Even though he has criticized super PACs in the past, President Obama has decided he will allow a pro-Democratic one to assist him in his reelection bid. Priorities USA Action, a super PAC founded by two former White House aides, will help Obama counter the deluge of money being raised by GOP groups during the 2012 election cycle.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told a conservative radio talk show host on Monday that he doesn’t support funding for Planned Parenthood and believes Susan G. Komen for the Cure should have stuck by its original decision to pull grants from the organization.—-
“Look, the idea that we’re subsidizing an institution which is providing abortion, in my view, is wrong,” Romney said on Scott Hennen’s show. (Interestingly, Romney pledged to protect a woman’s right to choose during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts.)
Confusion seems to be reigning among the major nations about how to best handle the violent crackdown on dissidents in Syria. A Russian official said there should be a solution based on a plan put forward by the Arab League, but Syrian officials later clarified that he wasn’t referring to the current plan that calls for President Bashar al-Assad to resign in favor of his vice-president.
Workers in Greece are staging a 24-hour general strike to protest new government austerity measures that would eliminate 15,000 civil service jobs this year. The plan was crafted in response to demands by Greece’s partners in the European Union, which want economic reforms as a condition to get a $170 billion bailout to avoid a March 27 default on its bond repayments.
February is Black History Month, but African-American writer Sean Thomas-Breitfeld says the celebration needs to move beyond remembering the struggles of civil rights leaders in the 1950s and ‘60s. He says the economic history of blacks needs to be recalled to better understand current conditions in America.
“It’s an unlucky accident for African-Americans that the range of government policies and programs that created the middle class largely excluded them,” Thomas-Breitfeld writes in The Nation. “For instance, the GI Bill that provided returning World War II veterans with money for college, businesses and home mortgages didn’t work for the many black veterans who were discriminated against by colleges and banks.”
Some people have criticized the Millennial Generation (people now in their 20s) and Generation Y (people in their 30s) as self-indulgent and pampered, making them a poor fit for many workplaces. That view is getting some ammunition with the rise of “helicopter parents,” mothers and fathers who lobby on their children’s behalf with bosses and prospective employers. Grow up already, and stop throwing tantrums in your cubicle!
David Lewis, an anti-abortion activist who is running against U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-West Chester) in the GOP primary, paid to air a graphic TV commercial over the weekend on several Cincinnati and Dayton stations that upset some viewers. WLWT-TV (Channel 5) was among the stations. WLWT representatives said “the station is required to give federal candidates unrestricted access to airwaves leading up to the election,” and got noted First Amendment attorney Louis Sirkin to clarify the situation for people.
If you’ve been feeling grumpy lately, blame it on the weather. The Enquirer reports that data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Greater Cincinnati ranks 163rd among 176 weather stations across the United States for sunshine during February. The region ranks 151st nationwide for sunshine as measured at the airport; cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit have more sunny days than we do.
See, it’s not just you. (Well, maybe it is. But we won’t tell.)
