Ann Romney’s Unedited Convention Speech Leaked
A test that determines the grade level of writing found Michelle Obama broke a record by delivering a speech written at the 12th-grade level. Ann Romney broke a record too, with a 5th-grade levelspeech — the lowest in the history of convention speeches by wives of presidential nominees.
The grade level is based on sentence length and the number of polysyllabic words used. Longer sentences with longer words mean a higher grade level. For example, on women’s issues, Mrs. Obama said, “He believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care…that’s what my husband stands for.”
Mrs. Romney addressed women by saying, “I love you women…You are the best of America. You are the hope of America. There would not be an America without you. Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises.”
To be fair, Ann Romney’s original draft was written at a much higher level than the speech she wound up delivering. I found a copy of her draft edited by Romney’s campaign managers. Here’s an excerpt.
“While there are many important issues we’ll hear discussed…tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our hearts. I want you to turn off your brains, especially if you’re a woman, and really concentrate on your hearts. That’s what I try to do. That’s the only way I’m able stand up here tonight and encourage you to vote for my husband…
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Elizabeth Warren breaks down the difference between corporations & people
Remember when Mitt Romney said that “corporations are people”? In all fairness, Mitt may be a little less human than others, which could explain his confusion. Well, at last night’s convention, a very patient Elizabeth Warren broke down the difference between people and corporations for those who don’t quite get it.
Inside the Minds of GOP Strategists (VIDEO)
Do Mitt Romney’s birther “joke,” Rick Santorum’shands fetish (and I had him pegged as an ass man) and Paul Ryan’s compulsive lying make you wonder what exactly the strategists behind the RNC are thinking? Well, we took a stab at figuring that out. Here’s a sneak peak at what we can only imagine goes on behind the closed doors of Republican spin doctors. It turns out, they knew about Clint Eastwood and the empty chair!
RNC attendees throw nuts at an African American camera woman
Because disenfranchising black voters isn’t sufficiently racist, two Republican National Convention attendees decided to make their party’s racism more explicit by throwing nuts at an African American CNN camera woman and saying, “This is how we feed animals.” The incident was first reported via twitter by David Shuster and has been confirmed by Talking Points Memo. CNN told TPM it could confirm “there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.” […]
Haunting photographs document violence against women
“Everyone thinks that Norway is a paradise, and of course it is in many ways — if you compare it with India or Guatemala…. But you cannot say that a country has no human rights problems if women suffer from violence and you are not protecting them.” This is what motivated photo-journalist Walter Estrada to point his camera at the violence against women that occurs in Norway. Estrada has documented this epidemic in countries like Guatemala, India, Congo, but showing violence against women in a country that is not war-torn, in conflict, or notorious for its mistreatment of women highlights how pervasive violence against women really is. […]
Pussy Riot sentencing sparks international protest
On Friday, Judge Marina Syrova convicted three members of Pussy Riot the women of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, sentencing them to ”two years deprivation of liberty in a penal colony.” This is one year less than the three-year sentence sought by prosecutors. Syrova said the punk prayerPussy Riot had performed in a Moscow cathedral had ”crudely undermined social order.” She stated that ”These three plus others… plotted together to undermine civil order, motivated by religious hatred.” Syrova justified her sentence, saying, “Considering the nature and degree of the danger posed by what was done, the defendants’ correction is possible only through an actual punishment.”
Lawyers representing Pussy Riot anticipated the guilty verdict and plan to appeal the sentence through the courts, rather than to Putin. The sentencing sparked protests around the world, some of which are captured in this photo gallery from The Guardian.
Infographic: Why Paul Ryan Is Terrible For Women
Vanessa recently wrote a great post on why Paul Ryan is bad for women and basically every person on the planet (besides the vested interests he serves and represents). UltraViolet has put out this great infographic, which you can share, on why Ryan is terrible for women specifically.
Young Man schools homophobes with… The Bible?
Matthew Vines describes himself as ”an advocate for the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people within Christian communities and in society at large.” And advocate he does! What’s so great about this speech that he delivered at the church in his hometown, is that he challenges the hijacking of Christianity by using… Christianity. After all, he did grow up in a conservative church in Kansas. Vines makes me want to give up my agnosticism and become religious… almost.
Other ways to look at the Olympics rings
The iconic Olympics rings are everywhere we look. But what happens when we look at them a different way. That’s what artist Gustavo Souza did in his project Oceaniaeuropeamericaasiaafrica. Souza explains, “The rings represent healthy competition and union, but we know the world isn’t perfect. Maybe understanding the differences is the first step to try to make things more equal.” So Souza uses the colors of the continents and plays with the size of the rings, so they illustrate the differences and disparities among the world’s regions.
katiehalper.com 