interesting things
Private-equity firm Carlyle and Getty Images management have formed a partnership to acquire stock-photo agency Getty Images from Hellman & Friedman for $3.3 billion.
via WSJ.com: What's News US http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444375104577590812532175058.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
Critics are too mean. Except when they’re too nice. They stand in the way of art. Except when they’re irrelevant. A critic makes the case for the critic.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/a-critic-makes-the-case-for-critics.html
Back in November of 2003, the White House was worried. So were House Republican leaders.
At issue: President George W. Bush had to use all of his political clout to get enough House Republicans to pass his proposed Medicare prescription-drug benefit. Many House Republicans balked at the cost, and some had to be confronted on the floor to get them to vote for the largest entitlement expansion since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. One House member said she hid out, avoiding making contact with House leaders. At one point, the vote was stopped, and the clock and even the C-SPAN cameras were frozen for three hours so GOP leaders could round up the votes. One of the votes for the package was Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Despite a shaky start, the benefit, also called Medicare Part D, proved immensely popular—and expensive. According to a report by the then-Comptroller General David Walker, the benefit contained $8 trillion in unfunded liabilities. (Current estimates have it more in the $7 trillion range.)
The prescription-drug benefit may be the most pertinent example, because so many Republicans balked at its price tag and its expansion of the federal role in health care. (Many Democrats liked the idea of a drug benefit for seniors but did not like the restrictions on the federal government negotiating prices for pharmaceuticals that might have kept the cost of drugs down, as it has for, say, Veterans Affairs.) Any number of notable Republicans bucked the president, including some who ran for president this year, such as Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Rick Santorum, then the junior senator from Pennsylvania.
via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/is-ryan-really-a-fiscal-hawk–20120815
They make up only a sliver of the electorate, roughly 4 to 7 percent. We’re talking 1 million to 2 million people at the most, in just a handful of critical states. They tend to be younger, female, and clueless about politics.
They are the undecided. Better yet, they could be the deciders—the voters who pick the winner of the presidential election in an increasingly polarized environment. Some polls suggest there are fewer fence-sitters in 2012 than in recent elections, yet this race will see record-setting spending of at least $2.5 billion by the campaigns, national parties, and other political groups. Â
Much of what the campaigns do is geared toward getting the attention of these indifferent and far-flung individuals. Obama and soon-to-be Republican nominee Mitt Romney will spend nearly all of their time in less than a dozen states that are truly up for grabs. Their television ads are carefully designed to win over the wishy-washy and the disengaged. Watch Obama calmly appealing to undecided voters in one oft-running ad: “Sometimes politics can seem very small. But the choice you face couldn’t be bigger.”
Facebook executive Carolyn Everson has set in motion plans to convince the world’s biggest brands that ads on the social network can indeed work—and to quantify how so.
via WSJ.com: What's News US http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444246904577575351814047494.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
Though President Obama frequently cites his role in overseeing the operation that killed Osama bin Laden as one of his biggest successes, he usually makes it clear that he didn’t pull an Air Force One and take out the terrorist leader on his own. However, Reuters reports that a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives is launching a media campaign attacking President Obama for taking credit for bin Laden’s death and allegedly leaking classified information. “Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden, America did. The work that the American military has done killed Osama bin Laden. You did not,” says Navy SEAL Ben Smith in a short film set to be released on Wednesday. “As a citizen, it is my civic duty to tell the president to stop leaking information to the enemy … It will get Americans killed.”
A spokesman for the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc. says the group has about $1 million and is hoping to raise more with the release of its 22-minute documentary about the Obama administration’s alleged leaks (which Reuters describes as “spy-movie style”). It’s also planning to air TV ads in several swing states.
Like the group behind the swift boat ads that criticized John Kerry, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc. claims it’s nonpartisan, though it seems singularly focused on criticizing President Obama. (The FEC eventually fined Swift Boat Veterans for Truth after finding it was mainly working against Kerry.) Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, said the group is merely a “watchdog organization,” but added that the Obama administration “has certainly leaked more than others.” Another spokesman, former CIA case officer Fred Rustmann, said the White House has been leaking classified information “to help this guy get re-elected, at the expense of peoples’ lives…. We want to see that they don’t do this again.” The White House insists that it didn’t leak any information, and two federal prosecutors are currently investigating.
The Obama campaign responded that no one in the group has the authority to comment on these national security issues, and highlighted recent comments from Admiral Bill McRaven, commander of the raid, about Obama’s close involvement in the operation. The campaign added, “it’s clear they’ve resorted to making things up for purely political reasons.” Conveniently, there’s no way of knowing exactly who “they” are. The group has set itself up as a 501(c)(4) — a group that’s supposed to be aimed at educating the public rather than getting candidates elected or defeated — and thus it isn’t required to disclose the names of its donors.
Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann
Filed Under:
campaign 2012
,attack ads
,politics
,national security leaks
,osama bin killed
via Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/08/group-says-obama-exaggerated-bin-laden-role.html
@BuzzFeedAndrew: RT @ZekeJMiller: DMR: Obama’s beer tent stop may have cost owner $25,000
http://t.co/xKxmUTnd
@gettingsome: Why must publishers recall non-fiction books revealed to be partly fabricated, but I’m never offered a refund from tabloid magazines I buy?
Mixed martial arts fighter and reality TV show host Jason “Mayhem” Miller was arrested Monday on suspicion of burglary after deputies found him dozing naked on a couch in an Orange County church.
via L.A. Times – California | Local News http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/mma-fighter-jason-mayhem-miller-found-naked-in-oc-church-arrested.html
Obama Buys Beers for state fair voters; Refuses guy with Romney sign…
via DrudgeSiren.com – All Stories http://www.drudgesiren.com/allhl.php?id=146597&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+drudgesiren%2FoGpG+%28DrudgeSiren.com+-+All+Stories%29#h146597
