News Nuggets 1054

DAYLEE PICTURE:  Ipanema beach in Brazil.  From National Geographic.  

UP-FRONT ELECTION NUGGET!!
State of the Race: Advantage, Obama from Politico
"President Barack Obama heads out of the national political conventions with a much clearer path to winning, top advisers to Mitt Romney privately concede. The Romney campaign, while pleasantly surprised by Obama’s lackluster prime-time performance, said the post-convention bounce they hoped for fell well short of expectations and privately lament that state-by-state polling numbers — most glaringly in Ohio — are working in the president’s favor."
I'll say this -- back in 2004, I don't recall hearing anything like this from the Kerry campaign this far out from election day.


Why Have Millions of Americans Given Up Looking for Work? (Patrik Jonssen) from the Christian Science Monitor
"The August jobs report sent chills through Wall Street and Washington because of one eye-popping number: 368,000 Americans gave up looking for work. That makes 7 million people not counted as part of the labor force who want a job. Why?"


Defense Of Marriage Act: 3 States Oppose Federal Anti-Gay Marriage Law from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"Vermont, New York and Connecticut, all states where gay marriage is legal, filed a brief in a case brought by a New York woman who had to pay $350,000 in estate taxes when her partner died. New York had joined the case in 2011."

Defying Canon and Civil Laws, Diocese Failed to Stop a Priest from the New York Times
"As recently as 2011, a bishop and Catholic officials in Kansas City didn’t act to prevent a priest from taking pornographic photographs of young girls."

American Bishop Convicted of Covering Up Clerical Sex Abuse Refuses to Resign (Matt Williams) from the Guardian [of the UK] via Raw Story
"Pressure is mounting on the highest ranking US catholic official yet to be convicted of covering up clerical child sex abuse to resign from the church. Bishop Robert Finn was found guilty Friday of failing to report suspected child sexual abuse to authorities, prompting calls for him to step down or be booted from office."

OJ Simpson's Attorney Tampered With Glove: Ex-Prosecutor from Reuters via the Huffington Post
"Nearly seventeen years after O.J. Simpson walked away from his murder trial a free man, a prosecutor at the center of the case has alleged that the lead defense lawyer tampered with a crucial piece of evidence."
And where is old Johnnie Cochran these days?  Oh -- he died in 2005. So, what now?

A Tale of Two Conventions (David Coates) from the Huffington Post
"Which offers us "the season of Light," which "the season of Darkness?" Maybe the conventions can offer us a clue because they were so very different -- different on honesty, different on compassion and equality, different on economic growth and social justice, different on civil rights."

Quick DNC Convention Bounce Update (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"...given that Mitt Romney's "bounce" was less than two points (more like 1.6 points, or "float within the MoE"), Obama has already more than doubled that. Unless there's a major hit from Friday's job numbers report, expect Obama's bounce to continue growing over the next several days."

Obama's Message Breaks Through In Swing State Newspapers from BuzzFeed 
"An emphasis on the path forward. Lukewarm reception to his speech from pundits doesn't make the headlines."

The Real World (Todd S. Purdum) from Vanity Fair
"Barack Obama indulged in few flights of fancy last night. His speech was that of a man tested and tempered by events."

On Obama's 'Disappointing' DNC Speech (James Fallows) from the Atlantic 
"I heard it as also conveying, Let's get serious here. I'm the President, so I know how hard these trade-offs are. I'm the President, so there are some things I won't joke about. But also: for all of you who think I'm a Muslim, an alien, a socialist, a fraud, here's a reminder. I'm the President. "

12 Signs Obama Is Showing Some Serious Backbone Against Republican Greed and Madness (Steven Rosenfeld) from Alternet
"The President’s performance at the DNC showed a new willingness to stand and fight."

Mitt Romney's Swing-state Ad Spend Looks Like a Loser's Strategy (Harry Enten) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"When you look at the arithmetic of the electoral college, the Republican nominee's media buying really narrows his chances."

Flip Side of Sarah Palin (Jonathan Bernstein) from Salon
"The past two weeks have shown us that Paul Ryan isn't so different from the GOP's last pick for vice president."

The GOP Convention Negative Bounce: a Final Look from the Princeton Election Consortium
"...here is the best glimpse we are going to get of the negative post-GOP-convention bounce. Basically, their convention appears to have helped…Obama. It’s the part in red at the end."

Are Republicans Fooling Themselves? (Stanley Kurtz) from National Review 
"To the extent that Republicans dismiss this convention as either a failure or relatively meaningless, however, I think we’re fooling ourselves. ... It is completely accurate to say that the Democrats are pushing a bogus reformulation of the American way of life — slapping a bunch of flags on their Julia ad and turning classic conceptions of civic and religious community into covers for a cradle-to-grave welfare state. Unfortunately, this way of thinking is becoming the new normal in this country, and Obama and his convention have only helped to cement the change."
A fascinating look inside the thinking of an "Obama the Socialist" right wing columnist.

W.H. Plans for a Second Term from Politico
"President Barack Obama didn’t present a detailed plan for a second term as he accepted re-nomination here Thursday night, but back in the White House, they’re working on one."

IA-REP: Steve King: It was a Compliment to Say Immigrants are Like Dogs from Salon
"People just can’t take a compliment these days. That’s what Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said last night in defense of his May comment that Americans should be sure to “get the pick of the litter” when selecting which immigrants should become citizens."
And the GOP wonders why hispanics aren't rushing to vote for them.

EXTREME WEATHER NUGGET!!
'Tornado' Touches Down Off the Coast of New York City (VIDEO) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"A possible tornado touched down in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens Saturday afternoon.  Firefighters are assessing structural damage caused by the cyclone that was reported in the beachfront neighborhood of Coney Island and elsewhere in the area."

Certainly looks like a tornado to me!