News & Notes July 18, 2012

John McCain says he chose Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney "because she was the better candidate."  Wow, what that says about Romney is huge.

The President is getting a lot of mileage from this new ad:

He's running this one in Pittsburgh ahead of Romney's visit to Westmoreland County:

More on Mitt's Bain Damage:

Joe Paterno's legacy just keeps getting burned.  Now we learn he shook down the Board of Trustees for a rich retirement package after knowing he had lied to the grand jury.  His golden parachute didn't benefit himself though.  Now his family says they're doing their own investigation.  The Freeh Report cost the University $6.5 million.  Joe's golden parachute could be gone quickly.  A plane circled State College today towing this banner:  "take down the statue or we will."

The most wanted Nazi from WWII has been caught.  Another one bites the dust.

Did Florida's Lt. Gov. have a lesbian affair?  It really doesn't matter to me except for her attitude:   So usually black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that."  I guess she's never heard of lipstick lesbians.

Poor Mitt is having another terrible week.  It's bad enough he's allowed Obama to define him to voters but he had to take down an ad after failing to get copyright permission for the use of the song in it and now CBS News Bob Sheiffer isn't happy he used a clip of him without permission.  Of course it was taken out of context.

Tea Party hypocrisy:  color me shocked.  Seven budget slashing strict fiscal conservatives used your money for cars.

Express Scripts/Medco is the latest corporation to abandon ALEC.

Mike Fitzpatrick, once a moderate Republican and now a full blown tea bagger got a visit from some constituents:

A Ron Paul acolyte has quit her race for State Senate in Iowa to become a Senator in an illegal, parallel government based on delusions.  When you hear what some Americans believe you begin to wonder about the sanity of this nation.

JPMorganChase says its trading losses have hit $5.8 billion.  Experts say that isn't the end of it.  Too big to fail should fail regardless.

Nationwide Insurance won't cover losses from fracking.  If homeowners policies begin excluding this you're really, really screwed.  If Nationwide thinks the risks are too huge then why doesn't our state legislature?

Senate Republicans filibustered yet another important bill last night.  The DISCLOSE law would have required Super PACs to reveal their donors.  40 billionaires have now contributed about 80% of all such money so far.  That's called feudalism folks.

Arizona is the sixth state to be sued by Planned Parenthood over unconstitutional restrictions on women's legal rights to abortion services.  Pennsylvania may be next.

A new drug may help prevent infection of HIV.  Truvada is made by Gilead Sciences but some are complaining about its high cost.