Racial incident at the RNC: An attendee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last night threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN and said, “This is how we feed animals,” before being removed from the convention, TPM reports. The news network said in a statement,“CNN can 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.” It is not clear whether the alleged nut thrower was a delegate or someone else attending the convention.
Raucous roll call: Mitt Romney officially clinched the Republican nomination yesterday after a roll call vote of GOP delegates. It was not without drama, however, as Rep. Ron Paul supporters loudly disrupted the vote, upsetting the tightly choreographed pageantry of the convention.
Texas discrimination: A federal court has found evidence of discrimination in Texas’ voting maps drawn by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature, a ruling the state plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The District Court in Washington, D.C., found the map violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because some districts that were made to look like they were Hispanic-dominated would actually favor white voters and candidates. Black and Hispanic groups who had protested the new map, drawn after the decennial census, praised the decision.
Platform shift: “The Republican Party, viewed through its quadrennial platform documents, is consistently business-oriented and committed to a strong defense, but has morphed over the past half-century from a socially moderate, environmentally progressive and fiscally cautious group to a conservative party that is suspicious of government, allied against abortion and motivated by faith,” the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher notes. Influenced by the rise of Tea Party activists, this year’s platform has shifted even further to the right, with right-wing hobbyhorse ideas like a call to audit of the Federal Reserve and a commission to study returning to the gold standard, along with social conservative issues like a no-exception ban on abortion and prohibition of gay marriage.
Bain of Romney's existence: Among the thousands of words mentioned yesterday at the Republican National Convention, one phrase was notably absent: Bain Capital. The Huffington Post reports, "Not a single speaker was heard mentioning the name of the private equity firm founded by the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney ... It shows how toxic Bain has become for the former Massachusetts governor after sustaining attacks both from fellow Republicans during a vicious primary race and more recently from President Barack Obama's campaign, which highlighted Bain's investment in companies that sent American jobs overseas."
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