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    Politico's Joe Williams explains why the vice president is focusing his attacks on Mitt Romney's record.

    Joe Biden sounds like he's had enough of Mitt Romney's attitude.  He flew to the bread basket of the 2012 election

    The vice president launched a blistering attack on the GOP argument that Democrats hope to sow "envy" between the middle class and the wealthy in a sometimes fiery speech at a manufacturing facility in Youngstown, Ohio.  

    "I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in," the vice president told a crowd of about 600.  "I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy, that's it's job envy, it's wealth envy. That we don't dream.

    "My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams!" he said to mounting applause. "They don't get us! They don't get who we are."

    Echoing the campaign's new TV ad hitting Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital, Biden accused the GOP presumptive nominee of gutting companies without regard for hundreds of employees who lost their jobs and benefits when they were shuttered.

    "Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost," Biden said, taking no prisoners. "And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue, man. So what do you think he'll do as President?"

    Biden argued that jobs in eastern Ohio are returning, highlighting the campaign's focus on revitalizing the manufacturing industry.

    "You know the difference between an economy that's built on making things rather than on collateralized debt, creative credit default-swaps, financial instruments subprime mortgages," he said. "That's not how you grow an economy."

    Biden also promoted the Obama administration's widely popular decision to bail out the auto industry three years ago.  One in eight jobs in Ohio are related to the auto industry. 

    "Folks, as you've begun to see in the Valley, things really are starting to come back. There are signs of hope in the heartland," the vice president said. "Jobs are starting to come back. And the ones that are coming back are the kind you can build a middle class life on. Manufacturing jobs."

    He re-enforced his point with this tweet:

     

     

  • 'ED Show' playbook: Tue., May 15

    CNBC's Mary Thompson attended the meeting as JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon apologized yet again.

    Protesters storm the J.P. Morgan Chase shareholders meeting but Jamie Dimon, who lost $2 billion bucks, will still stay on as CEO.  And Mitt Romney calls for the repeal of Dodd-Frank, the only thing standing between your bank account and another economic meltdown.         

    Former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) saw it all coming, and he’ll join Ed (who reports tonight from Washington, D.C.) for reaction and analysis.

    Meanwhile, Romney warns of a "prairie fire of debt" during a campaign stop in Iowa.  But Ed will remind him who started that prairie fire with MSNBC Political Analyst Richard Wolffe.  And check out this excellent chart:

    The mayor of cable news, Bill O’Reilly, is trying to fool "the folks" again, saying there’s no such thing as income inequality.  Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee Chairman, former presidential candidate and the founder of Democracy for America, and some Big Eddie charts will set him straight.  

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  • Republican congressman thinks it's okay to fire someone because they are gay

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    Republican Congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma doesn't think a law should be passed banning discrimination towards LGBT employees.

    In a sidewalk interview with Think Progress, Lankford explained that homosexuality is a choice, unlike race or gender.

    "Race and sexual preferences are two different things. One is behavior related, preference related. One is something inherently, skin color, something obvious, that kind of stuff," Lankford said. "You don't walk up to someone on the street and look at them and say gay or straight."

    He also added that he doesn't believe that some is born gay.

    Apparently, Lankford didn't get the memo from  the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. Both medical organizations have said that homosexuality  is not a choice.

  • Obama on JPMorgan debacle: 'This is why we passed Wall Street reform'

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    When JPMorgan Chase sheepishly announced last week that it had taken a $2 billion loss on risky derivatives trading, it underlined the fact that nearly four years after a crisis that nearly toppled the global financial system, we still haven't done nearly enough to make sure it can't happen again.

    “JPMorgan is one of the best-managed banks there is," President Obama declared on ABC's The View, in footage that aired Monday evening. "Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we've got, and they still lost $2 billion ... This is why we passed Wall Street reform.”

    But has Wall Street reform solved the problem? "There's nothing to stop Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase from going right back down the same road and doing this all over again tomorrow," Ed Schultz noted on The Ed Show Monday night. "Because it's perfectly legal."

    Wasn't the financial reform legislation of 2010 -- better known as the Dodd-Frank law -- supposed to end this kind of hazardous trading? 

    Bart Chilton, Commodity Futures Trading Commission explained on The Ed Show that the problem is that many of the law's specific regulations haven't yet been drawn up -- a task that falls to the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory agencies.

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  • Dubya endorses Mitt as elevator door closes

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    AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

    President Bush, right, shakes hands Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign fundraising event in Boston Thursday, March 25, 2004.

    Finally, Mitt Romney got the endorsement he's been waiting for most all these months!

    "I'm for Mitt Romney," former President George W. Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him following a speech he delivered at a human rights forum a block from the White House.

    There you have it: with four words, you have the most-prized endorsement possible if you're running for the GOP presidential nomination.

    But where's the press release? Where's the big photo op?  Where's the handshake?  Romney did all those things with the likes of Donald Trump.  Watch it:

    As Dana Carvey use to say while imitating Bush's father, "not gonna do it."  Watch it:

    Why?  Because Bush still has a long, long way to go to improve his legacy.  

    In three major surveys since he left office in 2009, Bush is ranked anywhere from the fifth-worst (by the Siena Research Institute) to the tenth-worst (United States Presidency Centre in London) U.S. president ever.  Siena gave Bush poor ratings for his handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence. 

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  • 'ED Show' playbook: Mon., May 14

    Ed is back after a three-day weekend and he's already on Scott Walker's case again.

    A new video of the Wisconsin governor telling a billionaire donor about his plan to "divide and conquer" labor might land him in hot water with Congress, in addition to the June 5 recall election.

    And speaking of which, The Washington Post reports national Democrats aren't helping the state party to defeat Walker.  Mike Tate, Chair of The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, talks about what he’s running up against.

    The victims of Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalism are speaking out in a new Obama campaign ad.  Ed will speak to one of Bain’s victims, Dave Foster, the former union representative for laid off workers at GST Steel.

    JP Morgan’s $2 billion mistake proves Republicans just don't get it.  Bart Chilton, Commissioner of the Consumer Futures Trading Commission, comments on the regulation we need to stop another disaster.  

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  • Parents of unarmed black teen raises concerns about son's death

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    AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

    This is a case that may remind you of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

    On March 24, 2012, an unarmed black teen was shot seven times by police in Pasadena, California, while running away from a man claiming he and a juvenile friend had allegedly tried to rob him.  

    Kendrec McDade, 19, died the next day.  

    McDade’s death has pitted the black community in Pasadena against the police department and prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit by the McDade family alleging police bias against blacks in the city.

    First, the 911 caller admitted to lying about about being robbed by two males with guns so he could get a quicker police response.

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  • Tennessee sex ed bans mentioning 'gateway sexual activity' including kissing, hand-holding

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    Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) has signed a bill that would punish teachers if they discussed “gateway sexual activity” in the classroom.

    The amendment describes gateway sexual activity as "sexual contact encouraging an individual to engage in a non-abstinent behavior,” and critics say the language is too broad.

    While the bill is meant to stop teachers from talking about groping and oral sex, the bill’s broad language could ban discussions on hand-holding or kissing.

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