Seriously… This would make any person with a soul weep from shame. Yesterday, Mitt Romney attacked President Obama over providing food stamps to so many Americans in a time of need, as if this were a bad thing, as if people in need should not be helped, as if it were not George W. Bush’s policies that took Clinton’s surplus and turned it into the epic disaster from which we are still recovering.
Yet, Mitt Romney knows need well. Here is video of Mitt Romney’s mother, Lenore LaFount Romney, talking about how his father George was on welfare relief after he was a refugee from Mexico.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand mental health services and suicide prevention efforts.
The president made the announcement in a speech to troops at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was scheduled to hold a roundtable with soldiers and their families.
Much of what’s outlined in the executive order are initiatives that were previously announced earlier this summer by the VA.
In a recent speech, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) assailed new federal regulations that improve the nutritional standards of meals served in schools. He called the new standards, which come from the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, rationing: “This is the nanny state personified,” the Republican from Kiron said during a noon speech to about 20 people at the Webster County Republican Party headquarters. [...]
He said parents have approached him and have said things like “My kids are starving in school. My kids are being rationed on calories.”
In November 2011, officials in Shelby County, Tennessee decided to defund its local Planned Parenthood, taking away the $397,000 in state funding to the Memphis chapter. The Obama administration responded in July 2012 by awarding family planning funds directly to Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis, but it's worth noting what happened to all that state money that didn't go to Planned Parenthood in the meantime.
Local officials decided that instead of giving that Title X money to Planned Parenthood for health screenings, STD tests, and birth control, they'd instead give it to Christ Community Health Services, a religious organization that refuses to provide abortions or refer women to others who would provide them. The organization also does not offer emergency contraception, and is reportedly looking to expand to create more "crisis pregnancy clinics" that offer "counselors who can discuss adoption and other life-affirming options" with women.
Recently, the Romney campaign has taken to telling voters that Obama “can’t tell you that you’re better off” now than four years ago. While the economic numbers suggest otherwise, there’s a simpler way to understand the reality of four years ago: take a look at what people were saying at the time. September 2008 was the month where the financial crisis — caused in significant part by Republican-supported deregulation of the financial industry — really took off, a point reflected clearly in the newspaper headlines from the time:
(Reuters) - Greek police protesting against austerity cuts blocked the entrance to the riot police headquarters on Thursday, preventing buses carrying riot police from leaving for the site of major demonstrations this weekend.
Scuffles broke out as riot police tried to clear the entrance of several dozen police union members - many in uniform - chanting anti-austerity slogans and holding banners.
Night 1 of the Democratic National Convention was a huge success: real emotion, true diversity, grace from Michelle Obama, substantive distinctions drawn without vitriol. The best of Democratic rhetoric was on display. Whether any of that will matter in November remains unclear, as conventions are increasingly viewed only by true believers. Tonight there is the added distraction of the NFL season opener. And the unemployment data that will come out Friday could dominate the weekend news if they show anything outside the range of 100,000 to 200,000 net new jobs. (Fewer than 100,000 will be a major problem for the president, more than 200,000 will be a momentum builder.)
The best line of the opening night came not from any of the live speakers, but from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, in the video tribute to his remarkable career. He lanced Mitt Romney in the senatorial debate back in 1994 with the line that still speaks to Romney’s greatest flaw: lack of constancy. Kennedy said
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