Source: Fox Business/Huffington Post

Mitt Romney's campaign may be suffering in more than just the battleground states.

Fox Business' Charlie Gasparino reports that some wealthy donors who have made financial commitments to the Romney campaign are reneging, and instead, opting to send their money to Republican House and Senate candidates who they see as having a better chance of winning next month.

Citing two sources, including "a major player in Romney’s New York fundraising circles," Gasparino notes that some donors are losing faith that the Republican nominee can beat Obama.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/mitt-romney-donors_n_1930269.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

---

Mitt Romney's Wealthy Donors May Be Fleeing Campaign: Report

Source: Daily Kos

A federal judge in Missouri has ruled that the Catholic owner of a mining and ceramics business cannot invoke his religious views to avoid paying for an employee's birth control coverage as part of her health insurance. The case is one of 30 initiated around the country in such matters.

Plaintiffs were Frank O’Brien and O’Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC, an 87-worker St. Louis-based company engaged mining, processing and distributing refractory and ceramic raw materials and products. They claimed that the provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring birth control to be included in company-supplied employees' health care insurance would violate their religious beliefs and that the alternative of paying fines for not providing insurance coverage "would have a crippling impact on their ability to survive economically.”

What would mining and ceramics processing, production and distribution have to do with religion? Perhaps nothing?

The plaintiffs argued much of their case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars the government from “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion" with a rule or law unless there is a paramount government interest. The U.S Health and Human Services defendants argued, among other things, that a corporation is not a person and therefore cannot "exercise" a religion under RFRA.

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/01/1138539/-Federal-judge-smacks-down-challenge-to-Obama-administration-s-birth-control-insurance-coverage-rule

Brutal new ad airing in New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-goes-nuclear-on-romney-over-china

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/rnc-cash-recount-fund_n_1930112.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Source: huffington post

WASHINGTON -- The Republican National Committee has counted more than $5 million in contributions it cannot use to help Republican candidates until after the November election as part of the pool of money it has available for the 2012 campaign.

The RNC has taken in a whopping $5.29 million in donations for a recount fund that could be accessed if the results in the Nov. 6 election are indecisive. In the committee's Federal Election Commission filings, the money is being counted among the $282,795,014 in total donations that it has received during the current electoral cycle. After the August fundraising period, the committee claimed to have $76,569,658 in cash on hand. In actuality, that figure is close to $71.2 million.

Even with the lower figure, the amount of money the RNC has to spend dwarfs the Democratic National Committee's cash situation. The latter went into September with $7.1 million in cash on hand and debts of $11.8 million. President Barack Obama's campaign is in a far better position, with $88.8 million in cash on hand heading into September compared to Mitt Romney's $50.4 million. Romney's campaign also carries a $15 million debt.

Having such a large recount fund serves the RNC little in its efforts to elect Romney on Nov. 6. Paul S. Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center said there might be a way to use some of the money prior to the election in preparation for the legal battles that could occur after the election is finished. "The definite constraint on this is it can't be used for the purpose of influencing the election," said Ryan. "A party committee might be able to start gearing up for a recount by hiring some lawyers."

Larry Noble, a longtime campaign finance lawyer, stated definitively that recount funds "can be used to fund recounts only. The money won't help them if there is no recount."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/rnc-cash-recount-fund_n_1930112.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

video here: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/woody-johnson-i-d-rather-romney-win-than-the-jets-u7sURk~kQKqPMW4LQkqLNw.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/jets-lose-again-owner-woody-johnson-puts-romney-first/

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson said today he’d take a Mitt Romney victory on Election Day over a winning season for his “Gang Green” football team.

Source: think progress

The DREAM Act was first introduced as a bipartisan measure in 2001, but has languished in Congress ever since. Republicans have blocked the bill, which would help young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children gain citizenship. President Obama says he supports the policy and issued a directive in June to help protect DREAMers from deportation by giving those who qualify temporary legal status.

But if Congress passed the DREAM Act and granted legal status to eligible undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, it would add an additional $329 billion to the U.S. economy and 1.4 million more jobs by 2030, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress and the Partnership for a New American Economy. Enacting the DREAM Act would boost the economy first by improving the education and job opportunities for young undocumented immigrants in the U.S. A legal status and education contribute to higher earnings:



Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/10/01/932311/economic-benefits-dream-act/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/01/931571/even-rick-scott-cant-find-virtually-any-non-citizen-voters/