In an exclusive interview with Natalie Morales of NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams, Ann Romney defended her husband and his campaign for not releasing more tax returns. Mrs. Romney told Morales, "We have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. But the more we release, the more we get attacked. The more we get questioned, the more we get pushed. And so we have done what is legally required and there's going to be no more... tax releases given."

Ann Romney's choice of the word "transparent" to describe the Romney campaign doing "what's legally required" is likely to do more to reignite criticism against her husband than quell the flames.

We'll have more on tonight's edition of The Last Word.

The clip above is from the Kickstarter page for a mobile game called "The Crate Escape: Seamus Unleashed." The game, amazingly, is exactly what it sounds like. A smartphone/tablet adventure in which the player gets to be the Romney family's famous-for-getting-strapped-to-the-top-of-the-car pooch. Yes, really. In the game, your goal is to free Seamus from his crate and help him navigate obstacles as he rides atop the Romney's car.

I want to again stress that this is a real game that is really in the works. It is not a spoof of any sort.

And the newest amazing detail about this game is that the '80s band, Devo (yes, the guys in funny hats who sang "Whippet" "Whip It") have recorded a song to accompany the game called "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro! (Remember Seamus)." The Washington Post reports that the song is being released later this month to coincide with National Dog Day. The song release will also come just before the Republican National Convention starts.

You can hear a preview of a full version of Devo's Seamus song on Amazon, here by clicking play, below. It's amazingly ridiculous in the best way possible.

Again, this is all completely true information.

ht @FixAaron

Colbert: “So daring! I mean, white, Christian and male? That’s a triple threat of not threatening to me.”

Awesome. Click the video for more.

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One of this year's biggest blockbusters, The Avengers, comes out on BluRay and DVD next month. If you're like me, and I know I am, I'll be buying it immediately.

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But for those of you who really can't wait, you can go on the Internets and probably find a way to get your mitts on a bootleg. For example, this Chinese bootleg floating around now. But the fun thing about this particular bootleg is the really, really, really bad translation you get when using the English subtitles.

Plenty more after the jump...

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See them all at Bileto's Tumblr page.

ht io9

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Will Romney pick Ryan (seen here below the red arrow)?

Last night, we examined the possibility of a Romney-Ryan ticket and what the dynamic would be between the two men if they teamed up together.

And today, the Wall Street Journal came out for that idea in a glowing editorial. It reads, in part:

The case for Mr. Ryan is that he best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election. More than any other politician, the House Budget Chairman has defined those stakes well as a generational choice about the role of government...

Against the advice of every Beltway bedwetter, he has put entitlement reform at the center of the public agenda—before it becomes a crisis that requires savage cuts... He represents the GOP's new generation of reformers that includes such Governors as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and New Jersey's Chris Christie.

As important, Mr. Ryan can make his case in a reasonable and unthreatening way. He doesn't get mad, or at least he doesn't show it. Like Reagan, he has a basic cheerfulness and Midwestern equanimity.

Has the Republican party found its new Reagan? It seems The Wall Street Journal's editorial board may think so.

It's simple addition... hot summer day + water park + video camera + corgi = adorable

ht Gawker

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Romney on Monday in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Is the reason Mitt Romney won't put out his taxes that Mitt Romney has waited too long to release his taxes?

Zeke Miller writes for Buzzfeed, today:

With less than three months to election day, the Romney campaign has passed the "point of no return," as one Republican operative close to the campaign put it, beyond which there isn't enough time for the media to digest the tax returns before the public starts to pay attention to the race.

"The complaining for more and more returns and the stories about how rich he is get old after a few weeks, but there aren't a few weeks left," the operative said. "Now we've got to keep doing what we're doing and hope it isn't too painful."

You can read the entire report here.

Now that Mitt Romney's new BFF is Texas Tea Party Senate candidate Ted Cruz, Romney's campaign has released a new ad targeting Texas and its large concentration of Latino voters. The ad, called "These Hands: Texas," is again using the Romney campaign's selective understanding of what has been dubbed by the right as President Obama's "you didn't build that" moment. 

REUTERS/Jason Reed

The Daily Beast reports this news, today:

Casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, a major contributor to Mitt Romney’s election effort, is pressing the Republican nominee to come out for the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, a major Republican donor and associates of Adelson and Romney tell The Daily Beast.

Romney has rejected the request so far, telling Adelson he would have to review the relevant intelligence material accessible to him as president before granting Pollard clemency, said the sources, who are relaying accounts of conversations from both Adelson and Romney...

Read their entire exclusive report here.

There's been plenty of speculation around Romney's vice presidential running mate pick, and a good dose of that speculation is around Rep. Paul Ryan.

If that happens, expect to see this clip... over and over and over.

ht BuzzFeed

We New Yorkers are used to seeing all kinds of truly bizarre things on the streets of Gotham. And often the best response is no response. But would New Yorkers ignore zombies?

I don't mean the annual Zombie Crawl through Williamsburg in Brooklyn. I mean hyper-realistic-you-think-it's-a-real-zombie zombies.

As part of an ad campaign to bring their channel back to Dish Network, AMC (which airs The Walking Dead) released about a dozen actors in full horror movie makeup on the the city that never sleeps.

Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert

Some very lucky Olympians get to hold a gold medal after a day of competition. Then there's U.S. Olympic wrestler Elena Pirozhkova. She got to hold first lady Michelle Obama in her hands.

The first lady was meeting with U.S. athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Facility at the University of East London on Friday when this truly cool Olympic moment happened.

 USA Today gives us a little more detail:

"Even before she made the rounds I thought I can't just hug her like everybody else," Pirozhkova, who stands 5-foot-5 and competes in the 138.75-pound class, said in a statement released by USA Wrestling.

"I hugged her, and then I asked her if I could pick her up. I think she was nervous. I went slow. I just picked her up. I wanted to ask her permission. There was security all around. And she gave it. I will only meet her once. I wanted to do something different."