Election Countdown 2012: The Secret Service Is Going to Great Lengths to Protect the Democratic National Convention This Year, and More

In today’s Election Countdown 2012 news: The Secret Service is going to great lengths to protect the Democratic National Convention this year, police in California respond to a sidewalk chalk demonstration with riot gear and rubber bullets, County Clerks in Wisconsin are sending back election materials to be “burned”, and more.

D – 56 and counting*

The want or imperfection of the moral sense in some men, like the want or imperfection of the senses of sight and hearing in others, is no proof that it is a general characteristic of the species. — Thomas Jefferson

Occasional word of the day: Pleonaxia (via Susie).

Occupy. Tinpot tyrants: “Just after dawn on July 10, Seattle police officers raided a Central District apartment looking for goggles, bandannas, and other evidence of politically motivated vandalism from this year’s May Day protests.” Protest paraphernalia, eh? What isn’t? Or perhaps that’s the point.

CA. Tinpot tyrants, ArtWalk fiasco: “Ask yourself if riot gear and rubber bullets were the proper response to a sidewalk chalk demonstration during art walk.”

CO. Fracking: “[O]nce a gas and oil company gets into your valley, they own you. They own the hospital. They own the commissioners. They own your mountains, and they will do what they want” (MR) Business Week. … County commissioner: “Protecting our water quality is a local concern. The (Oil and Gas Commission) has not helped us protect the water (wells) of Milner, which is why we are having to do it” by defying the Commission and imposing water quality monitoring on an oil well permit (MR).

FL. Water: “The South Florida Water Management District governing board … approved another step allowing Florida Power and Light to advance its new nuclear power in the lowest lying land in South Florida despite voluminous data that FPL existing cooling canals are doing great damage to the aquifer underlying Homestead.”

IA. Legitimacy crisis: “IA Rs plan to choose another candidate to run in Senate District 34 against D Liz Mathis, after Randi Shannon bailed on the race to pursue leadership in an alternate form of government.” … Water: “The EPA informed the IA Department of Natural Resources yesterday that a preliminary report finds the state of IA does not adequately enforce the Clean Water Act with respect to confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).” … Voting: D Sen. Harkin on Branstad’s felon voting rights restoration policy (including a credit check (!!)) is — shocker — so prolix, flaccid, and wussy I’m not even going to bother to quote it.

IL. Jesse Jackson, Jr. imbroglio: “‘Let it go!’ [Former Sen. Roland Burris] yelled. ‘I’ve got enough seniority around here to tell you media people to cool it [Huh?]. You did it to me. Now you’re going to try to do it to Jesse Jr. You’re just hounding people. Go on and get a life.’” If Jackson is suffering from clinical depression, that’s a terrible, sorrowful thing. The wonder is there aren’t more cases in DC. Diagnosed cases.

NC. DNCon: “Two miles of concrete barriers. More than five miles of 9-foot ‘anti-scale’ steel fence. … These are some of items the Secret Service is seeking to protect the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.” So, how many mercs?

PA. Ruling class: “Conversations with sources, along with documents obtained by City Paper, portray an expanding network of pro-charter-school organizations close to, and in many cases funded by, [the William Penn Foundation], coordinating with the state-controlled School District to map out the future of Philly public education. Says one observer of city schools: ‘It is a shadow school district that’s being bankrolled by people who don’t even live in the city.’” … Ruling class: “No one disputes that the Philadelphis schools have been horribly, horribly mismanaged. But the solution we’ve hit on is to hand control to the meritocracy — a small cadre of unelected and unaccountable elites (so often intersecting with hedge-fund Captains of the Universe, who have the money to fund these ventures) who worship the power of the free-market — as well as their own intellect. Isn’t that the kind of thinking that crashed Wall Street?” Will Bunch, one of the great Philly bloggers. …. Ruling class: “[Penn State] intends to remodel the football team shower and locker room area as a direct result of Sandusky’s crimes.” Alrighty then. …. Open records: “There is nothing that is public from Penn State,’ [Sara Ganim, who broke Sandusky story, said]. ‘Everything is what you get from people, and there is such a degree of loyalty that prosecutors have even been thrown off by it.’ Some reporters, she said, call Penn State ‘the Kremlin.’”

TN. Guns: “R leaders in Nashville infuriated the NRA this year by refusing to go along with a bill to prevent businesses from banning guns on their property, and now the group is using its deep pockets to try to unseat one of them.”

TX. ObamaCare: “They can whine all they want about ‘getting it crammed down their throats’, but this is a good deal for the state and a better one for Texans, and even this worthless batch of Republicans isn’t stupid enough to turn [$100.1 billion over 10 years] down.” … Extractive economy: Slideshow of Midland. … Famine in Egypt: “A scourge of grasshoppers is chomping through gardens, orchards, pastures and urban landscapes across a wide swath of Texas this summer.”

WI. Voting: “Command Central is a private corporation with offices in a strip mall near St. Cloud, MN who are the vendors of election machines and all of the programing and tabulation that goes with them. The digital totals held on memory cards and used to determine the outcome of the June 5 recall election will be ‘burned’ this weekend even though they are the subject of several FOIA requests. Why are clerks sending your vote totals to be burned? Because if they do not comply with Command Central’s July 16 deadline, the counties will be charged sums approaching $10,000.” Privatized voting. What could go wrong? … Fracking: “Amish teach humility and avoid actions that draw attention to themselves… That’s why it’s a big deal that members of the St. Charles Amish community are voicing concerns publicly about the proposed [fracking sand] rail facility.” … Recall: “[FEINGOLD:] I wouldn’t have won either. That election, unfortunately, was about one thing. It wasn’t even about money. [Voters] didn’t think a recall was appropriate. [People] weren’t against collective bargaining, it’s just the recall mechanism was the problem.”

The trail. Remarkable factoid: “Joe Biden once ran under the wheels of a moving dump truck on a dare.”

Policy. Fracking: “[NATIONWIDE:] From an underwriting standpoint, we do not have a comfort level with the unique risks associated with the fracking process to provide coverage at a reasonable price.” Fracking often occurs in residential areas.

Robama vs. Obomney. Christopher Caldwell, of all people: “But Mr Romney is not the candidate of the rich. He is a candidate of the rich. So are most candidates in American politics, very much including Mr Obama.” D’oh!

Greens. Time: “Stein and Honkala are trying to occupy a space left by voters, particularly left-leaners, who are fed up with Obama and uninterested in Romney. They expect to be an alternative option on the ballot in 40 states. And they said they bring a different kind of politics to the table, though it doesn’t appear to be a less divisive brand.” Yeah, Americans Elect tried that. Petraeus, government of national unity? … Green National Convention opens in Baltimore, MD: Schedule.

Libertarian Party. Media critique: “Gary Johnson supporters in the Atlanta, GA area will hold a demonstration outside CNN … The demonstration is to draw public awareness that all the public opinion polls that CNN sponsors or co-sponsors invariably include only President Obama and Mitt Romney.”

Bain flap. Obama goes all in: “[OBAMA:] Now, my understanding is that Mr. Romney attested [legalese!] to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does.” … DeLong amplifies, without, oddly, or not, analytical value add. …”[ROMNEY:] I had no role whatsoever in managing Bain Capital after February of 1999. This is all an effort on the part of the president’s campaign to divert attention from the fact that the president has been a failure when it comes to reigniting America’s economy.” True, and it’s working! … “[ROMNEY:] Is that what’s really expected from the campaign of the sitting president of the United States?” Yes, and your point? … Romney TV blitz: ABC transcript; CBS transcript; Romney sounds a little upset. … Stay tuned: “Obama campaign lawyer Bob Bauer’s response to whether there was proof that Romney still actively participated in Bain dealings post-1999[:] ‘I would stay very much tuned on that.’” … It’s a beautiful, Rovian, strength-into-weakness ploy. But best left to a surrogate? … Ed Rendell: “All these attacks may be hurting the president’s brand a little bit. I think our supporters may have went too far with the felony business.” … Jonathan Bernstein: “How vetted is Mitt Romney? … [W}e usually have a process that can reassure his party that whatever’s out there has probably been uncovered, and I’m not sure that’s the case this time.” Just… Ouch. Meaning, Romney’s primary opponents weren’t strong enough to do serious oppo. Unlike Obama. Time for a Checkers speech from Mitt! Or, as MoDo would no doubt say, a Seamus speech.

From the Barcalounger: Still with the semantics: “left” Bain, and “actively participated” vs. “no role whatsoever in managing.” What the Obama campaign is frothing and stamping about is the intricate network of influence that surrounds any person of Romney’s wealth and profession; board seats, titles, meetings, paperwork, fiduciary responsibilities, “entities,” etc. I don’t mind the Axelrovians hanging that kleptocratic network round Romney’s neck like the stinking albatross that it is — especially since Romney takes his privileges for granted and gets huffy — if only Obama wasn’t milking the exact same kind of network, albeit with different kleptocrats, to fund his own campaign. The plague on both their houses can’t come soon enough for me. I mean, what’s Obama’s problem, here? That Romney wasn’t a “savvy” enough businessman? Such a shame he can’t run on his record!

* 56 days ’til the Democratic National Convention ends with locally sourced rubber chicken on the floor of the Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC. The Declaration of Independence had 56 signers.