'Chariots of Fire' lets Brits relive Olympic ideal

This photo released by the Gielgud Theatre, London on Thursday July 12, 2012 shows Jack Lowden as Eric Liddell, left, and James McArdle as Harold Abrahams in the Gielgud Theatre production of Chariots of Fire. In Britain, this Olympic summer brings the blazing return of "Chariots of Fire," the reality-based story of two British sprinters going for gold in the 1924 Paris Games. (AP Photo/Hugo Glendenning, Gielgud Theatre)

This photo released by the Gielgud Theatre, London on Thursday July 12, 2012 shows Jack Lowden as Eric Liddell, left, and James McArdle as Harold Abrahams in the Gielgud Theatre production of Chariots of Fire. In Britain, this Olympic summer brings the blazing return of "Chariots of Fire," the reality-based story of two British sprinters going for gold in the 1924 Paris Games. (AP Photo/Hugo Glendenning, Gielgud Theatre)

(AP) ? The London Olympics are drawing near and British headlines are full of complaints about the weather, commercialization, chaos on the roads and the subway. Is it any wonder that the story of two athletes competing at a simpler games is capturing the public imagination?

This summer brings the blazing return of "Chariots of Fire," the reality-based story of two British sprinters going for gold in the 1924 Paris Games.

Harold Abrahams was an English Jew who overcame the ingrained anti-Semitism of the British establishment, while Eric Liddell was a committed Scottish Christian forced to choose between his faith and his ambition when his race was on a Sunday.

The story of their struggle against the obstacles, and each other, was first told in a 1981 film that struck a chord around the world, becoming a surprise box office hit and winning four Academy Awards, including best picture.

On Friday it is being re-released in British movie theaters for a new generation. A stage adaptation has also opened in London's West End to rave reviews, suggesting that audiences still yearn to revisit a simpler time.

Ben Cross, who played Abrahams, thinks the movie's appeal lies in its depiction of "the pureness, the purity, the innocence" of Olympic competition.

"We have security worries today, and it's turned into somewhat of a business enterprise," he said. "(But) at its core there is this sort of purity of endeavor. The film shows there can be a kind of dignity in losing."

Not too much losing, though. Without spoiling the ending, it's fair to say the movie, and Mike Bartlett's stage adaptation, are stirring sagas.

"It's a simple story about simple ideals, simple morals. Stand up for who you are. Stand up for your rights," the film's director, Hugh Hudson, said at a very British gala premiere in London's Leicester Square ? complete with red carpet, Union flags, torrential downpours.

The film had striving athletes, dreaming spires, class conflict, young men in shorts ? and, in a stroke of genius, a driving synth score by Vangelis that is still played at countless sports competitions.

Audiences around the world loved it. Martin Polley, an Olympic historian at the University of Southampton in southern England, is not surprised they still do.

"All history films tell us a lot about now as well as about then," he said. Now as much as in 1981? a year after a Cold War-marred Moscow Games were boycotted by the U.S. and other Western nations ? "looking back to "a time when the Olympics were apolitical and noncommercial is very attractive."

Of course, that idealized past is partly an illusion. The 1924 Paris Olympics were not as pure as many imagine. Then, as now, international politics interfered with the competition. Germany, banned from the games after its defeat in World War I, did not compete.

And good sportsmanship was not always uppermost. Abrahams' biographer, Mark Ryan, points out in a program note for the play that the rugby competition ended in a riot when the U.S. beat France, with the home crowd attacking American players and fans. A French boxer was disqualified for biting.

Polley says commercialism was part of the games long before McDonald's and Visa were around to stamp their brands on the event.

"The 1900, 1904 and 1908 Olympics were all sideshows to trade fairs," Polley said. "Coca Cola has been involved in the Olympics since 1920."

The film acknowledges the ambiguity, relishing old-fashioned ideals of Britishness and sportsmanship while conceding that winning may take more than just talent.

It celebrates Liddell, who was fast despite his ungainly running style ? head back, arms flailing.

When the two men first raced, Liddell was faster, But Abrahams supplemented his natural talent with a determined, professional approach to training. He hired a coach, Sam Mussabini, and was scorned for it by a British sports establishment infused with the notion of the gentleman amateur.

That spirit is embodied in the film by Nigel Havers' aristocratic Lord Andrew Lindsay, vaulting over hurdles on which his butler has balanced champagne glasses. The play manages to recreate the scene, in a bravura bit of staging.

The play, which stages the running sequences with kinetic flair, is a patriotic nostalgia-fest, a panorama of blazers and boaters and Gilbert and Sullivan. In the closing moments, actors playing the 1924 athletes stand by others in the 2012 uniforms of Team GB (Great Britain) ? with director Edward Hall making an explicit link between then and now.

Polley says despite big business, doping scandals and the participation of professional athletes, the Olympic ideal extolled in "Chariots of Fire" survives ? battered but resilient.

"It's got a status of being something honorable," he said. "There is a kind of nobility, in the sense that there is no cash prize, and a lot of people who have no chance of a medal will still take part and will see it as a great honor."

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Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-07-13-Britain-Chariots%20of%20Fire/id-1fd3986f79124fe1b942e08e71013c13

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Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points: Worst... Congress... Ever!

To fully appreciate that subtitle, you really have to read it in your best impression of The Simpsons character "Comic Book Guy." I'm just sayin'....

The phrase refers to a very in-depth article by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, who gives us (happy Friday the 13th, by the way) 13 reasons why this is the "worst Congress ever." It is an excellent article which I highly recommend, and I'm not just saying that because I am (admittedly) a sucker for articles with lots of graphs in them.

Even Truman's infamous "Do-Nothing Congress" actually managed to get a lot more done than what we've got now, folks. Yesterday, I wrote one of my quasi-semi-annual articles dinging Congress for its incredibly lax work schedule (from now until the end of the year, Congress has 41 scheduled work days, or a little over eight work weeks' time -- in five-and-a-half months' calendar time). But I have to take my hat off to Klein, because he does a superb job of quantifying exactly how unproductive the 112th Congress truly has been.

Since I'm plugging my own columns here, I also think I had a creative idea while getting ready to watch baseball earlier this week -- hold an "All-Stars of Politics" debate each election year! OK, enough with the self-aggrandizing nonsense. Instead, let's get right on with the show.

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Most Impressive Democrat of the Week

Vice President Joe Biden gave a rip-snortin' speech this week, which definitely earns him an Honorable Mention award. Biden is going to be Obama's most valuable asset out on the campaign trail this fall (especially in a few key swing states), and it's good to see he's in fighting form already.

But this week, we've got to give out our Most Impressive Democrat of the Week award (with special "Told you so!" vindication icing) because of what President Obama told a CBS reporter recently (the full interview is slated to air this Sunday night). The reporter asked Obama what his biggest mistake in office had been so far. The president responded:

The mistake of my first term -- a couple of years -- was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important, but the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times. It's funny, when I ran, people said, "Well, he can give a great speech, but can he actually manage the job?" And then in my first two years, I think the notion was, "Well, you know, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going?" And I think that was a legitimate criticism.

So do I, Mister President, and it is nice to hear you say so. In fact, I spent a goodly portion of the first two years of Obama's first term saying exactly this -- "Who would have thought Obama's biggest problem when he got into office would have been communications?" But I'm just a guy who writes a blog. I'm free to blather about such things without it becoming an inside-the-Beltway intra-party fracas.

What got everyone in the political world's attention, though, was when Professor Drew Westen -- a progressive voice if ever there was one -- wrote an opinion article in the New York Times which said pretty much exactly the same thing, much more eloquently than I ever had. Compare what Obama just admitted with what Westen wrote last year (speaking of his feelings while watching Obama being sworn into office):

I had a feeling of unease. It wasn't just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear -- and needed to hear -- but he didn't tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.

Westen, when this article ran, got a lot of grief for what he wrote. The grief from conservatives was to be expected, but the grief from Lefties was almost as scathing (some of it, at any rate) -- especially for Westen's use of the metaphor of "telling a story."

We may be bending the rules for the MIDOTW a bit, because Westen is not a Democratic officeholder and we are only making the assumption he is a Democrat. But until we hear otherwise, we're going to go ahead and say that Drew Westen is not only completely vindicated -- by Obama's own words -- but also that he is our Most Impressive Democrat of the Week this week. You were right, Mr. Westen, and I for one am glad President Obama has now said so quite clearly.

[Professor Drew Westen of Emory University is not a public official, and it is our general policy not to provide contact information in such cases.]

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Most Disappointing Democrat of the Week

The United States attorney for Northern California has been on a crusade against medical marijuana providers for some time now. This week, she announced she'll be continuing her aggressive targeting of such providers, based solely on (are you sitting down?) their size. The legal reason used: if they're big, they must be doing something wrong. No, seriously. Here it is in Melinda Haag's own words:

I now find the need to consider actions regarding marijuana superstores such as Harborside. The larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state's medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need.

Well, golly gee, maybe she needs to be reassigned to Wall Street, huh? Wouldn't that be great to see? "The larger the bank or investment firm, the greater the likelihood that they are abusing financial regulations and performing transactions which are illegal, so we are hereby immediately moving to shut down [fill in the name of your least favorite "Too Big to Fail" institution], even though we have not a shred of evidence that any such crime has been committed."

This will, of course, never happen in a million billion years, but it sure is fun to daydream, isn't it?

Seriously, though, this is her stated legal reasoning for not only targeting successful medical marijuana dispensaries, but also aggressively going after their landlords as well, in an effort to force them back out onto the street -- precisely what the medical marijuana law is supposed to prevent.

Steph Sherer has a longer piece on this dismaying turn of events at the Huffington Post, which is worth reading for some sordid details. In it, she suggests: "If you live in Northern California, tell President Obama's campaign to take control of his law enforcement officials and fire Ms. Haag -- call them and say, 'I want Obama's administration to stop raiding dispensaries -- fire Melinda Haag!' "

We would go even further. Any donor or supporter of President Obama's campaign (especially donors) anywhere in the country should pick up the phone and call up campaign headquarters and say exactly the same thing. It is time for Melinda Haag to go. Again, we're not sure of Haag's political affiliation, so we're going to give her award instead to Attorney General Eric Holder, her boss (who is indeed a political appointee).

[Also, if you agree with these sentiments, head over to the Courage Campaign and sign their petition to Eric Holder. Or you can contact the White House on their official contact page, to let them know what you think of these actions.]

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Friday Talking Points

Volume 218 (7/13/12)

OK, seriously, those "Team USA" Olympic outfits? Really? That's the best they could come up with? It's like some brainstorming session was held where some bright spark chimed in with: "Well, it's in Britain, so let's go with a preppy outfit -- for all those folks in American who all secretly want to be British anyway -- yeah, that's the ticket!"

Sigh. Sorry, didn't know where else to insert that particular bit of snark, so it wound up here.

The week in politics consisted of two speeches to the N.A.A.C.P. -- one to get their votes, and one to get the votes of people who enjoyed seeing this particular audience boo the speaker. That's about as polite as I can put it, really.

The other news centered around Mitt Romney and his days at Bain Capital. I have to say, the Obama campaign team so far has done a superb job of attacking Romney on the Bain issue, and the polls show it is really doing Obama some good with the voters. Expect this to be a major storyline all throughout the campaign.

To put this another way, for once it is amusing to see a Democrat define a Republican so well with the public that the Republican is the one left flopping around like a dying fish on a trawler. Usually, these positions are reversed. And usually, Democrats take the entire summer off from campaigning, often to their detriment in November. It is refreshing to see a Democrat pulling out the full-court press so early in the game, I have to admit. Although there's a good possibility I'm biased. Heh.

But enough of this blithering and blathering, let's get on to the real blither-blather -- this week's suggested Democratic talking points.

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1
???Mitt's actually talking to the press?!?

This one is sheer twist-the-knife schadenfreude, I freely admit. But still, it's just too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

"Boy, this Bain story must really be terrifying the Romney campaign. I heard that Mitt is actually going to give mainstream media interviews to address it -- to every single news channel. Wow. I can't remember the last time the Romney team allowed Mitt to, you know, actually speak to reporters in such a fashion. I guess they realized how damaging the story has become, because they sure are looking desperate, aren't they?"

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2
???Did Mitt lie to you, or to his investors?

This is the perfect way to frame this story. Either Mitt was lying to his investors (and the S.E.C.), or lied to the American public on his campaign financial disclosure statement. Those are really the only two choices. We're going to turn this talking point over to Stephanie Cutter, who is Obama's deputy campaign manager:

Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.

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3
???The more the public hears...

These attacks are working. So hammer them home!

"What I find interesting is that the more the public finds out about Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital, the less they trust him on economic matters. He's sinking in the polls on the economic trust issue, precisely because of financial shenanigans such as these. Romney says he left Bain in 1999, but for years afterwards he was listed as 'chief executive officer and president' of Bain. Either Mitt was misrepresenting himself by these titles, or he actually did Bain work for longer than he's now admitting, or -- even worse -- he thinks that merely 'phoning it in' is acceptable behavior for a chief executive officer. That's something American voters are going to be thinking about when we elect our own chief executive this fall. And the more the public hears about Bain, the less they trust Mitt Romney."

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4
???You say outsourcing, I say offshoring

Before the "When did Mitt quit?" scandal broke, Romney was fending off another Bain attack, by trying to split hairs between "outsourcing" and "offshoring." This is a fun game to play with Mitt, because no matter what he says, he just digs the hole deeper. Neither term is a big winner with the public, even if Mitt hasn't figured this out yet.

"Mitt Romney complains about people saying Bain Capital contributed to the offshoring of American jobs, by trying to say it was really only about outsourcing jobs. Here's my idea for a drinking game while watching Mitt twist in this particular wind: When Mitt says 'offshoring,' drink a shot of tequila. When Mitt says 'outsourcing,' down a full margarita. No matter how the game plays out, you're going to wake up the next morning with a pounding headache -- much like the people whose jobs disappeared. That hangover was painful for workers with good-paying jobs who got nothing but a pink slip from Bain, and I don't think those people cared where the jobs went, because they hurt just the same either way."

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5
???What's the matter with America, Mitt?

Speaking of offshoring....

It's actually rare that Democrats get to play the "jingoistic" card, so please, have all kinds of fun doing so. Maybe have an American flag in the background. Heck, why not have ten or twelve? Heh.

"You know what -- I am an American. I keep my money in American banks. They have always been good enough for me, because I know my money will stay right here in this country. I've never even been to Switzerland or the Cayman Islands in my life. I particularly haven't traveled anywhere just to make use of their secretive banking laws. Apparently, Mitt Romney is too good to keep his money right here in the good old U.S.A. I find that disappointing, personally. What's the matter with America, Mitt? There aren't enough banks here to hold all your dough, or something?"

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6
???Mitt's Olympic bailout

NBC has been all but peeing their pants in excitement over the upcoming Olympics, as they do every year while most Americans steel themselves for two weeks of extra-crappy coverage by the likes of clueless folks like Bob Costas (shudder). Which makes it a dandy time to attack Romney on another of his supposed strengths: the Salt Lake City 2002 winter Olympics. By the time the games actually begin, we'll all be talking about how much Mitt pays every year for what David Letterman calls "his dancing horse," an official U.S. Olympic contender in the dressage event. For now, it's time to take down Mitt's supposed miracle in Salt Lake City.

"Mitt Romney likes to brag about how he personally 'saved' the 2002 Olympics. But you know what actually saved the games? A federal bailout of 1.3 billion dollars. That's right -- Mitt got a gigantic 'earmark' from the American taxpayers so that Utah wouldn't have any more egg on their face than they already had from the bribery scandal. Republican John McCain called this bailout a 'ripoff of the taxpayers' and a 'national disgrace.' Republican Rick Santorum went even further, saying during the primaries about Romney: 'He heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympic games by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the Salt Lake Olympic games, in an earmark. Does the word hypocrisy come to mind?' Those aren't partisan remarks, mind you -- merely what Mitt's fellow Republicans have to say about how Mitt 'saved' the Olympics."

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7
???It cost how much?

Finally, we're going to end where we began: Worst... Congress... ever! This talking point comes from Scott Pelley of CBS News, who helpfully put the Republican action in the House of Representatives on Obamacare in perspective this week. After pointing out that the House held their thirty-third vote on the issue, and that this all took a combined 80 hours of House floor time, Pelley had this to say:

We wondered how much it cost taxpayers for the House to repeal the law again and again. You can't be exact about these things, but the Congressional Research Service tells us that the House of Representatives costs us $24 million a week. So with two weeks spent repealing the law, that comes to a little under $50 million.

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Chris Weigant blogs at:
ChrisWeigant.com

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Become a fan of Chris on the Huffington Post
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/worst-congress-ever_b_1672623.html

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The Bain drain: Is it history all over again?

Romney in New Hampshire (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney would later describe it as one of his biggest regrets about his first run for public office.

In 1994, Romney was a virtual unknown running to unseat Ted Kennedy as U.S. senator from Massachusetts. He campaigned on his business record as a turnaround artist at Bain Capital.?But Democrats turned Romney's Bain record against him, casting him as a cold-blooded capitalist who put profits before workers.

The Democratic argument was illustrated by a strike at the Ampad paper plant in Marion, Ind., which had recently been acquired by Bain. The firm had fired most of the plant's employees, offering to rehire them back for reduced wages and benefits. Romney, who was on leave from Bain at the time because of the campaign, had no direct role in the Ampad dispute, but Kennedy seized upon the drama inside the company. Kennedy even appeared with some of Ampad's workers, who traveled to Massachusetts to protest Romney's claim of being a job creator at Bain.

Romney distanced himself from Ampad and other Bain-controlled companies by insisting he had no day-to-day role in what Bain was doing.?Yet in an interview with the Boston Globe a few weeks after his loss in November 1994, Romney admitted that he was haunted by his failure to respond to the attacks on his record at Bain. He often woke up at night thinking about his missed opportunities in the campaign, he said.

And he said his biggest mistake was failing to quickly respond to Kennedy's attacks over Ampad.

"It left in the minds of voters I was a bad guy, a corporate downsizer and raider, and I should have responded more vehemently," Romney told the Globe. "I am a big boy and I know how politics is played. But I thought it would play more to the facts."

Eighteen years later, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies have spent tens of millions of dollars on television ads casting Romney as a dangerous corporate raider who doesn't care about the middle class. In recent days, the Obama campaign has expanded that attack, accusing Romney of being secretive about his estimated $250 million personal fortune, much of which he accrued during his time at Bain. It's all a part of a larger effort by Democrats to cast Romney as a rich guy out of touch with the Americans who are struggling under the bad economy?a strategy that could help Obama deflect criticism that he hasn't done enough to turn the economy around.

Romney and his staff have been slow to push back on the Democratic attacks, which has prompted much hand-wringing among Republicans who worry that the Obama campaign is going to cement an impression of Romney in voters' minds before the party's presumptive presidential nominee can define himself.

"I am not sure what they are thinking," a Republican strategist, who declined to be named because he is advising the Romney campaign, told Yahoo News. "Yes, you don't want to be baited into answering every charge. But you also don't want to allow your opponent to define you before an American public that really doesn't know a lot about you yet."

On Friday, the Romney campaign made some changes. It hired Danny Diaz, a GOP operative who previously worked for John McCain and the Republican National Committee, to handle rapid response with the news media.?And the candidate agreed to sit down for interviews with the five broadcast TV networks?ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC?in what is presumed to be a part of the campaign's pushback against the Bain attacks.

So far, Romney has firmly sided with his senior advisers, who have repeatedly argued that the road to victory in November is to keep their focus singularly on Obama's handling of the economy, which they believe will be the No. 1 issue at the polls in November.

Romney dismissed the concerns that he's not being aggressive enough in his responses to Democratic attacks, in an interview Wednesday with Neil Cavuto of Fox News.

"I respond to the attacks that come, but they say in politics if you are responding, you are losing. I think the better course for our campaign is to respond to the attacks as being completely off base," Romney said. "People are tired of this petty attack that comes from politicians, and they want to see someone who talks about the issues they care about."

But there is a danger in ignoring the attacks, as at least one of Romney's close allies can attest. In 2010, Tom Foley, a former U.S ambassador to Ireland,?came under intense attack for his career as a venture capitalist during his bid to win the Republican nomination for governor in Connecticut. Democrats later revived the attacks during the general election, linking Foley to a Georgia textile plant that was forced into bankruptcy and shuttered.?Foley countered that the plant's closing happened years after his firm had sold the company, and he recorded?a TV ad in which he spoke directly to the camera and disputed his Democratic opponent's claims.

The ad was cut by Russ Schriefer, a longtime Republican strategist who was advising Foley's campaign and is now one of Romney's chief political advisers. Foley came up short in the race?a loss he credits in part to the last-minute attacks on his business career.

"If we'd had two or three more days, we probably could have won," Foley told Yahoo News.

Foley told Yahoo News that he sees "eerie" similarities between the attacks lobbed against his campaign and those being targeted at Romney. He told Yahoo News he wouldn't "second guess" the Romney strategy,?but he said Republicans don't want to see Romney being "roughed up."

"Your own supporters want you to counterattack," Foley said. "They want to be comforted that you are doing the right thing."

The Romney campaign signaled a more aggressive tactic toward the Obama campaign on Thursday, unveiling a new TV ad airing in key swing states that accuses the president of lying about Romney's record. That was followed up on Friday by a second ad?that uses?Obama's own words to decry "scare tactics" in campaigns. They also unveiled a new page on the Romney website, calling out Obama for his distortions.

But at the same time, the Romney campaign appeared to be caught flat-footed by a story in the Boston Globe that suggested Romney may have worked at Bain Capital longer than he previously suggested. Although the campaign issued statements calling the story inaccurate, the story itself noted that Romney officials would not be quoted on the record responding to the Globe's questions. The move appeared to reflect a Romney strategy that was frequently exercised in during the primaries, in which the campaign tried to kill news stories by simply not responding to them?a tactic that is unlikely to be as successful heading into the heat of the general election.

The Obama campaign immediately latched on to the Globe report, with Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, going so far as to accuse Romney of potentially committing a felony by misstating his role at Bain Capital.

Cutter's quote instantly made headlines, but it took nearly four hours for the Romney campaign to formally respond by?issuing a statement from Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades trashing her comment as a "new low" in the campaign.

Romney aides note, accurately, that most national polls still find the race a statistical tie between Obama and Romney, which they argue is evidence that their boss?has not been hurt by Obama's attacks on Bain and Romney's personal finances.

But polls also find that most voters are still learning about Romney?and still deciding what they think about his Bain resume and Obama's claims that Romney outsourced jobs overseas. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week found that 40 percent of those polled believe Romney "cut jobs" while at Bain?a slight uptick from earlier this year?while 36 percent believe he did more to "create jobs."

A senior Romney adviser told Yahoo News that the attacks don't matter to voters?and won't impact the vote in November. "Voters don't care," the adviser, who declined to be named while discussing strategy, said. "People care about whether they can pay their bills and whether they have a job. And Obama has failed to make that better. That's what's really going to affect this race."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-bain-drain-repeating-mistakes-1994-campaign-against-181152853.html

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Typos! ? Stephtvfilmwriter's Blog

Yesterday I had a weird experience with someone who was reading some of my work and this person started correcting dialogue things and actually sent me like War & Peace list of fixes, that weren?t actually wrong. I felt that I had to defend myself and explain that people don?t speak in ?perfect English?, and she just couldn?t see that. This isn?t uncommon actually with writers.

Ever since I started doing script and book reading and coverage, I notice more and more and more, (run on sentence) stiff dialogue because the writer is so fouces on perfect grammar that they have forgotten completely about reality. People rarely speak in perfect grammar-if they do, are they really the kind of people you want to hang out with?

When studying French I would ask my French friends grammar questions and they would say, ?I don?t know, nobody speaks like that.?. I am not saying that grammar isn?t important, because of course it is, but you have to just think about it with logic and reason.

This is the BIGGEST mistake people make when writing dialogue and I see it all the time. Then the writer in question has his or her heart is broken when you tell them to losen it up a bit. I may not be the best writer and I am the queen of typos and mistakes-I admit that about myself-but I always get complimented on dialogue-always.

I think if you are a creative writer-especially screen and teleplays-you need to focus on STORY not perfect English, especially when your characters are speaking. If you spend all your time worrying about getting it perfect, you will never accomplish a great story.

I had friends in high school and college get upset with me because with little to no effort I got As on all my creative writing assignments and book essays. Their papers would be technically perfect and mine had heart and soul. It isn?t that I don?t care about those things, but it just isn?t my focus.

I also do storyboarding and I see this all the time in art. Those who worry about making these perfect sistine chapel?drawings usually end up with stiff boring boards that don?t convey story, emotion, or acting. It?s not saying to not do a good drawing, but again, you are focusing on the wrong thing.

Typos are another thing that happens to writers all the time, no matter who you are. The reason is that your mind fills in what you wanted to write when something is wrong and you can not see it. God invented editors for a reason. Okay, I am kidding, because it does look unprofessional to hand in any work with mistakes all over it, but you get the point? Don?t you?

In any case, this was an interesting article that one of the making writing sites I follow posted on Facebook today and I thought I would share.

http://io9.com/optical-illusions/

Happy writing!

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Source: http://stephtvfilmwriter.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/typos-10/

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Google Might Not Be Losing Money On the Nexus 7 After All [Google]

There has been plenty of speculation about how much money Google is making—or losing—on its snazzy new Nexus 7. The analysts at IHS iSuppli tore it down, added up the cost of its components, and determined it's cheaper than originally suspected. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mLcK1fVKoXQ/google-might-not-be-losing-money-on-the-nexus-7-after-all

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Biden faults Romney for not releasing tax returns

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the National Council of La Raza convention at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher, Pool)

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the National Council of La Raza convention at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher, Pool)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden denounced Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney on Tuesday as a candidate with something to hide.

Biden, campaigning for President Barack Obama in the battleground of Nevada, told Hispanic leaders that Romney doesn't live up to the openness that his father represented when he ran for president 44 years ago. The vice president said Romney's father, George Romney, released 12 years of tax returns when he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in 1968.

In a speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, Biden accused Romney of releasing only one year of his tax returns, "making a lie of the old adage: Like father, like son."

Romney has released his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011.

Biden said Romney's father "released 12 years of tax returns because, as he said, 'One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.'"

Biden added, to applause from the audience, that Romney "wants you to show your papers, but he won't show us his!"

The remarks underscored the Obama campaign's latest effort to portray Romney as secretive and highlighted Romney's past hardline immigration stance.

Maria Castro, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate from Phoenix, echoed Biden, saying of Romney: "I think it's hypocritical that he is holding the immigrant community accountable, but he won't be held accountable."

La Raza is a national Latino advocacy and civil rights group. Some in the crowd said they supported Obama in 2008 and planned to do so again this year.

Romney campaign adviser Hector Barreto accused the Obama campaign of "desperation" with an attack aimed at diverting attention from unemployment and jobs.

"They have to change the subject," Barreto said at the NCLR conference. "Jobs and the economy are the foremost issues in everyone's minds, especially Hispanics."

In a statement, Barreto and Florida state Sen. Anitere Flores pointed to recent reports showing the jobless rate nationally still above 8 percent, and Barreto called the situation "precarious" for Hispanics, with almost 1 in 3 between the ages of 16 and 19 unable to find work.

Flores accused Obama of breaking a promise to reform immigration in his first year in office as "yet another broken promise to the Latino voters who helped elect him."

Biden's speech soared from whispered remembrances about growing up in a middle class home to warnings about what a Romney presidency would be like to an exhortation to the crowd to support Obama.

"Close your eyes and imagine what the Supreme Court will look like after four years of Gov. Romney," Biden said. "Imagine what it will act like. Imagine what it will mean for civil rights, voting rights, and for so much we have fought so hard for."

After the luncheon address, Biden made an unannounced visit to a U.S. Vets Inc. retraining center in downtown Las Vegas, where he and his wife, Jill Biden, shook hands and chatted with 32 veterans and several life skills instructors and administrators of the nonprofit agency.

"Housing, you deserve. Help, you deserve. It ain't a handout. No one's doing you a favor," he said. "You deserve everything we can do for you."

The vice president and his wife were due to travel later to Utah, where Biden was scheduled to host a campaign fundraiser at a private home in Park City, Utah, and Jill Biden was scheduled to meet with military families at an Air National Guard base in Salt Lake City.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-07-10-Presidential%20Campaign-Biden/id-472825f9af784b0b88415533565068f1

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