Category: Uncategorized

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Austin Police Department – It Gets Better

The Lesbian & Gay Peace Officers Association produced a video comprising of LGBT officers and civilian members of the Austin Police Department to send a message to LGBTQ youth that it does get better.

This is part of the It Gets Better Project and The Trevor Project to reach out to LGBTQ youth who may be struggling due to bullying, harassment, and non-acceptance, and who may be thinking of committing suicide.

The message is to let those youth know that even though it is difficult today, tomorrow will bring hope, love, and life.  Help is here to get you there.

As a native Texan who spent my summers in Austin (one of my favorite cities) I’m so proud of this video.  These folks did an amazing job of communicating not only the struggles of the journey of coming out, but the pride and joy you feel when it finally “gets better” and you can accept and love yourself.

Great job guys!

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Win a lunch date with George Clooney and benefit LGBT students across the country

For the right price, you can get a lunch date with George Clooney which will benefit the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), an organization which keeps schools safe for LGBT students across the country.

The lunch “experience,” which also includes intimate time with entertainment writer Dave Karger, will take place at the Soho House in West Hollywood and is valued at $20,000. So if you have deep pockets (or have a movie project to spin), then it’s probably really worth—for the children of course. You can bid through Oct. 11 on the auction site Charitybuzz.

Clooney is a longtime ally to the LGBT community. During an interview with The Advocate in February to promote his appearance in the play 8, the actor spoke about why he’s so passionate about the issue of marriage equality. “One day the marriage equality fight will look as archaic as George Wallace standing on the University of Alabama steps keeping James Hood from attending college because he was black,” he said. “People will be embarrassed to have been on the wrong side.”

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Fox News Poll shows President Obama leads in 3 key swing states

From Fox News’ own poll: “President Barack Obama has the edge over Republican Mitt Romney in three potentially decisive states in the presidential election. Obama tops Romney by seven percentage points among likely voters in both Ohio (49-42 percent) and Virginia (50-43 percent). In Florida, the president holds a five-point edge (49-44 percent).”

So you know, if President Obama wins swing states Florida, Ohio and Virginia, the whole thing is done and the President wins re-election.

You know it must kill them to even release the news…

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Mitt Romney releases 2011 tax returns

Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax return today. Releasing information on a Friday afternoon is traditionally a way to reduce the amount of media exposure.

Trustee Brad Malt writes:  In advance of the posting of these new documents, I wanted to provide some top-line details.  Regarding the newly-filed 2011 Tax Return:

  • In 2011, the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income.
  • The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%.
  • The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income.
  • The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions.

The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 could have further reduced their tax obligation for the year. However, the Romneys decided to limit their deduction of charitable contributions so to “fit” the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

Had the Romney’s actually taken the legal deductions available to them, they would have paid an effective tax rate of 9%.

Now, at a time when Mitt Romney is criticizing Americans for not paying their share of taxes, how would it look for Mitt to only pay 9%?

Yeah, he thought so too. And so, he chose to NOT take a deduction so that his tax rate would be in line with the figure he had previously stated.

By the way – it’s worth noting that even though Mitt Romney paid more than he needed to (about $200,000), he has the right to go back and amend his tax return for three years and take that full tax deduction.

I’m betting that should he lose this election, that’s exactly what he’ll do.
The information was released in a blog post, written by the manager of Romney’s blind trust since 2003, R. Bradford Malt, which said the Romneys had filed their 2011 tax return with the IRS Friday morning. It also indicated that the Romneys’ tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, would provide a letter summarizing the tax rates that the Romneys paid from 1990 to 2009.

According to Malt, the Romneys paid an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2 percent, with the lowest rate coming in at 13.66 percent. Over that same stretch of time, they gave an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity.

“The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years,” Malt wrote.

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President Obama leads in new poll of swing states

President Obama leads Mitt Romney in a new poll of 12 key swing states. This is the news that counts, kids.

Obama leads 49 percent to 44 percent in the poll from Purple Strategies.

The poll is a combined sample of likely voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, and also shows good news for Obama in over-sampled results for Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Colorado. Last month’s Purple Poll showed Romney with a slight edge in swing states, 47 percent to Obama’s 46 percent.

“One important change in the latest numbers: President Obama now leads among independents,” in the states surveyed, Purple pollsters wrote. It’s the first time Obama has led independent swing-state voters in seven months, the pollsters wrote.

Via TalkingPointsMemo

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Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg Romney, signed surrogacy agreement allowing for right to abort “abnormal fetus”

TMZ has the scoop:

TMZ has learned Mitt Romney’s son Tagg — who had twins this year through a surrogate — signed an agreement that gave the surrogate, as well as Tagg and his wife, the right to abort the fetuses in non-life threatening situations … and Mitt Romney covered some of the expenses connected with the arrangement.”

From Paragraph 13 of the agreement:

“In the event the child is determined to be physiologically, genetically or chromosomally abnormal, the decision to abort or not to abort is to be made by the intended parents.  In such a case the surrogate agrees to abort, or not to abort, in accordance with the intended parents’ decision.”

And there’s another relevant provision in Paragraph 13:

“Any decision to abort because of potential harm to the child, or to reduce the number of fetuses, is to be made by the intended parents.”

Tagg Romney chose the same surrogate in 2009, and apparently that agreement did not have this clause.

Tagg Romney’s lawyer says it was a careless mistake.

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Paul Ryan booed at AARP address

In his remarks to the AARP Friday, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was booed loudly when he said the “first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare.”

Ryan was unfazed. “I had a feeling there would be mixed reactions, so let me get into it,” he said.

“It weakens Medicare for today’s seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation,” Ryan argued. “First, it funnels $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for. Second, it puts 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of Medicare’s future.”

Ryan’s own budget contains the same cuts to future Medicare spending as the Affordable Care Act, although Mitt Romney has distanced himself from that plan. The bureaucrat reference is to the new Independent Payment Advisory Board, whose members must be approved by the Senate and whose recommendations can be rejected by Congress. Politifact has rated Ryan’s description of the board “mostly false.”

The AARP is a non-partisan organization, but the group supported the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare. Obama appeared before the group earlier in the day (also via satellite) and offered a sharp critique of his Republican rivals’ plans to revamp Medicare, saying it would leave seniors “at the mercy of insurance companies.”

Via Washington Post