#1 – Not every state is getting hotter at the same rate. Ezra Klein breaks it down HERE.
#2 – Wall Street is doing more than just voting for Mitt in a landslide – article HERE:
For three years, Wall Street’s been telling the world how much it can’t stand President Barack Obama.
Now, thanks to campaign finance filings, it’s possible to put a price tag on just how much: Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting it are outraising Obama among financial-sector donors $37.1 million to $4.8 million.
#3 – The gold rush of internet domain claims is happening in real time as we speak – article HERE:
Today, ICANN revealed the results of that process, listing the nearly 2,000 proposed domains that people and companies have paid huge sums of money to apply for. An Internet currently dominated by dot-com and dot-gov and dot-edu is about to become an Internet full of dot … -prettymuchanything. Industrious claim-stakers have applied for, among other domains, .tech, .web, .buy, .fyi, .how, .family, .mom, .love, .pizza, .meme, .sucks, and, because of course, .sex.
For the most part, though — especially given the $185,000 application fee ICANN imposed on would-be stake-claimers — it’s been companies and collectives that have tried to register domains, mostly for brand-related suffixes. (Those domains could generate millions of dollars a year for winning bidders as they sell names ending in the approved suffixes.) So Google applied for, among many other domains, .google and .youtube. (It also, in a suggestion of its Internet-owning ambitions, applied for .docs and .lol and .wow.) Amazon applied for not only .amazon, but also .book, .fire, .music, and – hmm – .free. Microsoft applied for .azure, .hotmail, .skydrive, and .skype. Apple, true to minimalist form, applied for one domain: .apple.
#4 – Just a reminder – Romney’s plan would cut billions in funding for teachers, firemen and police – article HERE:
As Michael McAuliff reported yesterday, despite Romney’s claim, the federal government does give billions of dollars to states and localities through programs like Title 1, the COPS program, FEMA and others — which pay for first responders and teachers.
Romney’s plan calls for huge federal spending cuts, though it isn’t specific about which programs would get cut. But a reasonable set of assumptions for analyzing it shows Romney’s plan would cut deeply into those billions.
#5 – Rand Paul proposes legislation in the Senate to make it illegal for law enforcement agencies to use drones to spy without a warrant. Bravo. Article HERE:
His Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2012 would require the government to obtain a warrant before using drones to conduct surveillance. However, the government would not be required to obtain a warrant to use drones to patrol the national borders, when swift action was necessary to prevent “imminent danger to life,” or if there was determined to be a high risk of a terrorist attack.
“What I would say is that drones can be used if you have a proper warrant,” Paul told CNN. “But that means you go through a judge. A judge has to say there is probable cause of a crime. But I don’t want drones roaming across, crisscrossing our cities and our country snooping on Americans. And that’s the surveillance state that I’m very concerned about. And that’s what our bill would stop.”
#6 – ProPublica brings us real investigative journalism by pointing out the relationship between JP Morgan and the members of the Senate Finance Committee. In case you weren’t aware – the Chairman and CEO had to testify today on Capitol Hill regarding his companies estimated $5 billion losses on risky financial transactions using money from people’s checking and savings accounts i.e. proprietary trading (also legal). This game is rigged. Article HERE.
#7 – 13 Republican Senators joined Democrats to prevent a 45% cut to the food stamp program – article HERE:
The 65-33 roll call came just minutes after a much narrower 50-46 vote in which sugar beet and cane growers beat back a bipartisan effort to phase out the farm bill’s sugar support program, which has long been criticized for shifting costs on to American consumers.
The food stamp vote was significant because the amendment, offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), mirrors a proposal by House Republicans that would also convert the program to a state block grant and cut funding — albeit not as much as the tea party conservative proposed.
#8 – Greeks are freaking out and taking their money out of their bank accounts prior to the upcoming election where they fear they may exit the Euro. Article HERE:
Greeks are withdrawing their cash out of banks and stocking up with food ahead of Sunday’s election that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro.
Bankers said hundreds of millions in euros were leaving major banks daily in the run up to the country’s second parliamentary poll in as many months.
Retailers said some of the money was being used to buy pasta and canned goods, as fears of returning to the drachma, the country’s former currency, were fanned by rumours that a radical leftist leader may win the election.
#9 – Romney supports insurance companies preventing you from getting coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. Article HERE:
The statement confirms that under a Romney presidency, there would be no federal prohibition barring health insurers from discriminating against pre-existing conditions. Instead, his administration would push reforms that help eat away at the problem. It would allow “reinsurance,” in which insurance companies pool resources for a joint plan to cover high-risk patients (essentially an insurance policy for health insurers); provide block grants of Medicaid dollars to the states while giving them flexibility to cover their uninsured population; and encourage the creation of high-risk pools.
The Romney campaign believes that while a combination of these reforms won’t eliminate the problem of people entering the health insurance market with a pre-existing condition and encountering discrimination, it will decrease it.
#10 – Room for Debate asks if the Vatican’s crackdown on nuns will work or not. Article HERE:
On Tuesday, representatives of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the group of American nuns that was accused in April of promoting “radical feminist themes,” met with Vatican officials to discuss the doctrinal verdict against them. This is not the only P.R. challenge the Catholic Church is dealing with: jurors are deliberating in a dramatic trial in Philadelphia in which a senior official is accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests, and the Vatican has faced a backlash since cracking down on a sister who wrote about Christian sexual ethics.
Will the Vatican’s tactics be effective, trying to rein in nuns who it thinks have strayed from doctrine? Or should the church hierarchy engage with the sisters in a more open dialogue?
