved more grudging acceptance than genuine warmth.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/08/republican-convention

UK: The US right's desire for the gold standard

The Economist

The Republican fringe

Gold-plated nonsense

Aug 25th 2012, 10:54 by M.S.

 

 

ON CNBC early Friday, the topic was the Republican decision to set up a party committee to explore a return to the gold standard. The clips I've found of this discussion on the CNBC website (here and here) feature commentators appropriately noting that the idea is "ludicrous" (amusingly, the website's caption team has spelled it "ludacris"; someone younger than myself please insert an appropriate hip-hop-themed joke). But in the sequence I was watching on TV that didn't get picked up by the website, one of the channel's regulars (I didn't catch the name) said the attention was misplaced. The gold standard is "never going to happen", he said; it's "incredibly deflationary", the American government is never going to try to return to it, and the whole exploratory committee is just political tomfoolery we should all ignore in order to focus on real issues.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/08/republican-fringe

Australia: US record arms sales

The Sydney Morning Herald

US weapons sales triple to hit record high, thanks to worried Gulf allies

Date August 28, 2012

Thom Shanker

WASHINGTON: Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran's regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.

Overseas weapons sales by the US totalled $US66.3 billion ($63.78 billion) last year, or nearly 78 per cent of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.

The American weapons sales total was an ''extraordinary increase'' over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of US arms exports.
The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas totalled nearly $31 billion.

A worldwide economic decline had suppressed arms sales over recent years. But increasing tensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman - to purchase American weapons at record levels.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-weapons-sales-triple-to-hit-record-high-thanks-to-worried-gulf-allies-20120827-24wf7.html#ixzz24lejIXsV

 

Hey White Guy

PJ:  This was just sent my way--sanity at last!

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXeKrbtMz2M&feature=player_embedded

International edition NYT: Paul Ryan and the radicalization of the GOP

The International Herald Tribune

Editorial

Paul Ryan’s Social Extremism

Mr. Romney’s choice of Mr. Ryan carried some risks, considering Mr. Ryan’s advocacy of overhauling Medicare, but it has sent the strongest signal of solidarity to those who have made the party unrecognizable to moderates. Strident conservatives had been uneasy with Mr. Romney, but it is the rest of the country that should be nervous about conservatives’ now-enthusiastic acceptance of the Republican ticket.

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/opinion/paul-ryans-social-extremism.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Middle East: A tough election and an even tougher job as the winning

Al Jazeera

US: Still #1?

Will whoever wins the US election find themselves with the unenviable task of overseeing the decline of the US? The Cafe

The US is the most powerful nation on earth, but its position of global supremacy is being challenged - economically, militarily and politically. And the person many Americans hold responsible for these failings is the president who promised them change.

The worldwide economic crisis of 2008 started in the US and the aftershocks are still being felt today. Unemployment is running at more than eight per cent, productivity is down and the national debt is a whopping $137bn.

Such turmoil makes it hard to honour electoral promises.

The country is deeply divided. The machinery of government has been tied in knots by partisan bickering and the rise of the right-wing, anti-state Tea Party and the street protests of the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement are a reminder of how polarised the nation has become.

Despite this, Barack Obama, the US president, has pushed through healthcare reform and turned around the failing auto industry. He has stopped the war in Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden. But is this enough to win re-election for a second term?

Conversation and video at Al Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecafe/2012/08/201282413033615140.html

Canada: GOP enthusiastic about convention despite storm

National Post

Tropical Storm Isaac doesn’t dampen enthusiasm of delegates at the Republican Convention

Sarah Boesveld |

Republican National Convention-goers had been warned Tropical Storm Isaac will rain not cats and dogs, but “cows and sheep” on Tampa, Fla., this week — or worse. It grounded hundreds of flights Sunday as it surged up the Gulf of Mexico and caused a delay to the beginning of the GOP festivities themselves, giving Mitt Romney and his Republican Party one fewer day to ratchet up enthusiasm that could lead him to a White House win come November.

But despite the delays, the thousands of delegates who arrived over the weekend are excited to cast their ballots for Mr. Romney in the 40th Republican naming convention, officially making him the Republican party’s presidential candidate. They will still filter into the patriotically decorated Tampa Bay Times Forum stadium Monday to be counted. Then, they’ll part until Tuesday afternoon as organizers pause to let Isaac blow past.

Read it at the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/26/republican-convention/

UK: GOP convention blown off course

The Independent

Gaffes blow Republicans off course as storm delays convention

Organisers of key party gathering forced to put off Ann Romney's speech until tomorrow

Organisers of the gathering that is expected to attract about 50,000 delegates were already redrawing the schedule last night after scrubbing today's proceedings because of Tropical Storm Isaac, forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and brush the west of Tampa this afternoon and tonight. Reince Preibus, the head of the Republican National Committee, said the convention would definitely start tomorrow.

"We're 100 per cent full-steam ahead on Tuesday," Mr Priebus said last night. "We're going to tell the Mitt Romney story, we're still going to prosecute the President on what he promised, what he delivered, and why we think we need to save this country and put Mitt Romney in the White House."

Read it at The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gaffes-blow-republicans-off-course-as-storm-delays-convention-8082067.html

UK: Romney attacks Obama on Medicare

The Guardian

Mitt Romney defends Massachusetts healthcare record in attack on Obama

Former governor releases ad claiming the president would strip $700bn from Medicare as healthcare issue takes centre stage.

Matt Williams

In a growing indication that both campaign teams are seeking to make the running on the issue, Romney said he was "very proud" of the healthcare system he introduced to Massachusetts, while claiming that Barack Obama would strip $700bn from Medicare.

It comes a day after Obama used to his weekly radio address to slam his opponents for wanting to turn the much-cherished insurance safety net for seniors into a "voucher system" that would "effectively end Medicare as we know it".

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/romney-defends-massachusetts-healthcare

UK: Former UK Defence Secretary advising Romney

The Telegraph

US election: Liam Fox 'feeding ideas' to Mitt Romney's Republicans

Dr Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary, has been "feeding ideas" into Mitt Romney's elite core of policy advisers, The Daily Telegraph has learned. 

By Peter Foster

Dr Fox, a staunch fiscal Conservative and pre-eminent Tory Atlanticist, has maintained close links to the Republican presidential candidate despite losing his job last October over his working relationship with a defence lobbyist, Adam Werrity.

Read it at The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9500834/US-election-Liam-Fox-feeding-ideas-to-Mitt-Romneys-Republicans.html

UK: Romney's conflicting beliefs

The Economist

"A businessman without a credible plan to fix a problem stops being a credible businessman."

So, Mitt, what do you really believe?

Too much about the Republican candidate for the presidency is far too mysterious

WHEN Mitt Romney was governor of liberal Massachusetts, he supported abortion, gun control, tackling climate change and a requirement that everyone should buy health insurance, backed up with generous subsidies for those who could not afford it. Now, as he prepares to fly to Tampa to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president on August 30th, he opposes all those things. A year ago he favoured keeping income taxes at their current levels; now he wants to slash them for everybody, with the rate falling from 35% to 28% for the richest Americans.


All politicians flip-flop from time to time; but Mr Romney could win an Olympic medal in it (see article). And that is a pity, because this newspaper finds much to like in the history of this uncharismatic but dogged man, from his obvious business acumen to the way he worked across the political aisle as governor to get health reform passed and the state budget deficit down. We share many of his views about the excessive growth of regulation and of the state in general in America, and the effect that this has on investment, productivity and growth. After four years of soaring oratory and intermittent reforms, why not bring in a more businesslike figure who might start fixing the problems with America’s finances?

Details, details

But competence is worthless without direction and, frankly, character. Would that Candidate Romney had indeed presented himself as a solid chief executive who got things done. Instead he has appeared as a fawning PR man, apparently willing to do or say just about anything to get elected. In some areas, notably social policy and foreign affairs, the result is that he is now committed to needlessly extreme or dangerous courses that he may not actually believe in but will find hard to drop; in others, especially to do with the economy, the lack of details means that some attractive-sounding headline policies prove meaningless (and possibly dangerous) on closer inspection. Behind all this sits the worrying idea of a man who does not really know his own mind. America won’t vote for that man; nor would this newspaper. The convention offers Mr Romney his best chance to say what he really believes.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21560864

Australia: Where's Palin?

The Australian

Palin snubbed as convention strategists deem her too risky

Mr Romney's aides say letting Ms Palin speak would be too risky because they cannot control her message. Ms Palin was widely seen as testing the waters last year over whether to launch her own White House bid. Those close to her said she opted out because she was making too much money as a television pundit and author - an estimated $US12 million a year.

 

Read it at The Australian:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/palin-snubbed-as-convention-strategists-deem-her-too-risky/story-fnb64oi6-1226458418911

American media: Opinion: Dog Whistle to the right

CNN

Romney's 'birther' line is no joke

By Donna Brazile

As I said, we shouldn't be surprised by Romney's remark. Trying to pretend that somehow Obama is not an American-born leader, or questioning his patrioism, or his values by using the Big Lie often speaks in code. 

But let's decode some of the implications:

-- Show us your birth certificate, but I won't show you my tax returns.

-- You need to prove your identity to vote, but my super PAC allies don't need to identify their donors.

-- I'll lie about Obama's plans, but won't explain my own.

-- I'll blame Obama for the problems he didn't cause, and take credit for his solutions that work.

Romney's birther remark was less a surprise than a confirmation that his moral compass is off center.

Mr. Romney, America's not an aristocracy. It's not where you were born -- in a cabin or a mansion -- or how you were raised -- in poverty by a single parent or with money and privilege -- that matters.

Read it at CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/opinion/brazile-romney-birther-line/index.html?hpt=po_c2

UK: Harsh Republican platform

The Guardian

Harsh Republican convention platform opens window to the soul of the party

The GOP platform is more hardline than ever, and while it's a lot of posturing, at least some of it may prove significant

Humans used to have tails, but all that's left is a vestigial coccyx. American political conventions used to choose presidential candidates, but now they are televised coronations.

The vestigial tail of the American political convention is the compilation and approval of the party's platform, a long document listing a rag-bag of policies that excite the party activists and is swiftly forgotten.

Since platforms are not binding on party candidates, they are merely symbolic. They do however offer a window into a party's soul, a combination of wishlist, base stroking and vote-grabbing.

Read it at The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2012/aug/24/republican-convention-platform-party-soul

UK: The Romney Bunch

The Guardian

Democrats update the Brady Bunch theme tune in anti-Romney ad – video

In a new video ad from the US Democratic party entitled The Romney Bunch, senior Republican party politicians star in a version of the opening credits for the classic 1970s TV series The Brady Bunch. The ad attacks Romney's tax polices, and ends with the tagline 'Wrong for the middle class'

See it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/aug/25/democrats-brady-bunch-anti-romney-video

Buenos Aires: Ryan as the new Palin

 

Why Ryan is the new Palin

By: Patricio Navia

After the traumatic experience with the choice of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, Mitt Romney wanted to appoint a running mate who would not embarrass his campaign as Palin embarrassed John McCain. Though Paul Ryan is a much more experienced, able and better prepared politician than Palin, their nominations share one negative externality for their respective running-mates. Ryan has become the central figure in the Republican camp just as Palin eclipsed McCain.

Vice-presidents occupy one of the best known and least influential positions in American politics. They are just one heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world. Yet, they only sit on the bench when the president is alive. Vice-presidential candidates are usually chosen to send a signal to the electorate. The presidential candidate wants to show that he/she is prepared to strengthen his weak points and bring needed experience or youth to the campaign. They also court geographic and strategic voting blocs when choosing a running-mate. Yet, because gains are marginal, the fact that a bad VP choice can do so much harm induces candidates to pick a running-mate seeking to minimize costs rather than optimize benefits.

In 2008, John McCain took too long in choosing a running-mate. He ended up choosing a VP candidate without going through the proper vetting process. Initially, a young, telegenic and energetic Palin was received as a positive complement for the 72-year old presidential candidate. But her inexperience and unpreparedness ended up embarrassing the campaign and raising questions about McCain’s own judgment. Sarah Palin became the centre of attention in the Republican race. Her inexperience in national affairs, unfamiliarity with international affairs, lack of knowledge on policy issues and excessive intellectual simplicity ended up hurting her own reputation and she became a liability to McCain’s campaign.

The choice of Paul Ryan as VP candidate will not have the same negative effects on Romney’s campaign. Ryan is better prepared, certainly more intelligent and more politically savvy than Palin. He is a well-known and respected leader in the Republican Party. He is intelligent, well-read and very articulate to defend his points and advance his agenda. He will not embarrass the party in the same way Palin did.

Read it at the Buenos Aires Herald:  
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/109330/why-ryan-is-the-new-palin

This just in...apparently Sarah Palin pulled a Biden

Detroit News

Oops, Sarah Palin said chains

• By Libby Spencer

Sarah Palin, days after calling for Joe Biden’s head for saying the word “chains” in reference to the Republican’s grand plan to completely deregulate Wall Street, had this to say on Fox News:

It’s doable, it’s winnable, Missouri is. And that leads to winning the Senate. And that leads to reversing a lot of the things that Obama and Biden have done to put our children and grandchildren in the chains of dependency.

Read it at the Detroit News:  
http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2012/08/25/oops-sarah-palin-said-chains/

UK: How Fox news women attract republican men

'The Republican Party welcomes looks in a woman - Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Nikki Haley - and so does Fox'

Daily Mail

Secrets of the 'Fox Glam': One woman lifts the lid on the network's bold make-up look

By Tamara Abraham

Ms Mundy's poll of women who work on TV news shows revealed some opinions of the Fox signature look that were so acerbic, they refused to reveal their names for fear of losing their jobs.

One likened the look to that of a pageant queen, another called it 'glamour nighttime', and a third added that 'at Fox, they look very painted'.

One publicist admitted that a client's face was brushed with so much bronzer, 'she looked like a female George Hamilton.'

Of course, the 'Fox Glam' does have its fans. There are YouTube montages that pay tribute to female anchors' legs alone, while the website Foxnewsgirls.com pays an individual homage to each and every one.

Ms Mundy's article suggests that Fox is catering to the tastes of its Republican-heavy audience.

Signature look: The 'Fox Glam' does not stop at make-up. Figure-hugging dresses, like Ms Kelly's are de rigueur

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2192751/Secrets-Fox-Glam-One-woman-lifts-lid-networks-bold-make-look.html#ixzz24ZcFN4pb

Germany: Abortion debate reveals intolerant GOP

PJ:  Conservatives love to point at the Chinese government and cry that they are violating freedoms, especially when families are limited to having only one child.  I have to agree with them.  The fear of citizens in that country is well documented especially when an unexpected pregnancy comes along and an innocent child suffers. 

But republicans have no problem with the government of the US denying freedom to women by forcing them to carry children even if that pregnancy was the result of a rape. Just like some of these modern day republicans,  in medival times men believed that women could not become pregnant as a result of rape.  Therefore if a rape victim was unfortunate enough to have been ovulating during the attack and had become pregnant she was deemed not raped.  Women, especially married women who had  suffered such fate would often seek out abortions since they would likely be tortured or executed for adultery if they could not pretend that their pregnancy was by their husband.  Heaven help them if at the time of their rape their husband was off raping and pilaging others at the time.  

Der Spiegel

Chaperones, Judges and Moralizers Abortion Debate Reveals Republicans' True Colors

A Commentary by Marc Pitzke
The Republican Party has come down hard on Representative Todd Akin for his incendiary comments on rape. But as the party's new platform reveals, Akin is par for the course in a GOP which has veered hard to the intolerant right.

Tough luck if you're gay, poor, an immigrant, a minority or an independently-minded woman: These retro-Republicans don't like you, don't trust you and don't want you making your own decisions. They resent government meddling in their own lives but love meddling in yours, as chaperones, judges and moralizers.

According to CNN and the New York Times, which obtained excerpts of the platform, they would outlaw abortion without exceptions for cases of incest or rape, or when the mother's life is at risk. A "Human Life Amendment" to the constitution would make sure that the states don't create loopholes.

They would also make sure that same-sex marriage never becomes reality, calling it an "assault on the foundations of our society." Again, a constitutional amendment would annul all contrary state laws and court rulings.

Read it at Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-republican-party-moves-to-the-far-right-a-851738.html

UK: The re- reinvention of Mitt Romney

The Economist

The changing man

He has many factors in his favour. But to win the presidency Mitt Romney will have to reinvent himself once again—this time as a likeable, sympathetic guy

Chameleon-in-chief?
Mr Romney struggled in particular with the conservative base, who had misgivings about his inconsistent record. (His Mormonism, which is considered heretical by many evangelical Christians, may also have put off some religious voters.) Right-wing pundits dwelt on the fact that he had run for the Senate, and for governor of Massachusetts, promising not to limit access to abortion—but now claimed to be vehemently pro-life. By the same token, he had supported a regional cap-and-trade scheme to trim greenhouse-gas emissions in Massachusetts before renouncing it late in his governorship. He now says that the causes and extent of global warming are too uncertain to merit expensive efforts to fight it, especially in such grim economic times. Above all, he stoked suspicions on the right by championing health-care reforms in Massachusetts that served as the template for Barack Obama’s health-care law, before denouncing Obamacare as an affront to liberty that must be repealed.

In the end Mr Romney prevailed partly by adopting a series of positions designed to please right-wing primary voters. He unexpectedly unveiled a proposal for a whopping tax cut that the 59-point economic plan he released last year had mysteriously failed to mention. He also developed a fervent opposition to anything that smacked of compassion towards illegal immigrants, chastising both Mr Gingrich and Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, for their supposed lapses in that regard during debates among the Republican candidates. Mr Romney and his supporters also vastly outspent his rivals, blitzing them with vicious advertisements.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21560858

Guardian: Radical right showing its weight as Republicans gather in Tampa

The Guardian

Radical right threatens to blow Mitt Romney off course as Republicans gather in Tampa

Mitt Romney wants his party convention to attract moderates, but a show of strength by the Tea Party puts that hope at risk

By Paul Harris


Some of them believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Others want to force raped women who become pregnant to have their child. There are those who vilify Obama as a socialist and want to do away with most of the federal government. A fair few doubt the theory of evolution or hold that gays can be "cured".

As Mitt Romney arrives at the Republican national convention in Tampa, Florida, where he will be
nominated to run for president, he faces the difficult task of dealing with a party base that has become one of the most radical in recent American history.

Convulsed by the rise of the anti-government Tea Party and dominated by socially conservative Christians, the Republican party has continued to move right in recent years. That means the carefully laid plans for a Tampa convention aimed at introducing a voter-friendly version of Romney could easily be upset by the party's more extreme elements.

"They don't want anyone to look behind the curtain," said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California, Riverside. "You want the party base to turn up, give money and keep quiet. But it is hard to keep them quiet." However, the curtain has already been lifted to some degree.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/25/republican-convention-romney-radical-right

UK: Women and the GOP

The Guardian

To Republicans, women are simply the sum of their parts

The GOP's adoption of an anti-abortion platform is further indication of a party that has no clue about reproductive life

• Ana Marie Cox

There's no doubt that Todd Akin's stunningly misguided understanding of female anatomy, as seen in his claim that raped women can't get pregnant, represented yet another instance of the Republican party's estrangement from science. But the GOP's refusal to grapple with facts goes beyond biology: there's some very basic mathematics that they appear ignorant of as well.

The polling showing just how unpopular the party's official anti-abortion position (adopted by the platform committee this week and identical to the policy that Akin tried to use junk science to support) is as follows: just 20% of Americans believe abortion should be "illegal in all circumstances", compared to 25% who say that it should "always be legal" and the vast majority – 52% – who say that it should be "legal only under certain circumstances".

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/23/republicans-women-simply-sum-parts

Australia: Not another Palin

The Australian Financial Review

Tony Walker

Ryan is a wild card, but he’s no Sarah Palin

What is likely in a “toss-up’’ election at this stage is a slog in which Obama spends a lot of time defending his economic record and Romney is forced to deal with the mother of all negative campaigns, including an all-out assault on his failure thus far to disclose even five years of tax records.

In the wash-up, Ryan – thanks to his many congressional votes on just about any issue you care to name – will be vulnerable, but he has one virtue. He is not Sarah Palin – far from it.

Read it at The Aurtralian Financial Review:
http://afr.com/p/opinion/ryan_is_wild_card_but_he_no_sarah_fqFP16aEWnqUKsuW4nvb6K

UK: Romney's riches

The Guardian

Mitt Romney's tax documents: sifting through the grubby details

As Gawker's Bain files show, Romney's wealth is serious – and his financial instruments complex. What lessons can be drawn?

By Richard Adams

Gawker's dump of 950 pages of documents detailing aspects of Mitt Romney's investments shout out one big truth: that Mitt Romney is not just super-wealthy, but that his wealth is nurtured through a thicket of financial instruments that surpass ordinary expectations of wealth.

He also makes money from British shit. But we'll come to that in a minute.

The latest Gawker cache is just the tip of an accounting iceberg, since it details investments that may account for only a mere $10m of Romney's estimated $250m in assets, and described just 21 of the hedge funds, vehicles and partnerships that Romney uses. There are doubtless many more.

Once again, the spotlight turns back onto Romney's association with Bain Capital, since each of the 21 institutions detailed by Gawker are affiliated with Bain. And once again Mitt Romney's taxes become an issue, since many of these are located in the Cayman Islands, a place associated for good or ill with tax avoidance.

Not that anyone is suggesting Mitt Romney has done anything wrong. As the Republican candidate himself repeatedly says: "I paid the taxes required under the law." It's just that the vast majority of Americans don't get the opportunity to invest in Cayman Islands-domiciled funds, whatever the law may say.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2012/aug/23/mitt-romney-tax-documents-gawker

Canada: Newsweek's controversial cover story

The National Post

Kelly McParland: ‘Hit the road, Barack’ article draws liberal blitzkrieg

A battle royal has broken out in the upper echelons of U.S. political commentary, in a dispute over the record of President Barack Obama.  In one corner, wearing the right-wing shorts, is Niall Ferguson, author and historian, tenured Harvard professor, one-time adviser to John McCain and author of a harsh critique of Obama’s four years in office in the latest issue of Newsweek. In the other corner, wearing an expression of studied distaste, are some of the MSM’s biggest and best-credentialled pundits and Obama fans.

In dismissing the president’s first term as an utter disaster, Ferguson clearly struck a nerve among his fellow academics, analysts and political deep-thinkers, who promptly staged a retaliatory strike. Reflecting the skill set of the participants, the arguments are intelligent, cogent and well-presented. In keeping with the culture of the internet, they’re also harsh, insulting and highly personalized. In Empire, his popular study of the British Empire, Ferguson reflected on the fate of the Rev. Karl S. Volkner, an early missionary to New Zealand, who ran afoul of the Opitiki Maoris. “One of the Opitiki chiefs shot him, decapitated him in his own church, drank his blood and swallowed both his eyes.” Now he knows how it feels.

The blowback has been fast and furious.

Paul Krugman, an economist, New York Times op-ed writer and self-declared Liberal who has crossed swords with Ferguson in the past, wrote: “There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek — I guess they don’t do fact-checking.” He says the article deliberately misleads readers, misrepresents facts and deserves an abject apology from Newsweek.

James Fallows of The Atlantic, a Harvard graduate, provides the apology for him. “A tenured professor of history at my undergraduate alma mater has written a cover story for Daily Beast/Newsweek that is so careless and unconvincing that I wonder how he will presume to sit in judgment of the next set of student papers he has to grade,” he writes, before disputing many of Ferguson’s assertions.

Read it at The National Post:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/22/kelly-mcparland-hit-the-road-barack-article-draws-liberal-blitzkrieg/

Germany: Assad will not be deterred by Obama's warning

Der Spiegel

The World from Berlin Obama's Warning 'Will Not Deter Assad'

US President Barack Obama warned this week that the US would intervene if Syrian President Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons against his own people. Obama's "red line" raises the stakes in the Syrian conflict, but some observers say that the warning is merely symbolic.

For months, the West has appeared highly reluctant to intervene militarily in the Syrian conflict, apart from some indirect support for rebels in the country. On Monday, however, US President Barack Obama drew a line in the sand.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons by the Syria regime, or even their large-scale movement, would mark a "red line" for the US that would have "enormous consequences." The use of such weapons "would change my calculus," he said.

Syria has a massive stockpile of chemical weapons, which is believed to include mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin. Obama emphasized that the US would not accept "a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people" -- an apparent reference to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah or foreign jihadists who are thought to be fighting in Syria.

Obama's statement is regarded as being partly intended to reassure US ally Israel, which is concerned about Hezbollah getting its hands on weapons of mass destruction. It also highlights the growing international dimensions of the Syrian conflict. So far, the US has opposed military intervention in Syria, partly out of concerns that it could broaden the conflict by drawing in Syrian allies such as Iran and Russia and make a political solution harder to obtain. Russia has warned against unilateral intervention by the West, but is also blocking action against Assad in the United Nations Security Council.

Read it at Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-press-review-obama-s-warning-will-not-deter-assad-a-851442.html