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CNN’s Wolf Blitzer spoke out about the racist attack on a network camerawoman at the Republican national convention on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, two attendees threw nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and said, “this is how we feed the animals.” Multiple witnesses saw the incident, and police immediately removed the two attendees from the convention center. CNN confirmed that the incident happened via a statement released on Tuesday, but did not have further comment at the time.

Blitzer described the “very ugly exchange” on Wednesday afternoon, in the first time that the network addressed the incident on-air. He said that the incident was “truly shocking” and “hit home” for people at the network.

“It’s just an ugly reminder that there is an element of hatred that still exists in our country,” he said. Speaking to Blitzer, CNN political analyst Donna Brazile said that she hopes the two attendees have their convention credentials revoked.

That same afternoon, CNN’s Don Lemon was incredulous that another news outlet reported the incident before CNN did. “Another network http://lnkd.in/p7uWrP tweeted & reported the camerawoman story before #CNN did. Wait, what?!!” he wrote.

When Democracy Now! senior producer Mike Burke attempted to interview billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson inside the Republican National Convention, a woman identified as Adelson’s daughter grabbed our video camera, tried to take it into a private suite and then threw the camera to the ground. While Adelson’s daughter first accused Burke of hitting her, she later came out of the suite to apologize. The incident was caught on tape, shortly after Burke questioned another billionaire GOP donor, David Koch, as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele. Burke files a report and joins us to describe what happened

JERUSALEM — Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who suggested his comments were racist and out of touch with the realities of the Middle East. Romney’s campaign later said his remarks were mis-characterized. “As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate told about 40 wealthy donors who ate breakfast at the luxurious King David Hotel.

Romney said some economic histories have theorized that “culture makes all the difference.”

“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.” He said similar disparity exists between neighboring countries, like Mexico and the United States.

Palestinian reaction was swift and pointed. (more…)

Ice Tee reminds us that Constitutional rights and Tyranny are part of the main conversation

Supreme Court upholds Obamacare individual mandate as a tax

In a victory for President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court decided to uphold his signature health care law’s individual insurance mandate in a 5-4 decision, upending speculation after hostile-seeming oral arguments in March that the justices would overturn the law. The mandate has been upheld as a tax, according to SCOTUSblog, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal wing of the court. Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog says Roberts’ vote “saved’ the Affordable Care Act.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote, dissented, reading from the bench that he and three conservative justices believe “the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety.”

Twenty six states sued over the law, arguing that the individual mandate, which requires people to buy health insurance or face a fine starting in 2014, was unconstitutional. Opponents cast the individual mandate as the government forcing Americans to enter a market and buy a product against their will, while the government countered that the law was actually only regulating a market that everyone is already in, since almost everyone will seek health care at some point in his or her life. (more …)

People are usually reluctant to admit their real feelings in surveys, but there’s no doubt that our experiences and our prejudices play a part in the way we vote. In order to figure out whether racial bias affected Barack Obama’s results in the 2008 presidential election, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a doctoral candidate in economics at Harvard University, passed over easy-to-manipulate surveys and looked at data from another source: online searches. read more

She is slick but she is unorganized and an idiot.

Donald Trump, de facto leader of the so-called “birther” movement, called into “The Situation Room” on Tuesday for what quickly became a testy interview with Wolf Blitzer about Trump’s continued skepticism over the authenticity of President Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate.

Trump, in Las Vegas to host a fundraiser for Mitt Romney on Tuesday, took issue with Blitzer’s introduction and a CNN report that ran before the interview, both of which asserted that Trump, real estate mogul and reality show star, is standing by his birther comments. Trump claimed he agreed to the “Situation Room” interview to talk about jobs, China and OPEC; Blitzer said there were no such ground rules. (more…)

Reality TV personality Tami Roman stopped by The Wendy Williams Show this morning to talk about how negativity of VH1’s Basketball Wives. During the interview, Williams was harsh in her assessment of Basketball Wives and Roman’s role on the show.“We’re all in our 40s, we’re grown women,” William’s said. “I was really embarrassed for being a black woman, seeing your guys go at it on the show. “

The U.S. Secret Service is looking into a violent rant by “Catch Scratch Fever” rocker Ted Nugent in which he denounced President Barack Obama and his top advisers as “evil” and urged National Rifle Association members to help “chop their heads off in November.”

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/28983816

“I’ll tell you this right now: If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” Nugent said. “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November. Any questions?” Nugent, speaking at the organization’s annual gathering over the weekend, praised NRA members but warned that if they did not “get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating administration, I don’t even know what you’re made out of.” (more…)