The Government Is After Your Tweets #p2 #tcot

The release of Twitter's first "Transparency Report" comes with the revelation that the microblogging site has received more government requests pertaining to its users' accounts in the first half of 2012 than in the entirety of 2011.

On Monday, a New York City judge ruled that Twitter had to disclose three months' worth of tweets and messages from the account of an Occupy Wall Street protester being investigated after charges of disorderly conduct.

Twitter's biannual reports will tally user information requests, removal requests and copyright takedown notices.

rest at 

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_government_is_after_your_tweets_20120703/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Truthdig+Truthdig%3A+Drilling+Beneath+the+Headlines&utm_content=Google+Reader

Illinois blowhard Joe Walsh attacks his opponent for being ... a double amputee war veteran #p2 #tcot @RepJoeWalsh

Joe Walsh and Tammy Duckworth (Credit: AP)

For the record, I don't think military service is the only route to heroism. People who are great parents are heroes in their own way.

But Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, best known for not paying child support, has taken neither route to heroism. Instead, the Tea Party blowhard is now denying his Democratic opponent, Iraq war veteran and double amputee Tammy Duckworth, is a "true hero." (Think Progress has the whole video.) Apparently because she's been open about her military service, Walsh thinks she's showing off her sacrifice. But it's sort of hard to hide the fact that you've lost both your legs and the use of one arm (insurgents blew up her helicopter in Iraq).

That Duckworth: She's such a showoff when she enters a room in a wheelchair.

Walsh has apparently had enough of her histrionics. He told an Elk Grove town hall on Friday that Sen. John McCain was a "noble hero" because he didn't often talk about his military service. "Now I'm running against a woman who, my God, that's all she talks about," Walsh said.

Duckworth received multiple military awards, including a Purple Heart, an Air Medal and an Army Commendation Medal. After her injuries, she became director of Illinois' Department of Veterans' Affairs, until President Obama made her assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs. She's supported by ActBlue and VoteVets PAC. (More information here.)

This isn't the first time Walsh disparaged Duckworth's service. In April he told Politico:

"I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country," said Walsh. Then, according to Politico, he paused for dramatic effect: "Ehhh. Now let's move on."

"Ehhh?" Really?

rest at http://www.salon.com/2012/07/03/americas_most_offensive_congressman/

Vanity Fair: Romney, Bain's millions, tax heavens and and the loopholes that allow him to skirt tax laws #p2 #tcot

Where the Money Lives

For all Mitt Romney's touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney's fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate.

A person who worked for Mitt Romney at the consulting firm Bain and Co. in 1977 remembers him with mixed feelings. "Mitt was … a really wonderful boss," the former employee says. "He was nice, he was fair, he was logical, he said what he wanted … he was really encouraging." But Bain and Co., the person recalls, pushed employees to find out secret revenue and sales data on its clients' competitors. Romney, the person says, suggested "falsifying" who they were to get such information, by pretending to be a graduate student working on a proj­ect at Harvard. (The person, in fact, was a Harvard student, at Bain for the summer, but not working on any such proj­ects.) "Mitt said to me something like 'We won't ask you to lie. I am not going to tell you to do this, but [it is] a really good way to get the information.' … I would not have had anything in my analysis if I had not pretended.

"It was a strange atmosphere. It did leave a bad taste in your mouth," the former employee recalls.

This unsettling account suggests the young Romney—at that point only two years out of Harvard Business School—was willing to push into gray areas when it came to business. More than three dec­ades later, as he tried to nail down the Republican nomination for president of the United States, Romney's gray areas were again an issue when he repeatedly resisted calls to release more details of his net worth, his tax returns, and the large investments and assets held by him and his wife, Ann. Finally the other Republican candidates forced him to do so, but only highly selective disclosures were forthcoming.

Even so, these provided a lavish smorgasbord for Romney's critics. Particularly jarring were the Romneys' many offshore accounts. As Newt Gingrich put it during the primary season, "I don't know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account." But Romney has, as well as other interests in such tax havens as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

To give but one example, there is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as "a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney." It could be that Sankaty is an old vehicle with little importance, but Romney appears to have treated it rather carefully. He set it up in 1997, then transferred it to his wife's newly created blind trust on January 1, 2003, the day before he was inaugurated as Massachusetts's governor. The director and president of this entity is R. Bradford Malt, the trustee of the blind trust and Romney's personal lawyer. Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an "excepted investment fund" that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return. Even after examining that return, we have no idea what is in this company, but it could be valuable, meaning that it is possible Romney's wealth is even greater than previous estimates. While the Romneys' spokespeople insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in "jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance," as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.

That's not the only money Romney has in tax havens. Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital, his finances are still deeply entangled with the private-equity firm that he founded and spun off from Bain and Co. in 1984. Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.

Bain Capital is the heart of Romney's fortune: it was the financial engine that created it. The mantra of his campaign is that he was a businessman who created tens of thousands of jobs, and Bain certainly did bring useful operational skills to many companies it bought. But his critics point to several cases where Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs.

rest at http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

Inside @Verizon 's attack on network neutrality

Verizon is taking aim at network neutrality regulations enacted by the Federal Communications Commission with an outsized legal appeal. The company's 116-page tome filed on Monday evening has a glossary, 53 pages of legal argument, inflammatory prose on regulating the Internet and even a claim that the FCC is trampling the First Amendment rights of ISPs. It's all a bit much but Verizon may prevail.

That's because, underneath all the bluster, Verizon has a strong core argument that the FCC overstepped its bounds in enacting these net neutrality rules. The FCC, you see, can regulate the physical pipes over which packets travel on the network pretty stringently, but less so the actual service or content those packets are meant to deliver. Consider that the FCC can regulate roads but not the mail delivery using those roads.

Did the FCC neuter its ability to regulate the Internet?

At least that's how the same court that will hear the Verizon case ruled back in 2010 when it handed a victory to Comcast after the FCC censured it for blocking peer-to-peer packets. At the time, the court's ruling set off a huge debate over the FCC's regulatory authority over the Internet and arguments over whether the FCC needed to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service rather than an in information service.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski's net neutrality efforts are getting closer to their day in court.

The grist for these debates was a series of decisions beginning in 2002 in which the FCC basically said cable, DSL and wireless were information services — which the FCC doesn't regulate as stringently — as opposed to a telecommunications service which it does. But because it really wanted to focus on the net neutrality regulations as opposed to this dull reclassification issue, the FCC dropped the idea of reclassifying broadband entirely and went ahead with what it dubbed "the third way" approach where broadband would be considered telecommunications but it wouldn't be subject to onerous rules associated with telecommunications services outline in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

rest at http://gigaom.com/2012/07/03/inside-verizons-attack-on-network-neutrality/

Right Wing Blogosphere Revolts Against Romney Over Mandate #p2 #tcot

ThinkProgress noted that the GOP leadership can't seem to make up its mind about whether the individual mandate is a tax (as the Supreme Court says) or not (as lead Romney campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom suggested). While the leadership dithers, the base's backlash against Romney putting down the "it's a tax" club builds.

In National Review, Michael Walsh writes a post entitled "Spineless Jellyfish Terrorize Great Nation!"

Nothing like getting Election 2012 off-message from the start, and running up the white flag before the fight has even begun. Shades of the McCain campaign — first, starring in the Steve Schmidtrole is Mr. Etch-a-Sketch himself, the ineffable Eric Fehrnstrom.

Breitbart heir Joel Pollak threatens the campaign with an out-and-out revolt:

The Tea Party has been ready to rally to Romney's side over the Obamacare decision, overlooking his past in order to use him as the vehicle for repealing Obamacare and toppling Obama. But if Romney won't fight for conservative principles, the Tea Party is going to start looking elsewhere–fast. No one wants to live through the frustration of October 2008 all over again. No one wants to watch another conservative capitulate to Obama.

This ain't Etch-A-Sketch, Mitt. Go hard or go home.

rest at 

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/03/510802/right-wing-blogosphere-revolts-against-romney-over-mandate/

Holder Charges GOP Attacking Him for His Work Against Voter Suppression #p2 #tcot

Attorney General Eric Holder wonders about GOP motives

In his first interview since being held in contempt by the House of Representatives, Attorney General Eric Holder charges that he has been turned into a symbol by the Republican Party, as a means to attack the President. In doing so, he veers close to the kind of conspiracy theories that have characterized the Republican approach to the Fast and Furious scandal.

In his first interview since Thursday's vote, Holder said lawmakers have used an investigation of a botched gun-tracking operation as a way to seek retribution against the Justice Department for its policies on a host of issues, including immigration, voting rights and gay marriage. He said the chairman of the committee leading the inquiry, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is engaging in political theater as the Justice Department tries to focus on public safety.

"I've been doing all of these things all the time Darrell Issa and his band have been nipping at my heels," a defiant Holder said. "They've been nipping, but I've been walking."

The attorney general has long been a lightning rod for Republican lawmakers' anger toward the Obama administration. But Holder said the debate over documents related to the gun operation, known as "Fast and Furious" — along with the National Rifle Association's attempts to make it an electoral issue — have made matters worse.

"I've become a symbol of what they don't like about the positions this Justice Department has taken," he said. "I am also a proxy for the president in an election year. You have to be exceedingly naive to think that vote was about . . . documents."

rest at http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/03/holder-charges-that-gop-attacking-him-for-his-work-on-voter-suppression/

The amazing number of people who know nothing about the health care ruling #p2 #tcot

One of the most common mistakes made in political reporting is to assume that average voter is following the daily news cycle as closely as we are. He or she isn't.

This Oct. 8, 2010, photo shows the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court at the Supreme Court. Seated from left are Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Standing from left are Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)The latest poll numbers from the Pew Research Center on the Supreme Court's decision on President Obama's health-care law are (yet another) affirmation of that fact.

Forty-five percent — yes 45 percent! — of respondents in the Pew poll either didn't know what the court had done in regards the health care law (30 percent) or thought that the court had rejected most of the provisions of the law (15 percent).

Let's just make sure we are all clear: Forty-five percent of people didn't know about or were misinformed about the most highly publicized Supreme Court case since — at least — Bush v. Gore in 2000 that dealt with the landmark legislative accomplishment of Obama's first term in office. That is staggering stuff.

Inside the numbers was — not surprisingly — even more eye-opening. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, one of the electoral pillars on which Obama's 2008 victory was built, 43 percent didn't know anything about the court ruling, and other 20 percent thought the court had rejected most of the tenets of the law. That means that roughly two in every three young people didn't know or were mistaken about what happened Thursday at the court.

So, that happened. (For a full demographic breakout on who knew what about the court ruling, scroll down in this post.)

What should you take from the Pew poll? That assuming that the electorate is paying close attention to the political goings-on — even when they are so seemingly high profile as the court ruling on health care — is a mistake.

Most people — especially those who are unaffiliated or independent voters — tend to be relatively low information voters. That is, they don't have all the facts on an issue — and they don't really care to find them out.

rest at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/health-care-decision-what-health-care-decision/2012/07/03/gJQA0iWDLW_blog.html?wprss=rss_politics

Mitt Romney’s campaign fails Venn diagram class #p2 #tcot

Topics: mitt romney ♦ Venn diagram ♦ Venn Diagrams

 

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may have graduated cum laude from Harvard, but his campaign clearly failed Venn Diagrams 101.

On Monday, the campaign released a Venn diagram that attempted to show President Barack Obama had not kept his promises about lowering the costs of health care. The left circle in the diagram indicated that Obama promised to lower health care premiums by $2,500, while the right circle indicated that actual health care costs had risen by $2,393. In the area where the two circles intersected, the Romney campaign claimed was a "gap" of $4,893 in higher premiums that families would be forced to pay each year.

But that's not how Venn diagrams are supposed work.

rest at http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/03/mitt-romneys-campaign-fails-venn-diagram-class/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Rep. Joe Walsh: Double-Amputee Tammy Duckworth Not a 'True' Military Hero #p2 #tcot

Click here to view this media

Tea party-favorite Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) may not have ever volunteered for military service, but he says he can spot a "true hero" and the double amputee running for his seat isn't one.

Think Progress captured video on Sunday of Walsh telling supporters that Tammy Duckworth wasn't a hero because "all she talks about" is losing both her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down in Iraq in 2004.

"Understand something about John McCain," the congressman explained. "His political advisers, day after day, had to take him and almost throw him against a wall and hit him against the head and say, 'Senator, you have to let people know you served! You have to talk about what you did!' He didn't want to do it, wouldn't do it."

"That's what's so noble about our heroes," Walsh continued. "Now I'm running against a woman who, my God, that's all she talks about. Our true heroes, it's the last thing in the world they talk about. That's why we're so indebted and in awe of what they've done."

Duckworth, who served as a helicopter pilot with the Illinois Army Guard's 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation, was awarded the Purple Heart in December 2004.

"This is not so bad," she said of her injuries later that year. "I'm just glad it was me and not one of my guys out there."

rest at http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/rep-joe-walsh-double-amputee-tammy-duckworth

.@RepJoeWalsh @gop fuck you joe walsh: Joe Walsh, dead beat dad, Accuses Tammy Duckworth, Double Amputee, Of Not Being A 'True Hero' #p2 #tcot

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) on Sunday accusedhis Democratic opponent Tammy Duckworth -- a double-amputee veteran of the Iraq War -- of not being a "true hero" because she made her military service central to her campaign.

After calling Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) a "noble hero" for downplaying his military experience during a 2008 presidential bid, Walsh shifted gears to Duckworth at an Elk Grove, Ill., town hall.

Duckworth lost both her legs after Iraqi insurgents hit her helicopter with a rocket propelled grenade in 2004. She is now challenging incumbent Walsh in Illinois' re-drawn 8th Congressional district.

"Now I'm running against a woman who, my God, that's all she talks about," saidWalsh, a Tea Party freshman. "Our true heroes, it's the last thing in the world they talk about."

Sunday's event was not the first time Walsh mocked Duckworth for touting her military record on the campaign trail.

In an interview with Politico's David Catanese in March, Walsh brushed offDuckworth's military credentials and accused of her being "nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat":

"I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country," said Walsh, simultaneously lowering his voice as he leaned forward before pausing for dramatic effect. "Ehhh. Now let's move on."

"What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran … ehhh," he continued. "She is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat. David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel just picked her up and dropped her into this district."

rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/joe-walsh-tammy-duckworth_n_1646793.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

Penn State president agreed not to report Sandusky abuse, emails suggest

Graham Spanier allegedly failed to report abuse claims despite knowing that inaction could leave Penn State 'vulnerable'

A former president of Penn State University failed to report allegations of child sex abuse against Jerry Sandusky despite knowing inaction could leave the college "vulnerable", according to emails seen by several news organisations.

Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, is currently awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of 45 counts of sexually assaulting underage boys over a 15-year period.

But with Sandusky now behind bars - potentially for the rest of his life - attention is turning to whether there was a cover-up at the university, one that may have allowed Sandusky to carry on with his abuse for many years. Two of Sandusky's former colleagues, athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz, have already been charged with perjury and failing to alert authorities to one act of sexual abuse.

And in a potentially damaging development, former university president Graham Spanier has been cited as another member of staff who knew about allegations of abuse but did nothing to alert authorities.

CNN said on Saturday that it had seen emails in which Spanier discusses with Curley and Schultz a 2001 incident in which Sandusky was allegedly caught abusing a boy in a shower.

The messages reportedly show that Spanier was supportive of the decision not to hand Sandusky over to the authorities, but fretted that the decision could cause Penn State problems further down the line.

rest at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/30/penn-state-president-sandusky-abuse?newsfeed=true

Tony Blair earned £20m in just one year advising business bosses and foreign governments

Tony Blair earned more than £20 million last year from advising business chiefs and foreign governments, it was reported yesterday.

The former Prime Minister's income since leaving Downing Street has  been shrouded in mystery, but the new figure emerged during an interview with Mr Blair by Financial Times editor Lionel Barber.

The size of the former Labour leader's income is certain to provoke fresh criticism of his money-making exploits since he left office, even though he has insisted he pays 50 per cent income tax on all his earnings.

He told Mr Barber, who interviewed him in Jerusalem, that the money was ploughed back into his philanthropic ventures, adding: 'The purpose is not to make money. It is to make a difference.'

Mr Blair's financial affairs have been difficult to unravel because a network of companies and partnerships allows him to avoid publishing full accounts.

In January he filed accounts declaring an income of £12 million last year for just one of his dozen or so companies, Windrush Ventures.

But the accounts appeared to show he had paid tax on only a fraction of the income, thanks to administrative expenses experts described as 'surprisingly' high.

rest at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2167038/Tony-Blair-earned-20m-just-year-advising-business-bosses-foreign-governments.html#ixzz1zO9kZl00

Obama outspending Mitt on Latinos 20-to-1

Over on the home page, POLITICO's Robin Bravender takes a look at the Latino vote and what the candidates are doing to court it:

Obama's campaign has spent more than $2 million on Spanish-language television and radio ads since mid-April, according to several sources who track media buys.

That's on top of the $4 million the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action and the Service Employees International Union have committed to spending through the summer on Spanish TV and radio ads hitting Romney in Colorado, Nevada and Florida.

In contrast, Mitt Romney has spent about $110,000 on Spanish-language ads during the general election, sources say... Obama already has a sizable advantage over Romney with Latino voters. A survey in five swing states released June 22 showed Obama leading Romney among Latino voters by 36 percentage points overall across Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, with the biggest leads in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.

rest at http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/07/obama-outspending-mitt-on-latinos-to-127827.html

Must Read: Investigation Reveals True Hazards Of Piping Tar Sands Across America #p2 #tcot

America has a new word to learn: Dilbit.

Dilbit, short for diluted bitumen, is a combination of tar sands crude (bitumen) and dangerous liquid chemicals like benzene (the dilutant) used to thin crude so it can be piped to refineries.

And there is a lot of it being piped into America — in some cases through the backyards of communities that don't even know it's there.

The U.S. imports around half a million barrels of bitumen a day from Canada's tar sands. According to the Sierra Club, if Keystone XL backers get their way, that number may grow to 1.5 million barrels per day.

A must-read investigation released this week by Inside Climate News illustrates why that could be a potential nightmare for communities located near pipeline infrastructure.

The story follows the complicated clean-up of a tar sands oil spill that most people haven't even heard of — a 2010 pipeline rupture in southwestern Michigan that resulted in more than one million gallons of dilbit fouling a local waterway close to the Kalamazoo River.

The three-part narrative is detailed and extremely well-researched. It features a blow-by-blow account of how the pipeline ruptured, how officials acted (or, in the case of the pipeline owner, Enbridge, how it failed to act) and why dilbit represents a double threat to the environment and public health. It also shows why having an Environmental Protection Agency is so important when crisis hits.

This investigation is a must-read for any public official or resident from a community located near the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Here's why, nearly two years after the spill, residents are still finding tar balls in the local waterway:

Instead of remaining on top of the water, as most conventional crude oil does, the bitumen gradually sank to the river's bottom, where normal cleanup techniques and equipment were of little use. Meanwhile, the benzene and other chemicals that had been added to liquefy the bitumen evaporated into the air.

InsideClimate News also learned that federal and local officials didn't discover until more than a week after the spill that 6B was carrying dilbit, not conventional oil. Federal regulations do not require pipeline operators to disclose that information. And Enbridge officials did not volunteer it.

Mark Durno, an EPA deputy incident commander who is still involved in the cleanup in Marshall, is among those who were surprised by what they found.

"Submerged oil is what makes this thing more unique than even the Gulf of Mexico situation," Durno told InsideClimate News. "Yes, that was huge—but they knew the beast they were dealing with. This experience was brand new for us. It would have been brand new for anyone in the United States."

One of the most compelling pieces of the investigation comes when the reporters examine the safety record of America's pipeline infrastructure. The results are shocking:

When corrosion rises above a certain threshold, PHMSA requires that it be repaired within 180 days. But the rules are flexible, and companies can easily negotiate for more time.

Records show that 6B had a history of corrosion problems.

In 2008, Enbridge identified 140 corrosion defects on 6B as serious enough to fall into the 180-day category. But the company repaired just 26 of them during that period.

In 2009, Enbridge self-reported a separate set of 250 defects to PHMSA. The company fixed only 35 of them within 180 days.

Instead of immediately addressing the 329 defects that now remained, Enbridge got a one-year extension from PHMSA by exercising its legal option to reduce pumping pressure on 6B while it decided whether to repair or replace the line.

A defect on 6B near John LaForge's house, where the pipeline eventually ruptured, didn't appear on any of the 180-day repair lists.

That defect, at mile marker 608, was detected at least three times before the pipeline ruptured, in 2005, 2007 and 2009, according to documents Enbridge filed with PHMSA over the years. But each time, Enbridge decided it wasn't significant enough to require repairs within 180 days.

Ten days before 6B ruptured, Enbridge applied to PHMSA for another extension. It asked for an additional two and a half years to decide whether 6B should be repaired or replaced.

Does this sound familiar?

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/01/509026/must-read-investigation-reveals-true-hazards-of-piping-tar-sands-across-america/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Romney Advisers Reveal Strategy: Ignore Journalists, Pander To Right-Wing Conspriacy Websites #p2 #tcot

In a stunning interview with Breitbart.com, two top advisers to Mitt Romney revealed the campaign's plan to largely ignore journalists in favor of right-wing conspiracy websites.

From the beginning of the campaign, Romney has pointedly avoided news outlets who might pose tough questions. The press dubbed it "the Mittness Protection Program." As the campaign wore on, Romney has refused to answer direct questions about major policy issues central to the campaign. For example, Romney has still not stated whether he would undo Obama's order ending deportations for many young undocumented immigrants.

Romney campaign spokesman Lenny Alcivar recently outlined how the campaign will avoid journalists and cooridnate and communicate their message through Brietbart.com and the Drudge Report:

When this election is over, one of the lessons that will be learned by the mainstream media is that they no longer have a toe-hold on how Americans receive their news. Never before – in a way that has taken Democrats off stride – have we seen the confluence of an aggressive online community, led by Breitbart, and an aggressive campaign team not willing to cede an inch of ground to Democrats. This combination has created a new political reality. We no longer allow the mainstream media to define the political realities in America. The rise of Breitbart, Drudge and others, combined with an aggressive Romney campaign is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the conservative movement.

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/01/509328/romney-advisors-reveal-strategy-ignore-journalists-pander-to-right-wing-conspriacy-websites/