Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of July 19, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.

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1. Bane, Bain, and Rush Limbaugh (link)

On Wednesday's show Rush Limbaugh attempted to walk back his comments from Tuesday about a possible connection between The Dark Knight Rises villain Bane and Mitt Romney's time at Bain. According to Politico on Tuesday Limbaugh said:

“The villain in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is named Bane, B-a-n-e,” Limbaugh said. “What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012, for a long time.”

“Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire-breathing, four-eyed whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane?” the conservative talker asked rhetorically.

He went on to say a lot of “brain-dead” people would go see the movie.

“The thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain — Romney and Bain — that these people will think back to the Batman movie, ‘Oh, yeah, I know who that is,’” he said on Tuesday. “There are some people who think it’ll work.”

Many took Limbaugh's comments to mean that the movie was some kind of conspiracy to take down Romney. Even when I heard it I rolled my eyes and just hoped that Rush was joking. Bane appeared in the Batman comics years ago and people have known that Bane would be in this movie for at least 2 years. On Wednesday, Limbaugh set out to clarify what he meant:

“I never said that the villain was created by the comic book character creator to be part of the 2012 campaign,” Limbaugh said, referring to Bane, who debuted in 1993. “I never said that at all. And everybody’s out there running around, thinking I got this giant conspiracy.… I didn’t say there was a conspiracy. I said the Democrats were going to use it.”

Listen, I don't know where Rush was trying to go with this on Tuesday, but it's just silly to think that there is any connection between Bane, Bain, and Mitt Romney. There isn't. This is just a movie and the character has been around for years. Anyone who thinks that The Dark Knight movie is an attempt at trying to bring down Romney needs to unplug and relax.

As a side note, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie on Friday.

2. Christie Will Speak (link)

NJ Governor Chris Christie will be speaking at the GOP convention it appears and I think it's an excellent idea. According to the NY Post:

The word is going out quietly to Republican activists across New Jersey: If you’re going to the GOP convention in Tampa next month, be sure to be there by Tuesday night, Aug. 28, because Gov. Chris Christie is going to be giving the keynote speech that night.

“We’ve been told that’s the night to be there, that’s when the governor is going to speak. They’re saying he’s the keynoter,” one top party activist told The Post yesterday.

Christie will fire up the Republicans that's for sure and will again put him in the spotlight for a future run for President.

3. Mitt Romney is Mad... Finally (link)

Mitt Romney is finally mad about something. It's about time we see him go after Obama.

The spark, for Romney, was Obama's now-famous comment Friday in which he suggested businesses owe their success to government investment. While Romney has bounced among various themes in recent weeks, his speech to a Pennsylvania crowd Tuesday and then to the Ohio crowd Wednesday zeroed in on that quote as illustrating a singular difference between his attitude toward the economy and Obama's.

"This is the height of foolishness. It shows how out of touch he is with the character of America," Romney said in Ohio. "When you attack success ... you will see under this president less success."

Romney accused Obama of trying to "diminish" individual achievement. Before he launched into his stump speech, Romney asked members of the audience Wednesday to raise their hands if they run a business. "Take that, Mr. President," Romney said after the hands went up.

Romney  earlier described the comments as "stunning" and revealing" and argued they played into a larger narrative of Obama "changing the nature of America," calling his policies "extraordinarily foreign."

Do you think Obama will end up regretting his comments?

4. Adam Carolla Sounds Off On Obama's Class Warfare (link) **Warning: Language**

Everything Adam Carolla says in this audio clip is dead on.

Ultimately, Carolla said, the president is simply attempting to pit the haves against the have-nots, and that’s “ridiculous.”

“This notion of taking people that have something — it doesn’t matter what it is and then taking the larger majority of people that don’t have what that is and that is a Rolls-Royce, or it could be a house on the hill or it could be whatever, an entourage, whatever — a successful small business and then trying to enlist those people and somehow feeling that that person that did what they did to get where they are is a bad person or a lucky person, or we should all be in their places instead is a ridiculous message to send and it’s the exact opposite message of this country.”

Yes, some people work harder than others. It happens. Often times, those people get the rewards. Some people are paid because of their talents. It happens. Obama and the Democrats just love class warfare.

5. Dumb Story of the Morning (link)

The ACLU is at it again. This time defending al Qaeda.

Two civil rights groups sued the CIA director, the defense secretary and two military commanders over two covert U.S. strikes that killed three Americans in Yemen last year.

The operations killed radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, editor of a Jihadist online publication.

The two groups - the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights - filed the lawsuit on behalf of the parents of Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.

It claims the strikes that killed the three men violated their constitutional rights because the targeted attacks "rely on vague legal standards, a closed executive process and evidence never presented to the courts," according to the complaint filed in D.C. federal court this morning.

"It's about accountability," said Jameel Jaffers, the ACLU deputy director. "If the government is claiming the power, as it seems to be, to kill any American who is deemed to be a national security threat without judicial review of any kind, then we believe the government has an obligation to explain its actions."

But in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a major figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Justice Department said it is justified.

He was linked to the plot of the so-called "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab and alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, and the Justice Department says there is a legal framework in place that makes going to the courts unnecessary.

Yeah, I'm with the Government on this one. Once you join al Qaeda, you're done.

Guests Appearing on Today’s LFN:

7:37am: Dave Taylor, Home Repair

8:07am: Tom Leppert

Other Top Stories:

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

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