Freddie Stubbs
Freddie Stubbs's JournalJacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown not getting involved for Obama
Source: The Florida Times Union
Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown’s non-appearance at President Barack Obama’s campaign rally in Jacksonville last week was officially because Brown was out of town at a mayors’ conference.
But if he had been in town, he might not have been there anyway.
“I’m not going to get involved in presidential politics. I’m not getting involved in any campaigns,’’ Brown told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday, reiterating a nonpartisan stance he expressed during his campaign last year and again before the GOP debate in Jacksonville in January. The Democratic mayor didn’t say whether he’d even vote for Obama, the Times reported.
He said he wants to work on Jacksonville, not national, issues.
Read more: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-07-26/story/jacksonville-mayor-alvin-brown-not-getting-involved-obama
USDA retracts 'Meatless Monday' plug
Source: New York Times
The message seemed innocuous enough, coming as it did from the federal agency tasked with promoting sustainable agriculture and dietary health: "One simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias," read a U.S. Department of Agriculture interoffice newsletter published on its website this week, "is to participate in the 'Meatless Monday' initiative."
Thousands of corporate cafeterias, restaurants and schools have embraced the idea of skipping meat on Mondays in favor of vegetarian options, an initiative of the nonprofit Monday Campaign Inc. and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
But by Tuesday afternoon, amid outraged Twitter messages by livestock producers and at least one member of Congress, the agency's "Greening Headquarters Update" had been removed. "USDA does not endorse Meatless Monday," a spokeswoman said in a statement. The newsletter, which covered topics like the installation of energy-efficient lights on the Ag Promenade and recycling goals, "was posted without proper clearance," the statement said.
A spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which drew the offending passage to the USDA's attention on Tuesday afternoon, called it "a slap in the face of the people who every day are working to make sure we have food on the table to say 'Don't eat their product once a week.'"
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/usda-retracts-meatless-monday-plug-646181/#ixzz21jgwMC9r
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/usda-retracts-meatless-monday-plug-646181/
Feds OK Fla. access to citizens list
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people's right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens.
The agreement, made in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott's administration that was obtained by The Associated Press, grants the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. The Obama administration had denied Florida's request for months, but relented after a judge ruled in the state's favor in a related voter-purge matter.
Voting rights groups, while acknowledging that noncitizens have no right to vote, have expressed alarm about using such data for a purpose not originally intended: purging voter lists of ineligible people. They say voter purges less than four months before a presidential election might leave insufficient time to correct mistakes stemming from faulty data or other problems.
Democrats say that the government's concession is less troubling than some GOP-controlled states' push to require voters to show photo identification.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-newsbreak-feds-ok-fla-access-citizens-list-165524187.html?_esi=1
Congressional candidate deletes Twitter feed after tweets call rival politicians ‘homo’
Source: NY Daily News
A South Carolina politician was given a crash course in Twitter for dummies today.
Democratic Congressional candidate Deb Morrow deleted her campaign's Twitter feed (@Morrow4Congress) and blamed a hacker for firing off two tweets proclaiming the homosexuality of a few rival Congressmen, said the Free-Times.
The first tweet said "@TGowdySC is a Homo," the second one said "@TGowdySC is the homo lover of @LindseyGrahamSC. Just sayin'."
The tweets caught the eye of social media consultant Sean Bertran.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/congressional-candidate-deletes-twitter-feed-tweets-call-rival-politicians-homo-article-1.1111714
Tuvalu warned by US 'for breaking Iran sanctions'
Source: The Telegraph
The European Union banned Iranian oil imports as well as providing insurance for vessels carrying Iranian oil on July 1, and the United States has new economic sanctions that have curbed Iranian oil imports by most other major nations.
Reflagging ships masks their ownership, which could make it easier for Iran to obtain insurance and financing for the cargoes, as well as find buyers for the shipments without attracting attention from the United States and European Union.
The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) changed the names and flags of many of its oil tankers ahead of the EU ban, part of sweeping economic measures aimed at pressuring Tehran to end its nuclear program.
As many as 22 ships owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company have been registered in Tuvalu, said Howard Berman, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/tuvalu/9388367/Tuvalu-warned-by-US-for-breaking-Iran-sanctions.html
Just 80,000 Jobs Added In June; Unemployment Rate Stays At 8.2 Percent
Source: NPR
Job growth was even weaker than economists feared in June as public and private employers added just 80,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. They had been expecting BLS would say there were closer to 100,000 more jobs in June than in May.
A separate BLS survey showed the nation's jobless rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent. It's been above 8 percent since February 2009.
The news will add to pressure on the Federal Reserve to do more to give the sluggish U.S. economy a boost and will add further fuel to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's argument that President Obama has done more harm than good when it comes to the economy. The Obama campaign counters that while job growth has slowed, there have been gains each month for more than two years as the economy recovers from what was a deep recession.
This morning, Romney called the jobs news "another kick in the gut to middle class families" and said it shows that Obama's policies "have not gotten America working again."
Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/06/156360494/after-mays-lousy-news-will-junes-jobs-report-be-much-better
Good riddance!
County Democratic official Garcia resigns after emails critical of Israel surface
Evelyn Garcia, a member of the Democratic National Committee from Palm Beach County, resigned the post Monday after emails surfaced in which she sharply criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Garcia, a candidate for the State House of Representatives from District 88, which includes parts of West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach, said she would continue to campaign for that seat. She apologized for her remarks and called them “ugly” and “hurtful.”
The emails were provided anonymously to local Democratic Party leaders late last week, those leaders said. In each case, the recipient’s name was blacked out. Some of them appear to have been written to a South Florida Congressional aide.
“The continued Israeli occupation of Palestine is ugly on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds,” Garcia said in an email dated July 26, 2011. “Palestinians had nothing to do with the holocaust and it is time that this guilt trip was taken off their backs…. And I deeply resent U.S. taxpayer funds being used to continue Israeli aggression.”
more: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/county-democratic-official-garcia-resigns-after-em/nPkcD/
Republicans have been trying to paint President Obama and the Democratic Party as anti-Israel. The last thing that we need are people like Ms. Garcia to do the Republicans work for them.
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