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If there is one thing Republicans claim to hate more than taxes and big government, it is sexual promiscuity. A recently introduced fee attached to adult live entertainment in Houston, Texas, the so-called pole tax, appears to pass muster with the Republican right. The fee applies to bars and nightclubs, which offer events that could be construed as sexually explicit, such as wet T-shirt contests or naked sushi contests, in which revellers are invited to eat raw fish off the body of a nude woman. Houston is a city that insiders describe as Tea Party-infused, meaning that in Houston tax-raising is anathema to Republican legislators. But apparently, the pole tax is different.

What happens deep in the heart of Texas does not usually hit the headlines in the rest of the United States. And so Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has not been asked yet, whether he supports or rejects the pole tax for ideological reasons.

The chances are that Romney will be on the defensive as he was after the Supreme Court upheld President Obamas signature health care legislation. It turned out that the question of what is a tax and whether a tax could be reasonable is a difficult issue for someone who, as an ex-governor of Massachusetts, has to rally the anti-tax Republican right behind him.

Just look at how the Romney campaign reacted to the discussion about whether the result of not complying with the individual mandate in the health care law amounts to a penalty or a tax. Under the law, every American is required to buy health insurance. If someone is too poor to do it, the government will help. If someone does not want to do it, then that person has to pay a fee/penalty/tax take your pick.

Romneys chief spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom named it a fee, not a tax, echoing Romneys long-time script book ever since the candidate backed such a mandate when he was governor of Massachusetts. Asked whether Romney would side with Obama on that one, Ferhnstrom said: Thats correct. But two days later, Romney, in a rare TV interview, contradicted his spokesman by calling the mandate a tax. Thus, he belatedly fell in line with the rest of the party by saying that what the Supreme Court rules is the law of the land. And therefore the mandate is a tax, because the Supreme Court ruled it so.

This latest flip-flop brought Romney harsh criticism from the left and particularly from the right. The Washington Post wrote that Romney changed his mind because he would now be able to brand Obama a tax raiser. And the conservative Wall Street Journal judged that the Romney campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb. The Journal, a Romney ally, had let off some remarkable steam. Just days earlier, the papers owner, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, had openly voiced his anger and disappointment at Romney, stating that the candidates campaign advisers were slowly squandering an opportunity to beat Obama.

Another opportunity for Romney to pounce on Obama came last Friday, when the wimpy June unemployment numbers showed that economic recovery is still stagnant, at best. But while Obama was aggressively defending his record on a bus tour in the crucial swing state of Ohio, Romneys attack was standard campaign talk, predictable and uninspiring. On top of that, a pro-Obama group pushed a two-minute video they uncovered from a June 2006 press conference in which then-governor Romney basically sounds like Obama as he explains why he could not turn the economy around overnight. If you are going to suggest to me he told reporters back then, that somehow the day I got elected, somehow jobs should have immediately turned around, well that would be silly.

The only bright spot for Romney this weekend were the latest fund-raising numbers. His campaign and affiliated Republican committees raised more than $100 million in June, according to the Republican National Committee. That is Romneys best month of the 2012 campaign to date. His June haul easily trumps his previous fund-raising best. He pulled in $77 million in May, outdoing Obama for the first time in this campaign and forcing the President onto the defensive.

Copyright 2012 euronews

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Despite the “T” Word and Jobless Gloom – Romney is on the defensive

Wiggins, right, on Sunday. (Photo by James Startt)

Brad Wiggins has a point. But so do fans.

By Joe Lindsey

With apologies to FDJ-BigMat director Marc Madiot, the most emotional moment in Stage 8 of the 2012 Tour de France might not have been his dog-in-the-window screaming act for protg Thibaut Pinots stage win but race leader Brad Wiggins dropping the c-word in the post-race press conference.

Wiggins was asked what his response was to peopleparticularly on social media such as Twitterwho questioned whether the performances they saw in the Tour were free of doping.

Wiggins reply:

I say theyre just fucking wankers, Wiggins said. I cannot be doing with people like that. It justifies their own bone idleness because they cant imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.

Its easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of shit, Wiggins added, rather than get off their own arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something. And thats ultimately what counts. C**ts.

And with that, he tossed the microphone on the table and got up and left.

Wiggins has vacillated between calm moments and outbursts this year. Hes normally composed before the press, but he can be set off with the slightest provocation, at which point he turns particularly snarly.

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Of those, 53 per cent said the launch of social networking sites had changed their behaviour - and of those, 51 per cent said the impact had been negative.

The research also demonstrated the addictive powers of internet, with 55 per cent of people saying they felt "worried or uncomfortable" when they could not access their Facebook or email accounts.

More than 60 per cent of people said they felt compelled to turn off electronic gadgets in order to have a break, with one in three of those surveyed saying they switched the devices off several times each day.

The findings about behaviour changes after using social networking sites came from smaller in-depth research which was then carried out by Anxiety UK.

Nicky Lidbetter, the charity's chief executive said: "If you are predisposed to anxiety it seems that the pressures from technology act as a tipping point, making people feel more insecure and more overwhelmed."

She said the charity was surprised by the high proportion of people who found that the only way to ensure a break from the demands of their devices was to switch them off, as they were not capable of simply ignoring their mobile phones, BlackBerry devices and computers.

Dr Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist said many people suffered increased anxiety because they failed to take charge of the demands being placed on them.

She said: "I think one of the key things is that people have begun to behave as though technology is in control of them, instead of the other way round. We can switch the gadgets off but a lot of us have forgotten how to".

Last year, a global study found that turning off mobile phones, avoiding the internet and tuning out of the television and radio can leave people suffering from symptoms similar to those seen in drug addicts trying to go "cold turkey".

Scientists asked volunteers from 12 universities around the world to stay away from computers, mobile phones, iPods, television and radio for 24 hours.

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Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety, study finds

By STEVEN KURLANDER | Florida Voices Published: July 08, 2012 Updated: July 08, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Since appearing before Congress and lamenting the intolerance found in today's Republican Party, Jeb Bush is continuing to press his case, most recently in a National Review article titled "The Grand Solutions Party."

Bush argues that President Obama has governed from a "One Ideology, One Party, and One Man" perspective "a centralized, planned, command-and-control government."

Bush suggests Republicans present an alternative governing style, one that embraces "policy experimentation and fresh approaches" and presents the GOP as the "party of competing ideas."

"It is time for the Republican Party to offer an alternative. Not just an alternative to President Obama's agenda of liberal government, which is important to do. We need to present an alternative to his approach to governance in general. An approach that applies to every elected office."

For role models, Bush points to New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal and Indiana's Gov. Mitch Daniels. These leaders have successfully worked with Democrats on contentious issues, and have expressed divergent opinions on issues such as immigration and social policy.

"The animating force of this governance is diversity and creativity of thinking. And that is how the Republican Party should always be," Bush wrote.

While acknowledging that Republicans should continue to believe in an ideology that encompasses individual achievement and opportunity, and small government, he stressed that strict adherence to ideology is not always practical when attempting to resolve complicated issues.

"Thick black lines of ideology are good at keeping people in, but they are also good at keeping people out. And our party can't win if we keep people out. Our goal is not to assemble a small army of purists. We need a nation of converts. We have seen the other way of governing. It has had its day. It has made its best case. It has failed."

Yet Bush's advocacy for open discussion and tolerance only goes so far.

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Jeb should stop using 'Liberal' as dirty word

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