interesting things
Reproductive rights reporter (and RH Reality Check weekly columnist) Amanda Marcotte writes today that Missouri Congressman and Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin, already well-known for his solidly anti-choice positions, gave a speech in 2008 in which he states that, among other things, abortion providers perform abortions on “women who are not actually pregnant.”
via “Abortions on Women Who Aren’t Pregnant” Common Trope of Anti-Choice Movement | RH Reality Check.
Campaigns to tweet their take on debate
By Alicia M. Cohn – 10/03/12 05:00 AM ET
The first head-to-head match-up between President Obama and Mitt Romney on Wednesday is also the first presidential debate where both campaigns will be engaged in a virtual showdown on Twitter.
The Twitter debate is crucial not only because it will signal the most memorable moments of the live event, but because the social network is expected to hold the key to which candidate the public believes came out the winner.
“The spin room which traditionally followed the debate will now occur in real time on Twitter,†predicted Peter Greenberg, Twitter’s head of political advertising.
Andrew Rasiej, a digital strategist who has worked for Democratic campaigns, went further, calling traditional spin-doctoring “obsolete.â€
via Campaigns to tweet their take on debate – The Hill's Twitter Room.
DENVER — For every five commercials Mitt Romney and his allies ran here in this vital swing state in the last two weeks of September, President Obama and Democrats ran seven, accusing Mr. Romney of having a “tough luck†attitude toward the middle class and asserting that Mr. Obama has brought the economy back from the brink.In Florida, the disparity was greater. The number of pro-Obama ads outnumbered pro-Romney ads by almost 50 percent — some 13,000 of them accusing Mr. Romney of outsourcing jobs to China, trying to gut Medicare and hiding his tax returns from the public.
NAGANO, Japan — The North Korean regime is feeling increased pressure over its abysmal human rights record.
The latest challenge came to light Friday, in a report by a reputable Seoul-based online news organization saying that it had confirmed the closing of political prison camp number 22 at Hoeryong, in the far northeastern province of North Hamgyong, near the Chinese and Russian borders.
via North Korean allegedly shutters notorious prison camp | GlobalPost.
Lockheed Martin said Monday it will not issue employee layoff notices this year, ending an election-year showdown with the Obama administration.
The company said it based its decision on new guidance issued Friday by the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon.
The guidance said the Pentagon did not anticipate killing any contracts on Jan. 2, the day automatic spending cuts are set to begin hitting defense spending. The guidance also said the federal government would cover severance costs that are mandated under a federal layoff notices law.
via After Obama guidance, Lockheed won’t issue layoff notices this year – The Hill’s DEFCON Hill.
Wu is well aware of the attention his latest candidacy has attracted and expects people to scoff at his beliefs. But he said his candidacy is not about being part of the political mainstream.“If you’re mainstream, you’re going to hell,†he said.
via Westboro attendee seeks seat on Kansas education board – KansasCity.com.
“What I think most Iowans certainly believe,†the president said in a telephone interview with The Des Moines Register, “is that if the majority of the American people have said, ‘This is the direction we need to go,’ and the Republicans in Congress say, ‘No, we’re going to go in the exact opposite direction,’ that’s probably not going to leave them to keep that majority too long.â€
We’ve all seen the social media “experts†who signed up for Twitter accounts yesterday and have eleventy-billion followers today, and we all know how exactly how they get them. Now Twitter might be considering a replacement metric for follower count that more accurately measures how influential users are.Speaking at a BuzzFeed panel in New York yesterday, Twitter co-founder and board member Evan Williams said that reach is a much more important measure:
via Twitter mulls killing follower counts – The Washington Post.
“We’re still focused,†he said. “This is an election that is focused on the economy. It’s focused on the direction of the country.â€
Mr. Madden wanted to be clear: despite the video, Mr. Romney was focused, a word he used eight times. “We remain pretty focused and determined,†he said, before opting for a stronger adjective. “Very focused and determined,†he said.
via A Mood of Gloom Afflicts the Romney Campaign – NYTimes.com.