The Obama campaign is using a shelved plan by billionaire Joe Ricketts to blanket the airwaves with ads featuring Rev. Jeremiah Wright to rile up its supporters into donating to the campaign.

“This is going to be worse than we could have imagined. President Obama needs your help to stop it before it starts,” a fundraising e-mail from campaign manager Jim Messina reads.

The complete message below:

A 54-page, $10 million proposal by top Republican strategists titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama” shows in vivid and gruesome detail what the President and all of us are up against.

The proposal laments that voters “still aren’t ready to hate this president” but lays out a plan to portray him as “slick” and “cocky” – and notes that they need to hire an “extremely literate conservative African-American” to insulate against charges of racism.

It says the President ran as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln” and includes plans to spend millions on inflammatory TV ads using everything from Rev. Jeremiah Wright to images of the September 11th attacks to show the truth about Obama’s alleged secret plan to destroy America.

In the words of one of these guys, they want to “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do” in the last election. And the plan was for it to be financed by a single billionaire.

This is going to be worse than we could have imagined. President Obama needs your help to stop it before it starts.

Pitch in today to fight these attacks and show them this only makes us stronger:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Help-Fight-Back

Thanks,

Messina

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

The U.S. Commerce Department today announced that it was imposing high tariffs - more than 31 percent - on solar panels imported from China, reports the New York Times:

The anti-dumping decision is one of the largest in American history, covering one of the largest and fastest-growing categories of imports from China, the world’s largest exporter. The department said the United States bought $3.1 billion worth of Chinese solar cells last year, giving China more than half the American market for the devices.

Americans Elect, the independent group founded by centrist political strategists and dedicated to drafting a third party candidate into the presidential race, will not choose a nominee at all this year. Its online primary process was hampered by a lack of interest, producing too few votes to meet their own threshold to select a candidate. 

Here’s the statement from the group announcing the decision: 

There is a desire among Delegates and millions of Americans who have supported Americans Elect to see a credible candidate emerge from this process.

However, the rules, as developed in consultation with the Americans Elect Delegates, are clear. As of this week, no candidate achieved the national support threshold required to enter the Americans Elect Online Convention in June. The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end.

Americans Elect, from the outset, has been a rules-based process, with the rules publicly available and open to debate by the Delegates. Our key priorities have been to: 1) honor the trust Americans Elect has built with the Delegates and American public; 2) require candidates to earn the nomination by building support among the Americans Elect Delegate community and American voters; and 3) create a basis for a solid future for the Americans Elect movement.

This decision honors these priorities.

Through the efforts of thousands of staffers, volunteers and leadership, Americans Elect has achieved its operational goals, including:
·       Creating a pathway for nationwide ballot access for a balanced presidential ticket
        unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party to compete in the
        2012 race;
·       Building the technological platform for the first nonpartisan secure national online
        primary at AmericansElect.org;
·       Attracting a significant base of more than 4 million supporters, including Delegates,
        petition signers and volunteers;
·       Educating the national and local media on the Americans Elect mission; and
·       Finishing an extensive candidate briefing program involving more than 100
        potential candidates.

As always, we thank everyone who has helped build this organization and are grateful for the work, efforts, and trust so many people have placed in Americans Elect. We are continuing the Americans Elect mission of creating more choice in our political system, giving candidates unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party an authentic way to run for office and giving the American people a greater voice in our political process.

Republican pollster Whit Ayres, named in a New York Times report of a plan devised by a billionire donor and GOP strategists to orchestrate an attack ad based on President Obama’s past connections to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, denied to TPM that he was involved in formulating the plan.

“I will say that the NYT assertion that I was involved in preparing the proposal is flat wrong, and neither reporter called to verify that before printing it,” Ayres wrote in an email.

Embattled JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is expected to be called in to testify before the Senate Committee on Banking, according to Reuters.

Under fierce criticism for renouncing his citizenship in time to avoid paying taxes on a major windfall, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin issued the following statement on Thursday.

The statement in full, sent to TPM by his spokesman Tom Goodman:

My decision to expatriate was based solely on my interest in working and living in Singapore, where I have been since 2009.  I am obligated to and will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government. I have paid and will continue to pay any taxes due on everything I earned while a U.S. citizen. It is unfortunate that my personal choice has led to a public debate, based not on the facts, but entirely on speculation and misinformation.

As a native of Brazil who immigrated to the United States, I am very grateful to the U.S. for everything it has given me. In 2004, I invested my life’s savings into a start-up company that initially was run out of a college dorm room.  Since then the company has expanded dramatically, has created thousands of jobs in the United States and elsewhere, and spawned countless new companies across the United States and other countries.

I will continue to invest in U.S. businesses and start-ups, and believe and hope that those investments will create many new jobs in the U.S. and globally. I also hope that these investments will create opportunities for many other individuals to start companies and benefit society.

In a filing with the SEC today, Wal-Mart said it has been informed by the SEC and the DOJ of investigations into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, related to the company’s bribery in Mexico scandal. 

“The Company could be exposed to a variety of negative consequences as a result of the matters noted above. There could be one or more enforcement actions in respect of the matters that are the subject of some or all of the ongoing government investigations, and such actions, if brought, may result in judgments, settlements, fines, penalties, injunctions, cease and desist orders or other relief, criminal convictions and/or penalties,” the filing said. The investigations and related lawsuits filed by shareholders are in their early stages, but Wal-Mart said “the Company can provide no assurance that these matters will not be material to its business in the future.”

Embattled JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at a private meeting in March, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The topic? The Volcker rule.

The logs also show that JPMorgan executives attended two other meetings that same month. Volcker was also on the table at another Treasury session the same day, this one a larger meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary Lance Auer that also included representatives with other groups such as Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

Bruno Iksil, the official at the center of the JP Morgan trading debacle also known as the ‘London whale’, is said to be leaving the bank according to the New York Times.

Director Robert Mueller today confirmed that the FBI is investigating who leaked information about Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s latest underwear bomb plot, the Associated Press reports. 

Lawmakers from both parties have called for an investigation into the leaks, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had ordered an internal review of the 16 agencies he oversees. 

President Obama will issue an executive order today that will allow the Treasury Department to freeze the U.S.-based assets of anyone who “obstructs” the political transition in Yemen, The Washington Post reports. 

Administration officials said the order will also apply to U.S. citizens. One official said it is designed as a “deterrent” to “make clear to those who are even thinking of spoiling the transition” to think again, the Post reports.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s move to drop his U.S. citizenship will save him at least $67 million in federal income taxes, according to a Bloomberg analysis. That figure will go up if Facebook’s stocks rise. From Bloomberg:

Bloomberg calculated the $67 million figure by applying the 15 percent U.S. capital gains rate to the approximate $448 million spread between the two values [of Saverin’s stake in the company]. Bloomberg’s methodology was reviewed by Robert Willens, an independent tax adviser based in New York.

Saverin’s spokesman, Tom Goodman, told Bloomberg “the calculations and assumptions are not only erroneous, they also further perpetuate the false impression that tax was the reason behind Eduardo’s decision.”

After failing to strike a deal to form a coalition earlier this week, Greek leaders have announced that the country will hold elections on June 17.  

Per the Wall Street Journal:

Greek depositors withdrew €700 million ($898 million) from local banks Monday, the country’s president said, as he warned that the situation facing Greece’s lenders was very difficult.

Newly sworn in French President Francois Hollande’s plane was hit by lightning en route to Germany. Hollande’s plane was forced to turn back to Paris, so the president could get on another plane back to Berlin, the BBC reports.

Greece’s Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos says the country is heading for new elections after coalition talks failed, the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press report.

The AP reports:

NATO says it will invite Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari to the alliance’s summit in Chicago, after the country’s foreign minister proposed reopening its Afghan border to NATO military supplies.

Rebekah and Charlie Brooks released the following statement after the pair learned they will face charges of perverting the court of justice:

We have this morning been informed by the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions that we are to be charged with perverting the course of justice.

We deplore this weak and unjust decision.

After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS we will respond later today after our return from the police station.

The New York Times reports:

Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported.

Press TV, a satellite broadcaster, identified the man as Majid Jamali Fashi and said he had been convicted of killing the scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, in January 2010. The scientist was a 50-year-old professor at Tehran University whose role in Tehran’s nuclear program was unclear. At the time of his death, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said he had no role at all in the nuclear program.

Facebook on Monday raised the price for its initial public offering to $34 to $38 a share, the Wall Street Journal reports. That’s up from $28 to $35 a share, and raises the company’s valuation to $104 billion. Facebook shares are expected to start trading later this week.

Francois Hollande was sworn in as president of France on Tuesday, becoming the country’s first Socialist president in 17 years, Reuters reports.

“I will set the priorities but I will not decide for everyone, on everything and (be) everywhere,” Hollande said in his inaugural speech.

Hollande will later fly to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Rebekah Brooks, former News of the World editor and News International chief executive, is being charged with conspiracy to “pervert the course of justice” by attempting to hide evidence from police in Britain’s phone-hacking scandal. 

Brooks’ husband, Charlie Brooks, will face similar charges, along with Brooks’ former assistant, chauffeur and two members of News International’s security staff.

These are the first charges made since police began their latest phone-hacking inquiry in Jan. 2011.

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Chile Monday morning knocked out electricity in some areas and has shaken down walls, the Associated Press reports. So far there are no reports of injuries.

Reuters reports:

Greece’s president met little enthusiasm from political leaders summoned to a final round of talks on Monday to avert a new election, reinforcing fears the country was firmly on the path to bankruptcy and an exit from the euro zone.

European shares slid and Spanish and Italian bond yields rose as the political deadlock threatened to reignite the euro zone debt crisis. Greek banking stocks tumbled 7 percent.

The Associated Press reports:

A plane crashed into a mountain in the Himalayas while trying to land at an airport in northern Nepal on Monday, killing 15 people and critically injuring six.

The plane was turning around to land at Jomsom Airport when it crashed, said Laxmi Raj Sharma, chief government administrator in the area.

Ina Drew, one of the top women on Wall Street, is expected to resign from JPMorgan Chase today after overseeing the London office responsible for the bank’s stunning $2 billion loss, the New York Times reports:

Ina Drew, a 55-year-old banker who has worked at the company for three decades and is the chief investment officer, has offered to resign and will step aside Monday, said several bank executives who would not speak publicly because the resignations had not been completed.

Her exit would be a precipitous fall for a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Dimon. Last year, Ms. Drew earned roughly $14 million, making her the bank’s fourth-highest-paid officer. From her desk in Manhattan, she oversaw the London office that assembled the trade, a growing unit that oversees a portfolio of nearly $400 billion. Two traders who worked for Ms. Drew are also likely to leave shortly. Ms. Drew was not available for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Achilles Macris, who was responsible for the London trading in question, and trader Javier Martin-Artajo will also resign.

Mitt Romney’s sometimes hawkish foreign policy positions are often at odds with the recommendations of several foreign policy advisers, reports the New York Times. Romney’s circle of foreign policy advisers offers a variety of opinions, but Romney tends to go with the more neoconservatives in the group. 

One example from the Times article of an instance where Romney is at odds with some of his advisers is Romney’s assertion that the U.S. should not negotiate with the Taliban, even though many in his circle have argued publicly for negotations. From the Times:

It was just one example of what Mr. Romney’s advisers call a perplexing pattern: Dozens of subtle position papers flow through the candidate’s policy shop and yet seem to have little influence on Mr. Romney’s hawkish-sounding pronouncements, on everything from war to nuclear proliferation to the trade-offs in dealing with China. In the Afghanistan case, “none of us could quite figure out what he was advocating,” one of Mr. Romney’s advisers said. He insisted on anonymity — as did a half-dozen others interviewed over the past two weeks — because the Romney campaign has banned any discussion of the process by which the candidate formulates his positions.

“It begged the obvious question,” the adviser added. “Do we stay another decade? How many forces, and how long, does that take? Do we really want to go into the general election telling Americans that we should stay a few more years to eradicate the whole Taliban movement?” 

The Times article also notes that while Romney usually comes down on the side of his neoconservative advisers more in line with former ambassador John Bolton, Romney is also reluctant to get into the specifics of his positions.

“There are two very different worldviews in this campaign,” said one adviser who aligns more often with Mr. Bolton. “But as in any campaign, there are outer circles, inner circles and inner-inner circles, and I’m not sure that anyone knows if the candidate has a strong view of his own on this.” Another adviser, saying he would be “cashiered” if the campaign caught him talking to a reporter without approval, said the real answer was that “Romney doesn’t want to really engage these issues until he is in office” and for now was “just happy to leave the impression that when Obama says he’ll stop an Iranian bomb he doesn’t mean it, and Mitt does.”

A new statement from Yahoo begins:

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Yahoo! Inc.(NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced that the Board of Directors has namedFred Amorosoas Chairman of the Board of Directors andRoss Levinsohnas interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. The Company also announced that its Board has reached an agreement withThird Point LLC(“Third Point”) to settle its pending proxy contest related to the Company’s 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.

Mr. AmorosoreplacesRoy Bostock, who has stepped down from his role as Non-Executive Chairman in order to accelerate the leadership transition for the new Board.Mr. LevinsohnreplacesScott Thompson, former Chief Executive Officer, who has left the Company.      

Read the full statement here.

At All Things D, Kara Swisher reports:

Yahoo’s embattled CEO Scott Thompson (pictured here) is set to step down from his job at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, in what will be dramatic end to a controversy over a fake computer science degree that he had on his bio, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

The company will apparently say he is leaving for “personal reasons.”

Read Swisher’s full report here.

Following the news of a $2 billion plus trading loss, ratings agency Fitch has downgraded JP Morgan to ’A+’ from ‘AA-‘, reports Business Insider.

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire 30-year-old co-founder of Facebook who was pushed out of the company under the guidance of his friend and fellow co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, has renounced his U.S. citizenship, Saverin’s spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg Businessweek:

“Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” said Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, in an e-mailed statement.

Foxconn, the massive, Taiwanese global electronics manufacturer criticized for inhumane working conditions at its Chinese factories, is preparing to start assembling a new, long-rumored Apple HD TV set dubbed “iTV,” Foxconn president Terry Gou told China Daily on Friday.

The new product will contain some familiar Apple touches, according to the report, including Apple’s Siri voice-activated personal digital assistant software, FaceTime, its video-chat product, and the same aluminum body construction seen now on Apple Mac computers. 

Further, Apple and Foxconn’s recent investment in Japanese electronics giant Sharp will play a role in the new device, according to Gou. Neither he or China Daily provided an estimated release date, pricing or other availability information.

(H/T: TechCrunch) 

Michele Bachmann’s office says the congresswoman has withdrawn her dual Swiss citizenship, MinnPost’s Devin Henry reports.

“I took this action because I want to make it perfectly clear: I was born in America and I am a proud American citizen,” Bachmann said, according to Henry’s report.

The double-agent who foiled Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s recent underwear bomb plot is a “British national of Middle Eastern origin,” MSNBC reports. 

Sources tell the network that British intelligence was ”heavily involved” in recruiting the agent.

Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of the mobile photo sharing app Instagram could be stymied by an antitrust investigation into the deal, the Financial Times reports.

Facebook and the FTC declined to comment on the possibility of an investiagtion when asked by TPM. 

“FTC Investigations are non-public with a narrow exception that would not be met in this case, so I can neither confirm nor deny any investigation,” an FTC spokesperson told TPM.

Microsoft’s dogged competitor to Google Search, Bing, will be receiving a fairly radical redesign in the coming days, which includes a whole new section of “social search” results – stuff posted by a user’s friends on social networks that are related to the user’s search query of the moment.

The social search component, called Sidebar, pulls in information from a variety of social networks, including Facebook (into which Microsoft has a substantial investment), Twitter, Foursquare, even competitor Google Plus. Users can also comment directly on their friends’ content in the Sidebar itself.

Microsoft reportedly received help from Facebook engineers and advice from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the new social search component, according to CNET.

Watch a video on the new Bing here: 

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that assembles many of the world’s most popular electronics, including Apple’s iPhone and iPad, has promised to improve much-criticized working conditions at its Chinese factories. Not only that, but Apple, which came under fire for allowing the grim working conditions under its nose, will share a portion of the cost, according to Foxconn president Terry Gou, Reuters reports.

No specific dates or cost amounts were given, let alone how the costs will be shared, but Apple certainly has enough money to pay for all of the work, if it so wanted. The Cupertino, California-based company has been the world’s most valuable for months now, worth over $500 billion with at least $65 billion cash on hand, even after promising to buyback shares and pay investor dividends.

Pebble, the little, smartphone-connecting digital watch that could, has finally reached the end of its record-breaking fundraising effort on the website Kickstarter. The numbers: $10.16 million raised overall from 66,435 backers, with over 85,000 of the watches promised. 

Pebble actually had 8 more days left to raise funds, but closed its drive early to be able to keep production of the watches aligned with a September 2012 target ship date. More third-pary apps for the watch are expected, too. 

Meanwhile, those who didn’t secure a watch by donating funds can still get their hands on one after they go on retail pre-order May 18, according to Pebble. The watch will sell for $150 and up, and buyers are supposed to receive them sometime after the Kickstarter donors watches ship.

Now the question remains whether Pebble can scale up its small, startup operation to meet the incredible demand for it watch, which connects to smartphones via Bluetooth and displays selected information, such as texts, tweets and other alerts.