Ambulance smashed at out-of-control party, teenager stabbed

Police at the scene of an out-of-control party in Piara Waters. PICTURE: Sean Middleton Source: PerthNow

Police at the scene of an out-of-control party in Piara Waters. PICTURE: Sean Middleton Source: PerthNow

Police at the scene of an out-of-control party in Piara Waters. PICTURE: Sean Middleton Source: PerthNow

Maurice Chigumbu had his car's rear and side windows smashed as a party riot broke out near his Piara Waters home. PICTURE: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow

BRICKS were hurled at police, an ambulance was smashed up and a teenager was stabbed at an out-of-control party south east of Perth last night in what police have described the worst such incident they have attended in recent years.

The party, which was advertised on Facebook, was held at a warehouse off Warton Rd in Piara Waters and spilled onto the streets about 9pm last night.

On arrival police were confronted by about 500 youths, mainly juveniles, who began throwing projectiles at them.

It’s now been revealed that 74 police officers were sent to the scene and that one of the seven people arrested by police at the chaotic event was just 15.

Police said bricks, rocks, bottles and poles were thrown at officers and passing vehicles.

Mounted police, K9 and the Regional Operations Group as well as the police helicopter were among the police units sent to the violent gathering.

A 19-year-old man from Canning Vale was stabbed as he collected his younger brother from the party.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance, which was also the target of the rioting youths.

Duty Inspector Neil Blair said that as the ambulance made its way into the street to treat the stabbed teenager, a side window was smashed by one of the partygoers.

He was later arrested.

The local council was forced to use a bobcat to clear nearby roads of broken bottles, glass and other objects yet dozens of beer bottles were still strewn in nearby streets today.

This morning the warehouse where the party was held was littered with empty beer bottles, cans of bourbon, vodka bottles and spray cans.

Graffiti has been daubed all over the warehouse both inside and out.

A car about 50m from the warehouse on a gravel track has also been completely smashed up.

Acting Police Commissioner Chris Dawson this afternoon said he believed last night's event was the worst out-of-control gathering seen by police.

“This is not a party, this is a serious criminal assembly,” Acting Commissioner Dawson said.

“The resources of over 70 police ... were tied up for hours dealing with this behaviour.

“This is totally unacceptable by any sort of community standard.

Lakers to retire Shaq’s number

It was announced today (via Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register) that the Los Angeles Lakers will retire Shaquille O’Neal’s #34 jersey this coming April.

Not incredibly surprising news here; in fact it’s almost a no-brainer. Shaq will go down as one of the best big men to ever play the game and was hands down the most dominant inside force in the league during his time with the Lakers.

The 15-time All-Star won four NBA titles (three with LA, one with Miami) and collected three NBA Finals MVP awards. He racked up 28,596 points (23.7 points per game), as well as 13,099 rebounds (10.9 per game) and 2,732 blocks (2.3 per game). He’s sixth all-time in scoring, 13th all-time in rebounding and seventh all-time in blocks.

It’s hard not to think about what could have been with the Shaq-Kobe relationship that didn’t work out and left Shaq with a one-way ticket out of L.A. They were the most fearsome duo in the league when they played together and Kobe wasn’t even in his prime yet. They likely could have put together a dynasty that rivaled MJ’s Bulls in the ’90s, in my opinion.

Either way, Shaq’s a future first ballot Hall of Famer who rightly deserves his spot up in the rafters at the Staples Center, so good on the Lakers for not waiting around to give it to him.

Yale Grad Fights the Families Who Rule Samsung to Hyundai

Led by Nam Kyung Pil, a group of 24 ruling party members submitted a bill on Aug. 6 to deny voting rights on cross shareholdings, used by families for decades to control industrial groups known as chaebol with only minority stakes. Growing public discontent with their power and the lenient treatment of white-collar crimes may help the legislation pass into law as early as this year, he said.

“Enough is enough,” Nam, a 47-year old Yale University- educated lawmaker, said in an interview in Seoul last week. “People’s resentment toward the chaebol has accumulated over the years and now it’s blown up.”

The bill is a challenge to founding families who’ve weathered past campaigns because it’s being spearheaded by members of a party that controls parliament and is traditionally pro-business, corporate governance researchers said. Korea’s tycoons may need to spend $24 billion boosting holdings or risk ceding control, according to Chaebul.com, a Seoul-based organization that collects information about conglomerates.

“If you strip them of their voting rights, that is a big deal,” said Shaun Cochran, head of Korea research at CLSA in Seoul. “It’s highly significant and could act as a catalyst to create some positive change in Korea’s corporate structures.”

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan seek distance from ‘legitimate rape’ remark, but records show narrow support for abortion

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan say they disagree with Missouri Representative Todd Akin’s opposition to abortions for rape victims, but Akin’s reference Sunday to “legitimate rape” recalled the “forcible rape” language contained in a bill Ryan co-sponsored last year.

Akin, a Republican who is challenging Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill for her seat, said in a local television interview that he “understand[s] from doctors” that rape-induced pregnancies are “really rare.”

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” added Akin, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The Romney campaign quickly sought to distance itself from Akin’s remarks.

“Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in a statement Sunday.
Romney offered a stronger condemnation Monday morning in an interview with the National Review.

“Congressman’s Akin comments on rape are insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong,” Romney said. “Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive.”

Last year, Ryan joined Akin as one of 227 co-sponsors of a bill that narrowed an exemption to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions. The Hyde Amendment allows federal dollars to be used for abortions in cases of rape and incest, but the proposed bill -- authored by New Jersey Representative Christopher H. Smith -- would have limited the incest exemption to minors and covered only victims of “forcible rape.”

House Republicans never defined what constituted “forcible rape” and what did not, but critics of the bill suggested the term could exclude women who are drugged and raped, mentally handicapped women who are coerced, and victims of statutory rape.

The “forcible” qualifier was eventually removed before the bill passed in the House last May. The Democrat-controlled Senate did not vote on the measure.

On Friday, before the Akin remarks, President Obama’s reelection campaign launched a television ad in six swing states accusing Romney and Ryan of opposing abortion “even in cases of rape and incest.”

On Monday, the Obama camp charged Romney and Ryan with “contradicting their own records” as they rejected Akin’s comments. In a statement, Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith referenced Ryan’s co-sponsorship of the “forcible rape” bill and Romney’s stated support of a Human Life Amendment, which she said “would ban abortion in all instances, even in the case of rape and incest.”

The Romney campaign dismissed the criticism as “another in a string of false attacks by the Obama campaign.”

“Mitt Romney’s position is clear: He is pro-life,” Henneberg said. “He opposes abortion with exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The Obama campaign is attempting to scare voters with false charges in an effort to distract from President Obama’s litany of failures in office.”

The term “Human Life Amendment” covers a series of legislative efforts to grant full human rights to fertilized eggs. Some versions have included rape and incest exceptions to a constitutional ban on abortion; others have not.

Romney has said he supports an amendment that would mark conception as the beginning of life and that he would have signed such a bill at the state level, if one had crossed his desk as Massachusetts governor. He also has said a federal Human Life Amendment -- which would require passage in both houses of Congress and approval by 38 of 50 states -- is unrealistic and that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to write their own abortion laws.

“We have to decide what politically has the greatest potential of being successful,” Romney said in an interview with Mike Huckabee on Fox News last October.

“Would it be wonderful if everyone in the country agreed with you and me that life begins at conception, that there’s a sanctity of life that’s part of a civilized society, and that we’re all going to agree we’re not going to have legal abortion in the nation?” Romney asked Huckabee. “That’d be great, but I don’t think that’s where we are right now.”

Romney -- a devout Mormon who has maintained a consistent, personal opposition to abortion -- has altered his political position on abortion over the years. As a Senate candidate in 1994, he cited the death of his brother-in-law’s sister from complications of an illegal abortion as a touchstone.

“Since that time, my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter,” Romney said during a debate.

Romney even appeared that year at a fund-raiser for Planned Parenthood -- an organization he has pledged to de-fund if elected president.

In 2002, as a candidate for Massachusetts governor, Romney said he would “respect and fully protect a woman’s right to choose.”

But Romney wrote in a 2005 op-ed in the Globe that his “convictions have evolved and deepened during [his] time as governor.” He began to take pro-life stances, explaining that it had become difficult to reconcile his personal belief about abortion with the political position he had taken for years.

At a Republican presidential debate in 2007, Romney said he “would welcome a circumstance where there was such a consensus in this country that we said we don’t want to have abortion in this country at all, period.” He added that he would be “delighted to sign” a bill banning all abortions but added “that’s not where America is today.”

The Obama campaign cites those debate remarks as evidence to support its claim that Romney opposes abortions for victims of rape and incest.

But more recently, Romney wrote in a 2011 op-ed in the National Review that he is “pro-life and believe[s] that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.”

Ryan’s longtime position has been to permit abortion only when a woman’s life is endangered by a pregnancy.

Mitt Romney and President Obama take a break from the campaign trail to attend Sunday service Mitt Romney gave the public a rare glimpse of himself practicing his Mormon faith Sunday, as he attended church services near his New Hampshire vacation home.

The Republican challenger has generally shied away from talking about his faith while on the campaign trail, but the window into his spiritual life was made

possible after the candidate allowed a press pool to record his comings and goings, starting on Aug. 6.

Romney and his wife Ann were joined at church in Wolfeboro, N.H. by their son Tagg, daughter-in-law Jen and the couple’s six children.

President Obama, who was in New Hampshire campaigning on Saturday, was back in Washington, DC Sunday, where the periodic churchgoer and his family attended

service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a one block walk from the White House.

Romney, whose vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee has granted him favorite son status in New Hampshire and made it a swing state this year, sat through a

portion of the service with his grandson on his lap. At times he glanced down at an iPad, which he uses to read scripture.

His presence appeared not to have attracted special notice from the 100 or so worshipers — but he did have friends lining the pews. Richard Marriott, heir

to the Marriott hotel chain fortune, who has given at least $1 million to the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future, spoke at the service, one of several

testimonials from three generations of the Marriott family.

Ann Romney joined an impromptu choir of women at the front of the church in singing “Because I Have Been Given Much,” and after the service wrapped up her

husband shook hands with congregants around him.

Romney is a devout member of the Mormon church and has been a church leader, but has said little about his faith publicly since kicking off his presidential

campaign.

Romney’s reticence on his religion is calculated not to provoke a key part of the Republican base, evangelical Christians, who generally hold skeptical

attitudes toward Mormonism.

The President has worshiped among several congregations in Washington, D.C. on the Sundays he attends church, visiting Baptist churches, African Methodist

Episcopal churches, as well as the Washington National Cathedral, not to mention St. John’s Episcopal. He has also worshiped at Evergreen Chapel at Camp

David.

While the candidates took the day off from the campaign trail, their surrogates continued to battle over Medicare, Romney’s tax returns and other issues.

Senior Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom insisted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Republican’s “taxes are not an issue” and that the former

Massachusetts governor would not release returns beyond the two years he has already provided.

But Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin kept up the pressure on a key issue for Democrats, insinuating that Romney’s refusal to provide more tax info shows he

could have something to hide.

“What is in there that he doesn’t want the American people to see?” the Illinois Democrat said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.

“Romney can put aside all of these criticisms and all of these questions in five minutes.”

Durbin appeared on the Sunday show along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who kept up his attacks on Vice President Joe Biden in light of Obama’s

running mate’s widely panned comment to a largely black audience in Virginia that Romney’s economic policies would put them “back in chains.”

“I wonder if he’s got the mental capacity to be the President,” Giuliani said. “This guy is like one gaffe after another, and he’s a joke on late-night

television.”

But Durbin shot back with significant effect: “If you’re going to put yourself out as the arbiter and the judge of vice presidential candidates, we’re

going to remember that four years ago you told America, at the Republican convention, that Sarah Palin should be the vice president.”

Obama Defends Joe Biden On 'Chains' Remark

President Barack Obama is defending Vice President Joe Biden against criticism of his remarks that Republican repeal of Wall Street regulations would put

voters "back in chains."

In an interview with People magazine on Wednesday, Obama said Biden's remarks meant consumers would be worse off if Republicans succeeded in doing away with

new restraints on financial institutions.

"In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that," Obama said.

Biden made the comments Tuesday in Danville, Va., while saying that Republicans want to deregulate financial institutions – or, as Biden put it, to

"`unchain Wall Street."

Hundreds of black people were in the audience when Biden added, "They're going to put y'all back in chains."

In Iowa for a bus tour, Obama said the reaction to Biden's remarks was a function of politics, but he did not blame his vice president.

"The truth is that during the course of these campaigns, folks like to get obsessed with how something was phrased even if everybody personally understands

that's not how it was meant," Obama told the magazine. "That's sort of the nature of modern campaigns and modern coverage of campaigns. But I tell you, when

I'm traveling around Iowa, that's not what's on people's minds."

Hard hits follow Romney promise to elevate debate

Just days ago, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stood with newly minted running mate Paul Ryan and promised a campaign focused on big ideas like

“a positive governing agenda that will lead to economic growth.”

Since then, the GOP ticket has been anything but positive. The pair has lambasted President Barack Obama on everything from Medicare to welfare to the hard-

hitting tone of the campaign.


Obama is running a campaign of “division and attack and hatred,” Romney told CBS News on Wednesday, amplifying criticisms he made a night earlier before a

cheering crowd in Ohio. Added Romney: The president is “running just to hang onto power, and I think he would do anything in his power.”

Obama’s team, in turn, castigated Romney for the remarks, saying they bore the mark of an “unhinged” campaign.

It was the latest evidence of a shift in strategy for Romney. And it comes as national polls show Obama with a slight lead just three months before the

election and as the GOP ticket increasingly faces questions about which parts of Ryan’s budget plan and Medicare proposals Romney supports.

In recent days, Romney has branched out from his core message of the economy and jobs. He has spent a year working to sully Obama on that front alone, while

casting himself as a credible steward of the economy given his decades in the private sector. But Romney has now taken to criticizing Obama in biting terms

on multiple fronts, an attempt to poke holes in the president in as many places as possible as the clock ticks down on the Republican’s chance to gain

ground over the Democrat.

Romney’s latest effort: going after Obama’s central strength: his likability. The Republican hopes to convince voters that the man who once was the

candidate of hope and change — and is now a president most voters still like, even if they don’t support his policies — doesn’t represent those values

any longer.

Obama, to be sure, is not innocent of the go-for-the-jugular politics.

His team has spent months — and millions — criticizing Romney over his record at the private equity firm Bain Capital and his time as Massachusetts

governor. Obama and his allies have lambasted Romney for his refusal to release more than one year and a summary of another year of his personal tax returns.

And a super political action committee aligned with the president produced an ad suggesting that Romney was at least partly responsible for the death of a

woman whose husband lost a job at a company Bain owned.

Earlier this year, Romney strategists expressed some hesitation about assailing Obama’s character for fear of turning off the swing voters who backed Obama

in 2008 and wanted to see him succeed.

During Obama’s term, voters told pollsters they liked him, even if they rejected his economic policies and were unhappy with his health care law. To hear

Romney aides tell it back then, there were potential pitfalls in criticizing Obama too personally. The solution, then, was a laser-like focus on the economy

and jobs and an insistence that, while Obama might be a decent guy, his economic policies were bad for the country.

Debate joined on Medicare; Romney, Obama go at it

Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama in person and in TV advertising Tuesday of cutting Medicare "to pay for Obamacare," launching a strong

counterattack to Democratic charges that he and running mate Paul Ryan would radically remake the popular health care program that serves tens of millions of

seniors.

The charge drew a blistering response from Obama's campaign, which labeled the ad dishonest and hypocritical.

Obama "has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund. He's raided that trust fund," Romney said at a campaign stop in Beallsville, Ohio, as he neared

the end of a multi-state bus trip punctuated by his weekend selection of a ticket mate.

"And you know what he did with it? He's used it to pay for Obamacare, a risky, unproven, federal takeover of health care. And If I'm president of the United

States, we're putting the $716 billion back," he said.

Aides said a commercial containing the same allegation would begin airing immediately in several battleground states, although they declined to provide

details.

In a campaign without summer doldrums, the rival sets of ticket mates campaigned in a half-dozen of the most hotly contested states, in settings as diverse

as a coal mine in Ohio (Romney); a wind farm in Iowa (Obama) and a casino in Nevada (Ryan.)

Vice President Joe Biden stirred controversy in Virginia when he said the Republicans would favor the big banks over the interests of consumers. He said

Romney has said he is "going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street."

Hundreds of black voters were in the audience that Biden told, "They're going to put y'all back in chains."

Romney's campaign reacted strongly to that, saying the comments were "not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama

campaign will say and do anything to win this election." Biden later conceded using the wrong word but dismissed the Republican criticism and did not

apologize.

But that tempest was modest compared to the building struggle over Medicare.

Romney's criticism on that subject appeared an attempt to gain some measure of control over an issue likely to play a significant role in the outcome of the

election. Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa are among the top five states in the country in the percentage of people 65 and over, and all three are battleground

states.

In a rebuttal issued shortly after the Romney TV ad was released, Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith said the president's health care law did not "cut a single

guaranteed Medicare benefit, and Mitt Romney embraced the very same savings when he promised he'd sign Paul Ryan's budget. ...The truth is that the Romney-

Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it."

In the days leading to Ryan's selection, opinion polls generally showed a close race with Obama holding a modest advantage despite a sluggish economy and

unemployment of 8.3 percent. Romney's pick for a running mate drew enthusiastic support from conservatives pleased that he had tapped a lawmaker known as an

intellectual leader of the effort to rein in big government benefit programs and reduce future deficits.

But Democrats, too, said they were happy with the selection. They have quickly set out to draw attention to Ryan's plans, which contain deep cuts in

projected spending in social programs as well as changes to Medicare for future retirees, and to try and saddle Romney with their political ownership.

Polling generally shows that the public places more trust in Democrats' ability to handle Medicare than they do Republicans, and that people also generally

oppose plans to replace the current program with one in which future seniors receive a fixed amount of money from the government to be used to purchase

health coverage.

At the same time, polling shows the public strongly believes the financial security of Medicare as well as Social Security must be guaranteed for the long

term, and government reports for years have warned of a looming shortfall if something isn't done to change course.

Ryan and Romney have both cited a desire to right the program's finances as a motive for their plans.

Moreover, Romney's attack during the day suggests he hopes to overcome a generic Republican disadvantage on the issue by telling voters that Obama has cut

spending for a program that is overwhelmingly popular, and put the money toward one that is controversial.

"So now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going for a massive new government program that's not for you," says the announcer in the ad,

referring to the health care law that Obama signed into law in 2010. "The Romney-Ryan plan protects Medicare benefits for today's seniors and strengthens the

plan for the next generation," the ad concludes.

Ryan, interviewed on Fox News Channel, said he and Romney believe Medicare can be a winning issue for Republicans in the fall. "Absolutely, because we're the

ones who are offering a plan to save Medicare, to protect Medicare, to strengthen Medicare," he said.

Ryan didn't say so, but the budgets he has written in the House both called for leaving in place the cuts to Medicare that he is now criticizing. Romney has

consistently favored restoring the funds, and his running mate said, "I joined the Romney ticket."

Romney decided to go on the attack on one issue as the president's re-election campaign sharply criticized him on another.

"Romney's plans would cut college aid for nearly 10 million students ... and eliminate the tax deduction for college tuition," says a new television

commercial that Obama's re-election campaign said would run in several battleground states. The commercial cites estimates from the budgets that Ryan has

prepared as chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Romney's own proposals.

Obama and Romney clashed over yet a third issue during the day, laying out different views on energy policy.

The president taunted his challenger for opposing an extension of a tax break for wind production, quoting him as once having said, "You can't drive a car

with a windmill on it. ..."

"I don't know if he's actually tried that. I know he's had other things on his car," Obama joked, referring to the often-repeated tale of a Romney family

road trip with their dog, Seamus, in a carrier strapped to the roof of the car.

Government estimates say that more than 6,000 jobs statewide and 20 percent of Iowa's electricity needs come from wind power, and the state's senior GOP

leaders all support renewing an extension of a wind tax credit that Romney opposes.

The wind tax provision is one of dozens of credits that would be renewed in legislation making its way to the Senate floor, including several that deal with

energy such as of biodiesel, geothermal, biomass and hydropower.

Romney's campaign did not respond to repeated quests for his position on the other portions of the bill, which includes items such as a tax break for

developers of NASCAR facilities and purchasers of electric motorcycles.

The former Massachusetts governor sounded eager to challenge Obama's energy policy as he campaigned in coal country in southeastern Ohio. Accusing the

president of waging a war on coal, he said Obama favors production of energy that comes only "from above the ground," a reference to wind power and other

alternative sources.

"I'm for all of the above whether it comes from above the ground or below the ground," he said.

Report: Taylor Swift Buys New House Near the Kennedy Compound

Rumor has it, Taylor Swift sets her eyes on a seven-bedroom waterfront estate in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. According to WHDH-TV, the home is listed for about

$4.9 million and located across the street from the house of Ethel Kennedy, her boyfriend's grandmother.

There's no official word on the rumor, but some media note that the Nantucket Sound estate seems to her liking. The "Speak Now" hitmaker has already had

houses in Beverly Hills and Nashville, and both have Colonial style like the one she reportedly wants to buy in the Cape.

Taylor, 22, and Conor Kennedy were revealed dating after they were seen getting cozy during a recent visit to his family's compound in the Cape. The 18-year

-old son of Robert Kennedy Jr. wrapped his arm around her waist and she returned the gesture by placing her hand on top of his.

Days later, a picture showing the Swifts enjoying a lunch with Conor at Pancake Pantry in Nashville made its way out. Both his aunt and grandmother approved

of their relationship. "She's awesome," Rory gushed. "She's a great friend of all of ours." Ethel added, "We should be so lucky."

ROMNEY BUS TOUR COUNTER-PROGRAMMING.

–FROM THE DNC:  “The Democratic National Committee’s ‘Romney Economics: The Middle Class Under the Bus’ Tour II will kick off TODAY, Friday, August 10

at 9:30 a.m. EDT in Alexandria, Virginia and then make stops in Richmond and Norfolk later today.   The tour will highlight Mitt Romney’s record of failure

as Governor of Massachusetts, the lack of support small businesses received from Governor Romney’s Administration and Romney’s proposed tax hike on middle

-class families to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.   The DNC’s latest tour represents a reprise of the successful tour by the same

name that the DNC conducted in June to respond to Mitt Romney’s tour at the time, which included stops in NH, PA, OH, IA, WI and MI.  … The four-day DNC

bus tour will stop in the states that Mitt Romney is visiting, beginning today in Virginia with stops in Alexandria, Richmond and Norfolk and then will

continue with multiple stops in North Carolina, Florida and Ohio on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.”

–FROM MOVEON.ORG: “Starting tomorrow, MoveOn.org member demonstrations and a new TV ad will expose Romney’s bus tour as ‘The Romney Plan to Pickpocket

the Middle Class Tour.’ MoveOn will also air a 30-second ad titled “Pickpocket” in each city along the Romney’s tour which features a creepy Mitt Romney

hand pickpocketing middle class voters’ pockets as way of illustrating how his tax plan works. An Aug. 1 analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center shows

that Romney’s plan would cost the American families up to $2,000 while giving an $87,000 tax cut to those making a million dollars a year. … In addition to

the Ad, MoveOn.org Political Action members will show up at Mitt Romney’s bus tour stops to demonstrate and share with voters how ‘The Romney Plan for a

Stronger Middle Class’ is actually ‘The Romney Plan to Pickpocket the Middle Class,’ since Romney’s tax plan would cost middle class families up to

$2,000 to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.”

Usain Bolt looks for 'one more step' to become legend

As the morning track and field session was about to get under way yesterday, Garry Hill, the Canadian co-announcer in the Olympic Stadium, was asked what he

was most looking forward to seeing. "The latest episode of Usainity," he replied.

The Usain Bolt Show has always had an element of the circus about it. The clowning and playing to the gallery is all part of the act, as well as the kind of

freakish speed show we saw on Sunday when the Jamaican national treasure shattered all doubts about his form and fitness with a 9.63sec clocking en route to

the retention of his 100m crown.

Two days on, the jam-packed 80,000 crowd got 20.39sec of action. After easing round the bend in the opening heat of the 200m, Bolt could afford to slow to a

relative jog in the home straight. He still finished first, 0.14sec ahead of the splendidly named Brazilian Aldemir Da Silva Junior.

"It was an easy run," the fastest man in history said when he reached the press in the trackside mixed zone area. "I'm just enjoying it. It's my favourite

event."

Then it was time for some Usainity. At the press conference after the 100m final on Saturday, Bolt seemed more bothered by the madness of the London 2012

rules and regulations that had led officials to confiscate his skipping rope and rubber "stretching" band he uses to loosen up before his races. He was asked

whether he had tried to smuggle another rope into the stadium today. "I'm going to do it tomorrow," Bolt replied. "I'm going to stick it under my bag –

bottom of my bag or something."

Believe it or not, there was a time when the world's fastest man was such a figure of anonymity he could go about his daily business without any fuss. When

the Canadian sprinter Percy Williams won the Olympic 100m title in Amsterdam in 1928 he returned to his hotel to find a huge crowd gathered outside.

He asked someone what they were doing and was told they were waiting for the Canadian runner Williams. "I stood around and waited for him too," he later

recounted.

In his heat yesterday, the 21st century global sporting phenomenon of the Lightning Bolt could have skipped round the bend with his rope, waited for his

rivals to appear, and still won with ease.

He will need to break into something approaching a sweat in his semi-final tonight but – false starts aside – tomorrow's final promises to be a two-horse

race between Bolt and the trackside clock.

Asked in the aftermath of retaining his 100m crown whether he had succeeded in his mission to become "a legend", he said he still needed to retain his 200m

title. "There is one more step," he reiterated yesterday.

There were four faster heat winners, with Alex Quinonez topping the qualifying list with a time of 20.28sec. In fact, Bolt was only the third-quickest

Jamaican – behind Warren Weir (20.29sec) and Yohan Blake (20.38sec).

Blake, of course, beat Bolt at both 200m and 100m at the Jamaican trials in June and the reigning Olympic champion sees his training partner as his greatest

threat. "He is the best, hands down," Bolt said. "He has shown he can do great things."

As for Blake, when asked whether he could get the better of Bolt again at the longer distance, he replied: "I'm not really focusing on beating him. I'm

concentrating on running my race."

There will be British representation in the semi-finals tonight. Christian Malcolm secured his passage, finishing second in his heat in 20.59sec.

James Ellington, however, failed to make the cut. He was sixth in his race in 21.23sec.

‘Green-on-blue’ attack ends bloody Afghan day

A US soldier was killed in the latest in a series of “green-on-blue” attacks by Afghan allies in a bloody day across the war-torn country on Tuesday. The

day began with a pre-dawn remote-controlled explosion which killed nine civilians in a minibus on the outskirts of the capital Kabul, followed hours later by

a suicide truck bomb attack on a NATO military base. A French soldier and around 10 Taliban fighters were also killed in an early morning ambush and

subsequent firefight during a joint operation with the Afghan army in Kapisa province near Kabul, French officials said. But in a country where roadside

bombs, firefights and suicide attacks are commonplace, it is the death of the US solider at the hands of men he was working alongside that will resonate most

deeply with Western forces. “An International Security Assistance Force service member died when two individuals wearing Afghan National Army uniforms

turned their weapons against ISAF service members in eastern Afghanistan today,” ISAF said. A US defence official confirmed the soldier was an American, and

said the two suspected shooters were in custody. An investigation was under way to determine whether they were Taliban infiltrators. afp

Video: Tim Tebow and Some Other New York Jets Were Involved in a Massive Training Camp Brawl

The New York Jets made headlines for all the right reasons again on Monday when a massive brawl involving about 20 players broke out at training camp.

According to ESPN, the fireworks started when rookie safety D'Anton Lynn and backup running back Joe McKnight (USC, stand up) exchanged words and fists after

some irrelevant play. From there, things escalated when all of the players in those guys' general vicinity decided to get involved.

The best part? Tim Tebow played a part in this giant mess.

Unfortunately, New York’s biggest star wasn’t in the center of things throwing hooks – he was predictably playing the role of peacemaker. You’d expect

that sort of levelheadedness from the starting quarterback, though.

By all accounts, Mark Sanchez was nowhere to be found.

Elephant Communication, Mechanisms Behind Calls Unraveled

African elephants are known as some of the greatest communicators in the animal kingdom, they can converse with “extremely low-pitched vocalizations, known

as infrasounds, over a distance of miles.”

The “infrasounds” they make occupy a very low frequency range. At fewer than 20 Hertz, or cycles, per second, it’s generally below the threshold of human

hearing.

Now, new research has found that “elephants rely on the same mechanism that produces speech in humans (and the vocalizations of many other mammals) to hit

those extremely low notes.”

“Christian Herbst from the University of Vienna, along with colleagues from Germany, Austria and the United States, used the larynx of a recently deceased

elephant to recreate some elephant infrasounds in a laboratory.”

“These vocalizations are called infrasounds because their fundamental frequency is below the range of human hearing,” explained Herbst during a phone

interview. “We only hear the harmonics of such sounds, or multiples of that fundamental frequency. If an elephant’s vocal folds were to clap together at 10

Hertz, for example, we would perceive some energy in that sound at 20, 30, 40 Hertz and so on. But these higher overtones are usually weaker in amplitude.”

“Until now, researchers have wondered whether these low, rumbling elephant infrasounds were created by intermittent muscle contractions, as a cat’s purr

is, or by flow-induced vocal fold vibrations, fueled by air from the lungs, as is a human’s voice. But, the natural death of an elephant at a zoo in Berlin

gave Herbst and his colleagues a somewhat serendipitous chance to study the mechanism firsthand.”

“The researchers removed the elephant’s larynx and froze it within a few hours of the animal’s death. They then took it over to the larynx laboratory in

the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna, where Tecumseh Fitch, a senior author of the Science paper, studied it in depth.”

Planetsave (http://s.tt/1jUsn)
“Herbst and the other researchers imitated the elephant’s lungs by blowing controlled streams of warm, humid air through the excised larynx while adjusting

the elephant vocal folds into a phonatory, or vocal-ready, position. In this way, the scientists were able to coax the vocal folds into a periodic, low-

frequency vibration that matched an elephant’s infrasound in every detail.”

“The fact that they were able to duplicate the elephant’s infrasounds in a laboratory demonstrates that the animals rely on a myoelastic-aerodynamic, or ‘

flow-driven,’ mode of speech to communicate in the wild. The elephant’s brain would have been required to recurrently tense and relax the vocal muscles if

the other mechanism, which produces a cat’s purr, was involved, they say.”

“This flow-induced mechanism demonstrated by the researchers is likely to be employed by a wide range of mammals. From echolocating bats with their

incredibly high vocalizations to African elephants and their extremely low-pitched infrasounds, this mode of voice production seems to span four to five

orders of magnitude across a wide range of body sizes and sonic frequencies.”

“The researchers also saw some interesting ‘nonlinear phenomena’ in the way the elephant vocal folds vibrated. These mostly irregular patterns of

vibration occur when babies cry or heavy metal singers scream and the physical mechanism that elephants use is again identical to that seen in humans, they

say.”

“If I scream, it’s no longer a periodic vibration,” said Herbst. “It becomes chaotic and you can hear a certain degree of roughness. This can also be

observed in young elephants, in situations of high excitement.”

“Herbst says that the findings were only made possible by a collaborative effort between voice scientists and biologists, and that voice science is an

essential aspect of our social and economic lives.”

The research was just published in the August 3rd issue of the journal Science.

Planetsave (http://s.tt/1jUsn)

RGIII tops Tim Tebow in jersey sales

Major Update: It turns out that Tebow jerseys have been out-of-stock on NFLShop.com since late May. That pretty much undermines the headline and premise. My

apologies. Had I known that, I would not have published this.

If you didn’t already know that Robert Griffin III in D.C. was a big deal, here’s more proof: Since April 1 — the start of the NFL’s fiscal year — RGIII

is second in the league in NFLShop.com jersey sales, behind only Peyton Manning.

That means, somewhat remarkably, that more people have bought RGIII Skins jerseys than Tim Tebow Jets jerseys. Someone alert the producers of First Take!

If you have a sharp memory, you’ll recall that I posted an “RGIII has the NFL’s top selling jersey” item in late May, but that was only for the month of

May. (The NFLShop.com lists typically date from April 1.) This week’s release, though, includes the entire span of April 1-July 31, meaning it also includes

several weeks when there were no RGIII jerseys to purchase Since April 1, the top 10 looks like this:

1. Peyton Manning

2. Robert Griffin III

3. Tim Tebow

4. Andrew Luck

5. Eli Manning

6. Aaron Rodgers

7. Patrick Willis

8. Tom Brady.

9. Cam Newton

10. Troy Polamalu

Five more members of the NFC East made the top 25 list, including Victor Cruz (11th), Tony Romo (13th), DeMarcus Ware (19th), Jason Witten (21st) and Michael

Vick (23rd).

While Tebow jerseys are currently out of stock, RGIII was already ahead in June, when both were available.

More from The Post

RGIII and his fiancee share a kiss

Chris Cooley says everyone loves RGIII

Jim Vance says there’s too much hype

RGIII says he isn’t the face of the franchise

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ … after about two hours

Through the character of Bane (Tom Hardy), Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” consternates audiences with one of the evilest villains in recent film history, second perhaps only to Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter. Bane, at least, is content to merely terrorize and kill his victims.

Throughout the course of the film, we get to know Bane and his repulsive ilk, with the final third of the film bringing everything together in a mighty fusion of plot, philosophy and special effects. Until then, however, we are faced with a rather confusing mix of foreboding, disparate elements.

Mumbling and slurred accents often render “ the dialogue indiscernible, as Hans Zimmer’s deafening, raucous score adds to the confusion, competing for our ears’ attention. When the fog finally lifts, though, this is one heck of a superhero yarn.

Such an ambitious storyline demands a complex web of details, as well as commercial considerations that pay the rent. Still, filmmaker Nolan, who co-wrote and directed “Memento” (2000), has proved that he is capable of far more concise, sophisticated storytelling. Some artistic restraint, a general tightening of the storyline, could have gone a long way in making this a great movie instead of just a good one. As any decent stage director will attest, one must watch from the heights of the cheapest seats to ascertain that everything is being communicated to the audience. That’s assuming you don’t want the lines muffled and aren’t looking to induce sensory deprivation. Surely a deft hand in the editing room, where dubbing and a judicious manipulation of volume control can do wonders, would exponentially enhance the film’s production value.

Said technical shortcomings enumerated, it behooves to note a fine cast, especially Tom Hardy as the vile Bane. If sheer evil-doing could affect a movie’s rating, this PG-13 film would surely have been R-rated. Luckily, Christian Bale is able to counter Bane’s wickedness, evincing a very capable, if worrisomely reluctant, champion.

Supporting these dipoles, Gary Oldman plays a great Commissioner Gordon; alluring Anne Hathaway is as exotically capricious as Selina Kyle’s original Catwoman; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is award-worthy as Blake, a no-doubt-about-it good cop. And, of course, Alfred, the family retainer no hero can do without, is played by the venerable Michael Caine.

The epic “The Dark Knight Rises” is told through a revolving exposition of characters, each taking a turn on the script’s psychiatrist couch, wherein tales of abuse, misuse and all manner of base cruelty are plaintively divulged. Reaching a cataclysmic pitch, the disquiet finally manifests in a politically astute monograph detailing the siege of a city. Shades of Nazi occupation during World War II, most of

Gotham is crippled with desperation, guilt, doubt and fear. Even the federal authorities, blackmailed by the invaders, have their hands tied. And just to further obfuscate matters, the fatalistic cloud that hangs heavy over the metropolis makes it near impossible to tell the good guys from the bad.
Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, where Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne has essentially retired his Batman attire in mothballs, the title character suffers his own grief — an emotional funk as only a true superhero can experience it. To rise above personal demons and save the day, or not? That is the question.

It doesn’t get much bleaker than this. Intentionally or not, director Nolan has brought all the apocalyptic doom and gloom of an Albrecht Dürer engraving to the silver screen, replete with just about every existential enigma in the book. Thus, the film works on two levels — as a surface, adventure saga, and as an esoteric, medieval exploration of the questions of human existence.

I’d be interested to hear what a panel of Harvard sociologists and theologians might make of this attempt to pick apart the darkness of humanity. What would really be great is if the director answered, at least in part, his Delphic inquiry. But alas, we won’t be finding out the meaning of life here.

In the end, the film turns conventional, and we’re left merely taking another dip into the Batman legacy, getting a hint of the future in the bargain. Well, at least there is a future. That’s something. And so is this — a mainstream film that plays like a Wagnerian opera. Viewers seeking their fill of Sturm und Drang will find that “The Dark Knight Rises” to the occasion.

Quetta blast: allied, opp senators walk out in protest

* Haidri says terrorist activities could be reaction over NATO supply’s restoration

* PML-N senator says govt failed to protect people’s lives, property

By Ijaz Kakakhel

ISLAMABAD: The Senate, on the second consecutive day on Friday, witnessed a walkout by the Awami National Party, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PML-Quaid, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement senators over the attacks in Bajaur Agency, bomb blast in Quetta and the law and order situation in the country.

On a point of order, Awami National Party senator from Balochistan, Daud Achakzai, said early on Friday, a bomb blast in Quetta’s Kuchlak area killed eight people, including their party’s office-bearers. The blast occurred at a political rally organised by the ANP, he added. He claimed that the ANP believed on principle of non-violence but regretted that some militants were targeting their party members across the country. He demanded the House that a complete report into the incident should be presented and the culprits should be meted out exemplary punishment.

Another ANP senator, Zahid Khan, said his party workers were constantly being targeted by terrorists. He said he ANP had sacrificed over 650 workers, and demanded the Ministry of Interior respond to the House over the situation within two days. All senators from the ANP and the JUI-F walked out over the tragic incident.

JUI-F Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haidri was of the view that killings of seven Pakistan Army personnel in Gujrat, prison staff in Lahore, and Quetta bomb blast at an ANP rally could all be related to government policy. The government has restored NATO supply routes and it was a possibility that militants were carrying out these attacks as a reaction. The country is passing through a critical situation and all political parties should sit together and make sincere efforts to resolve these issues and avoid killings of innocent people.

FATA Senator Hidayatullah informed the House that on Thursday some militants from Afghanistan entered Bajaur Agency and killed about 40 to 50 people. The militants remained there for a long time. He also regretted that 24 hours had passed since the incident, but the government had failed to take any measures to stop such attacks in the future. Saying this, he walked out of the House lamenting the government’s negligence.

MQM Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi termed the bomb attack in Quetta a cowardly act, and held responsible the Balochistan government for failing to provide security to the rally. He demanded judicial inquiry into the incident. He also condemned the Bajaur Agency incidents. In a sign of solidarity with the ANP, the MQM senator also joined the protest and walked out.

PML-N Senator Hamza told the House that Lahore, Bajaur and Quetta incidents were failure on the part of the government. The federal government should focus on such issues, he added. PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed was of the view that the government should chalk out a comprehensive strategy over cross-border terrorism so as to stop such types of events in the future.

Opposition leader in the Senate Ishaq Dar, speaking on the occasion, condemned both the Lahore and Quetta incidents. He said the Punjab government had informed him that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prison staff was getting training from National Jail Authority, which was run by the federal government in Lahore. The institute was headed by a KP official. He said a joint investigation team had been formed to probe the incident.

However, it will be better if the Interior Ministry briefed the House on the Lahore incidents. Later, showing solidarity with the affectees of the ANP and Bajaur incidents, the PML-N also joined the protest and walked out of the House.

State Minister for Interior Imtiaz Safdar Warraich assured the House that Interior Ministry would provide a detailed report on the Quetta incident within three days.

Opposition: Hundreds of Civilians Massacred in Syrian Village

Syrian opposition activists say government forces have massacred more than 200 people, mostly civilians, inside a village in Hama province.

The activists and witnesses say troops shelled the village of Treimsa with tanks and helicopters before storming the area.

State-run Syrian media say troops battled an armed group in the area and, as in previous mass killings, blamed the massacre on those it calls terrorists.

Thursday's reported massacre comes as the United Nations Security Council debates imposing tough new sanctions on the Syrian government if it keeps attacking the opposition and civilians with heavy weapons.

The Western-backed resolution also leaves the door open to possible military intervention. But Russia is threatening to veto the resolution. It wants to simply extend the mandate of the U.N. observer mission in Syria for another three months.

Moscow has been one of Syria's closest allies and has vetoed previous U.N. action.
The Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, who has defected to join the opposition, is urging Syrian soldiers to join him.  He says there is no honor in killing one's own people.

Fares is the highest-ranking Syrian official to switch sides since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 16 months ago.

Mosquitoes test positive for EEE in Easton, Mass.

Two of those are the kind of mosquitoes which bite humans. Although no human cases have been reported, health officials say it is early in the season for EEE. It typically shows up later in July.

"There is a reason for concern. But, as I say, it’s only from one trap in one site. So far, all of the other sites are negative this far. But there is active surveillance going on right now," said Dr. Al DeMaria of the Department of Public Health.

Erik Wing knows how serious one mosquito bite can be. His 5-year-old daughter Adreanna was bitten in Halifax, Mass. in late August of 2005.

"Right at the beginning of September, we were burying her on what would have been her first day of school. It was tough," Wing said Wednesday. "It took a total of eight days from the time she got bitten to the time we had to pull the plug."

Wing would like to see more proactive spraying. State officials do say spraying could be an option now that the alert level has been raised to high in Easton, Raynham and Taunton.

Officials urge people take their own precautions, including wearing bug spray and long sleeves when possible.

In Bear Attack, Hunter Killed Hunter, Autopsy Shows

It turns out that the hunter in Idaho who the authorities thought was killed by a wounded grizzly bear was actually shot by his young hunting companion, who was trying to kill the bear, an autopsy has revealed.

Steve Stevenson, 39, died on Sept. 16 when he was shot in the chest once by his 20-year-old hunting companion, Ty Bell, officials said. The two men, both from Winnemucca, Nev., were tracking a grizzly bear they had wounded in rugged country on the Idaho-Montana border, thinking it was a black bear, the surviving hunter said.

After they shot it, they waited for a short time for the bear to die, and then went into thick forest to find it, the survivor said.

As the two men looked for the 400-pound bear, it charged them, and both hunters raised their rifles as it came toward them, Mr. Bell recounted. “They both shot it, and it kept coming,” Mr. Stevenson’s mother, Janet Price, told the Associated Press.

Mr. Stevenson, a miner, called out to divert the bear from attacking Mr. Bell, and it turned toward him instead, Mr. Bell has said. As the bear mauled Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Bell recounted, he shot it several more times and killed it.

One of those shots, however, also hit Mr. Stevenson in the chest and killed him, according to a medical examiner at the Montana State Crime Lab. In addition to the gunshot, there were bite marks on Mr. Stevenson’s leg.

The shooting of Mr. Stevenson remains under investigation by the Lincoln County attorney, and the killing of the grizzly bear, an endangered species, is still under investigation by the federal authorities.

Obama renews call for holding down middle-class tax rates

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama revitalized his push for holding down middle-

class tax rates Monday, calling on Congress to pass a one-year extension of the Bush-era

tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000 a year.

In a White House statement delivered while people described as working Americans stood

behind him, Obama said his proposal would provide the certainty of no tax increase next

year for 98% of Americans.

Noting that Republicans seek to maintain all of the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003,

Obama said both sides therefore agree on extending the lower rates for middle-class

families.

"Let's agree to do what we agree on, right?" Obama said to laughter and applause in the

East Room. "That's what compromise is all about."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, indicated he would schedule a Senate vote on

Obama's proposal, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said the chamber

would vote later this month on a one-year extension of the Bush tax cuts for everyone.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday that Obama would veto the House

version if it reached his desk.

Facing a tough re-election fight against certain Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the

Obama campaign seeks to frame the contest as a debate between the president's goal of

restoring middle-class opportunity versus GOP policies that it says would primarily benefit

corporations and wealthy Americans.

Opinion: Class warfare discussion is essential

Obama and other Democrats said Monday that Republicans would have to decide if protecting

wealthy Americans from a tax increase was worth holding "hostage" the extension of middle-

class tax cuts.

A Romney campaign official criticized Obama's announcement as more bad policy from the

presiWashington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama revitalized his push for holding down

middle-class tax rates Monday, calling on Congress to pass a one-year extension of the

Bush-era tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000 a year.

In a White House statement delivered while people described as working Americans stood

behind him, Obama said his proposal would provide the certainty of no tax increase next

year for 98% of Americans.

Noting that Republicans seek to maintain all of the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003,

Obama said both sides therefore agree on extending the lower rates for middle-class

families.

"Let's agree to do what we agree on, right?" Obama said to laughter and applause in the

East Room. "That's what compromise is all about."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, indicated he would schedule a Senate vote on

Obama's proposal, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said the chamber

would vote later this month on a one-year extension of the Bush tax cuts for everyone.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday that Obama would veto the House

version if it reached his desk.

Facing a tough re-election fight against certain Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the

Obama campaign seeks to frame the contest as a debate between the president's goal of

restoring middle-class opportunity versus GOP policies that it says would primarily benefit

corporations and wealthy Americans.

Opinion: Class warfare discussion is essential

Obama and other Democrats said Monday that Republicans would have to decide if protecting

wealthy Americans from a tax increase was worth holding "hostage" the extension of middle-

class tax cuts.

A Romney campaign official criticized Obama's announcement as more bad policy from the

president in the wake of the latest disappointing jobs report.
"President Obama's response to even more bad economic news is a massive tax increase," said

Andrea Saul, the Romney campaign's spokeswoman. "It just proves again that the president

doesn't have a clue how to get America working again and help the middle class."

Unlike Obama, Saul continued, Romney "understands that the last thing we need to do in this

economy is raise taxes on anyone."

Republicans also complained that Obama's plan would raise taxes on more than 900,000 small

-business owners who report their income in individual returns as so-called flow-through

enterprises.

"The proposed tax increase on 53% of all flow-through business income would be especially

harmful to small businesses," said a statement by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, a leading

conservative.

Obama, however, said that under his proposal, 97% of the nation's small business owners

would benefit from having their lower tax rates maintained at current levels.

"This isn't about taxing job creators," Obama said. "This is about helping job creators."

Carney also took exception to the GOP argument, saying that the small-business people

Republicans sought to protect from higher taxes included "partners in law firms or hedge-

fund managers."

"They're not the kind of small businesses that you and I tend to think of when we talk

about small businesses," Carney said.

Monday's statement was part of a new presidential push on the tax issue following the weak

June jobs report that came out Friday. Congress is returning from it's weeklong

Independence Day break on Monday.

An Obama campaign official said his re-election team will "amplify the president's message

on middle-class tax cuts" by hosting a series of events this week in battleground states.

In Las Vegas, for example, local elected officials will discuss Obama's efforts to fight

for the middle class, the campaign official said. In Colorado, Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland,

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Rick Palacio and state Sen. Gail Schwartz will hold a news

conference to discuss the contrasting economic visions of Obama and Romney.

Obama signed a bill in 2010 to extend all of the Bush-era tax cuts until the end of 2012,

citing the need for economic stimulus at the time. He has since vowed he would not permit

another extension of the lower tax rates for wealthy Americans.

His proposal Monday would maintain the current lower tax rates for families making up to

$250,000 for another year while allowing tax rates to return to 1990s levels for those

earning more.

The president sounded major themes of his re-election campaign, saying his goal was

"putting people back to work but also rebuilding an economy where that work pays off."

He blamed a political stalemate in Congress for the failure to take decisive steps toward

addressing rising deficits and other economic issues, saying he and Democrats disagreed

with what he called "top down" policies of Republicans who favor tax cuts for the

wealthiest Americans.

"I believe our prosperity has always come from an economy that's built on a strong and

growing middle class," Obama said, noting that he has cut middle class taxes as president.

"... So that's why I believe it's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,

folks like myself, to expire."

Extend the tax cuts for the middle class now, the president said, and then let the result

of the November election decide the debate on broader tax reform, including how much the

wealthy should pay

On Sunday, top Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs told CNN that the president was "100%

committed" to ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

The tax breaks are set to expire in what has become known as the "fiscal cliff," a package

of spending cuts and the removal of tax breaks that will take place on January 1 if

Congress fails to act. In total, they could add up to $7 trillion.

Tax breaks that would end include the Bush tax cuts, middle-class protection from the

Alternative Minimum Tax and more than 50 "temporary" tax breaks for individuals and

businesses that have been on the books for years.

Should the rich pay more taxes? Share your thoughts in the iReport Debate

Obama also has backed the so-called Buffett Rule, named after billionaire investor Warren

Buffett, which would impose a minimum 30% tax rate on those making more than $1 million.

The measure was blocked by Senate Republicans in April.

Republicans say the solution to the country's deficit problems should focus on shrinking

the size of government, rather than raising taxes on anyone.

"In the wake of another weak jobs report, the president is doubling down on his quixotic

call for the same small businesses tax hikes that have been routinely rejected by the House

and Senate," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Monday. "How will

these small business tax hikes create jobs?"

The Lucrative Business of Fake, Life-Size Dinosaurs

Last month, Guy Gsell had one of the happiest experiences of his life. From the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, he dropped 50¢ into the coin-operated binoculars; trained them west toward Snake Hill, a 200-million-year-old volcanic outcrop in Secaucus, N.J.; and saw the world’s largest animatronic dinosaur.

“This guy is so big, he just filled the binoculars,” says Gsell, referring to the 90-foot-long, yellow-skinned herbivore called Argentinosaurus. “Even if I didn’t own the dinosaur, I would think it was the coolest thing I ever saw.”

A bespectacled 51-year-old in a tweed sport coat, blue jeans, and silk dinosaur tie, Gsell is the founder and executive producer of Field Station: Dinosaurs, a 20-acre outdoor educational theme park in Secaucus (tagline: “9 minutes from Manhattan, 90 million years back in time”), which officially opened to the public this year during Memorial Day weekend. While animatronic dinosaur exhibits are popular in the U.S., Field Station is the first theme park dedicated entirely to them. It’s home to the record-setting Argentinosaurus, a motion-sensoring Tyrannosaurus rex that reacts to visitors, 29 other mechanized prehistoric beasts, and four human-operated dino puppets.

The attraction cost $2.5 million to get up and running—not including the cost of the life-size dinosaurs themselves, which Gsell says he’s not at liberty to disclose. The reptiles—molded foam rubber with steel skeletons—were custom designed by China’s Zigong Jade Bamboo Culture Development and move courtesy of KumoTek Robotics of Richardson, Tex. Erth, an Australian company, created the puppets. The exhibit, which targets kids ages 3 to 11, has partnered with the New Jersey State Museum to develop its educational programming, along with five corporate sponsors, including Lego and Crayola.

The park is modeled to resemble a fictional scientific expedition, and visitors encounter and study a few dozen dinosaurs along the way. Sound familiar? “The difference between Field Station: Dinosaurs and Jurassic Park is, of course, that my dinosaurs are guaranteed not to attack and eat anyone,” Gsell says.

As the founding director of Discovery Times Square—a large exhibit space in midtown Manhattan that has recently hosted popular traveling attractions such as the King Tut show and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition—Gsell was approached on numerous occasions by people who wanted to show their animatronic dinosaurs. A lifelong dino-enthusiast, Gsell loved the idea, but the lighthearted nature of “big rubber dinosaurs” didn’t fit with what he calls Discovery’s “more highbrow” mission. (Also, they didn’t fit inside the space.) In November 2010, he lined up an angel investor, checked out the abandoned quarry at the base of Snake Hill (property he would lease from the county), and took a huge risk. “By Thanksgiving, I had quit my job and gone into the dinosaur business,” he says.

It would appear to be a wise investment, because evidence suggests the fake-dinosaur business is booming. Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular, a globe-trotting $19 million stage show featuring a cast of 20 ambulatory dinosaur figures, grossed $104.1 million in worldwide box office in 2010, earning it the No. 7 spot (just beating out Paul McCartney) on concert-industry trade magazine Pollstar’s yearend list of the world’s top tours.

Temporary animatronic dinosaur exhibits have proved a valuable add-on for science centers, theme parks, and zoos. They average roughly a 30 percent “capture rate,” meaning that nearly a third of attendees at the main park will visit the dinosaurs, according to Jennifer Chow, business development director for the British Columbia-based show, Dinosaurs Unearthed. The Detroit Zoo, for instance, reports that its 2011 Dinosauria exhibit (featuring animatronics provided by another company) drew in roughly 28 percent of its visitors at an additional cost of $4 per patron between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. The zoo credits its 2011 year-on-year attendance increase—up 6 percent, to nearly 1.2 million visitors—in large part to Dinosauria. Chow says her company might charge anywhere from $300,000 to more than $500,000 for a six-month indoor exhibit housing 15 to 20 dinosaurs.

During the soft launch of Field Station: Dinosaurs this May, the grounds were teeming with smiling kids and parents. (Gsell expects the park, whose season runs until Nov. 11, to receive some 10,000 visitors a week, attendance on par with that of a medium-size zoo.) The giant lizards blink their eyes, swing their necks, and open their mouths to roar. By midday, a walkie-talkie-wielding park attendant is dispatched to stand guard over the park’s largest occupant. “A bunch of kids were trying to do pull-ups on the Argentinosaurus’s tail,” she explains.

Later, at the park’s Outback Steakhouse Amphitheater, a group of children stare in awe at a puppet T. rex in a show hosted by a loud, leather-hatted paleontologist from Australia (turns out he’s really a Russian-born American puppeteer). One audience volunteer, an 11-year-old named J.R. Vega of Verona, N.J., balks when given the opportunity to put a gloved hand into the puppet’s jaws.

“I knew it was a puppet, but it just felt so realistic,” he says. “Even though he’s very friendly, you never know. They have a tendency to eat anything.”