Register here:

One of the most common and alarming is bisphenol-A,better known as BPA. The failure to regulate it means that it is unavoidable. BPA is found in everything from plastics to canned food to A.T.M. receipts. More than 90 percent of Americans have it in their urine.

Even before the latest research showing multigeneration effects, studies had linked BPA to breast cancer and diabetes, as well as to hyperactivity, aggression and depression in children.

source: Big Chem, Big Harm? – NYTimes.com.

Here’s an excerpt:

A poll this spring by the Pew Economic Mobility Project underscored how minorities and whites see their divergent economic trajectories. Whites earning between $25,000 and $75,000 per year were more than twice as likely as blacks in the same income range—and nearly twice as likely as Latinos—to say they had already achieved the American Dream. A majority of Latinos and a plurality of African-Americans say they expect to be making enough money 10 years from now to live the lifestyle they desire. A majority of whites consider that a pipe dream.

Working-class whites, in other words, are already more prosperous and secure than working-class minorities, but they’re less optimistic because they don’t believe they’re climbing anymore. They’re simply trying to hold on to what they’ve got, and see others grabbing at it.

Thanks to Romney, they see minorities grabbing at their way of life every day and all day in the inaccurate welfare ad. It opens with a picture of Bill Clinton (a man obsessed with Macomb County and Reagan Democrats) signing the 1996 welfare reform act, which shifted the benefits from indefinite government assistance to one pushing people into employment and self-reliance.

source: Why (and How) Romney is Playing the Race Card – Ron Fournier – NationalJournal.com.

White working class voters already think the future is bleak and have the least affinity for the President so Romney/Ryan figures they can tell them that Barack Obama’s welfare queens and strapping young bucks are the ones who are going to make that bleak future come true.

The welfare waiver came in response to a request from GOP governors, and objections to it first resided deep in the land of conservative think tanks. Romney rolled out this strategy — and the Medicare one — only after polls seemed to be showing Obama with a small but persistent lead despite months of Romney attacks over the economy.

At any rate, Fournier has confirmed from GOP strategists that angering blue collar whites is the goal of this strategy. We also know that the GOP has a history of using race-based messaging to appeal to this constituency. And we know Romney probably can’t win unless he pushes his white vote totals to record levels — hence the pollster’s claim that these attacks could make a difference on the margins.

source: Ron Fournier: Romney is playing a racial game – The Plum Line – The Washington Post.

A guy like Romney is literally thinking: “what’s a little racial resentment between white working class voters and black people when there’s an election to win?”

Okay, That’s the Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard | TPM Editors Blog.

Chuck Todd ‘s moment of insanity: “Democrats wish they had the diversity of speakers and deep bench [of the GOP] to show America …”

Democrats don’t need to show America our diversity all of a sudden. We already have it in people’s neighborhoods all the time.

The CHC, CBC and CAPAC are all mostly dems. That’s Hispanic, Asian and black caucuses.

The first LGBT mayor of a major city? Democrat. Woman Senators? Democrats have more than double the Republicans at this time.

Democratic US Reps? Many more Dems. Not to mention Minority Leader Pelosi and James Clyburn is in leadership.

The only place I see Republicans leading is in the space of female governors and that includes some real gems like Jan Brewer and Nikki Haley. Democrats numbers suffer because like any administration they asked some Dems to vacate their governorship to serve the current administration (Obama pulled Janet Napolitano (DHS) and Kathleen Sebelius (DHHS)) out of their governorship to serve the White House).

Now can we all work on electing more women to executive offices? Yes. Should we have more diversity in the senate? Yes. But is there in some way a dearth of diversity in the Democratic party compared to the Republican party? Hell no.

There may be another reason there is an over-orchestrated show of party diversity at the RNC:

Carroll said no one took the names of the attendees who threw peanuts at her Tuesday on the convention floor and told her, “This is what we feed animals.” She alerted fellow camera operators, producers and CNN security. The head of the delegation — she was not certain of the state — told her the perpetrators must have been alternates, not delegates.

But Carroll, 34, said that as an Alabama native, she was not surprised. “This is Florida, and I’m from the Deep South,” she said. “You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don’t think I should do.”

Carroll noted of the Republican convention, “There are not that many black women there.”

She said she wanted to thank CNN, which “has been behind me 100 percent.” Although she was stationed on the floor next to Fox News, she was not operating the camera at the time. The perpetrators “didn’t know what I was doing. I happened to be standing there,” near one of the delegations.