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.”

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“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.

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