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By David Edwards
Friday, February 10, 2012 11:31 EST
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Friday said that President Barack Obama had turned evangelicals into Catholics by requiring private health insurance plans to cover contraception for women.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Huckabee gave “a great big thank you to President Obama.”
“You have done more than any person in the entire GOP field, any candidate has done to bring this party to unity and energize this party as a result of your attack on religious liberty and the attack on the personhood of every human being in America,” the former Arkansas governor declared.
“The fact that Catholic hospitals– and not just Catholic hospitals, but any hospital, any organization — would be required to provide not just contraceptive services, but Plan B abortion pills and other services that are outside the conscience of people of faith is, in fact, a direct violation of the First Amendment,” Huckabee, who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, insisted.
“I remember very vividly when John F. Kennedy said that we are all Berliners. Well, in many ways, thanks to President Obama, we are all Catholics now.”
He added: “Growing up a Baptist in the South, I never thought I’d see the day when I would stand in front of several thousand people and say, ‘We’re all Catholic!’ Praise the Lord, pass the offering plate. It’s time to get serious.”
Reports on Friday said the Obama administration would move to accommodate Catholics in a way that would make still contraception available to all women.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/10/huckabee-tells-cpac-we-are-all-catholics-now/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 10, 2012.
"They folks just can't figure out who they will Pander to day to day!!!"By David Edwards
Friday, February 10, 2012 11:31 EST
Former Republican... more
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By David Edwards
Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:37 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned on Wednesday that President Barack Obama and other liberals are leading people of faith down a path that ends at the guillotine.
During a campaign event in Plano, Texas, the candidate charged Obama had an “overt hostility to faith.”
“When you look and see what the left is trying to do in America today, progressives are trying to shutter faith, privatize it, push it out of the public square, oppress people of faith, strip their charitable deductions away from them, trying to weaken them, churches — trying to say that anyone who believes in the value of Judeo-Christian principles,” Santorum explained.
“As we saw in the Ninth Circuit just this week, that if you believe that [same sex marriage is wrong] — this is what the court said — that if believe that, if believe what’s taught in Genesis, if you believe what’s practiced Biblically and a generation since then you are irrational. The only possible reason you could believe this, according to the Ninth Circuit, is that you are a bigot and that you are a hater.”
He continued: “They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the the guillotine.”
Santorum admitted that the U.S. was “a long way from that,” but if Obama had his way then “we are headed down that road,” citing the Obama administration’s decision to require nearly all private health insurance policies to cover family planning, including female contraceptives.
“Now is the time for America to rise up and say enough!” the GOP hopeful exclaimed.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/09/santorum-obama-leading-christians-to-the-guillotine/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 7, 2012
"Why is this Guy always claiming that the other side is doing what his Party is Guilty Of???"By David Edwards
Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:37 EST
Republican presidential... more
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By Andrew Jones
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 11:54 EST
A day after proclaiming America’s end if President Barack Obama is re-elected, Sean Hannity added to his pile of animosity Tuesday evening with a claim startlingly detached from reality.
In a discussion with Republican pollster Frank Luntz, comparing President Obama to former President Ronald Reagan, Hannity once again showed that he’s not keen to credit Obama for killing terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“They’ve got a foreign policy that shows a lot of weakness,” Hannity said. “I know the President will say they got bin Laden, putting that aside.”
“And the public gives him credit for that,” Luntz interjected.
A reluctant Hannity replied, “But it wouldn’t have happened if he had his way, and I think that could be proven as well on tapes.”
Days after bin Laden’s death last year, Hannity, along with many other conservatives, decided to congratulate George W. Bush instead of President Obama, even though Bush once quipped that he didn’t know, or much care, where bin Laden was hiding.
Hannity also accused Obama of “flip-flopping” on his promise to go after bin Laden days before his inauguration in 2009.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/08/hannity-bin-laden-would-be-alive-if-obama-had-his-way/
WATCH: Video from Fox News, which was broadcast on February 7, 2012.
"From the mouths of Morons, Eeeesh, will it ever end???"By Andrew Jones
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 11:54 EST
A day after proclaiming... more
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US presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has swept the contests for the Republican Party nomination in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado.
Mr Santorum outperformed longtime front-runner Mitt Romney, who has struggled to connect with the party's conservative base.
Supporters in Missouri heard Mr Santorum declare victory for all those "building the conservative movement".
The eventual nominee will face Barack Obama in November's election.
Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich hardly campaigned in the three states that voted on Tuesday, and did not even appear on Missouri's ballot.US presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has swept the contests for the Republican Party... more
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Romney Says Komen Foundation Was Right To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding For Cancer Screenings (AUDIO)
February 8, 2012
By Stephen D. Foster Jr.
During a Monday interview with conservative radio host Scott Hennen in Minnesota, Mitt Romney stuck his foot in his mouth again by defending the Komen Foundation’s decision to cut funding from Planned Parenthood. After Hennen asked Romney if Planned Parenthood should still be funded, Romney responded:
“I don’t think so. I also feel that the government should cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Look, the idea that we’re subsidizing an institution which is providing abortion, in my view, is wrong. Planned Parenthood ought to stand on their own feet, and should not get government subsidy. I was a pro-life governor, served as a pro-life governor. I’m a pro-life candidate. I simply do not want to participate in anything that takes away the life of an unborn child.”
Here’s the audio:
This is a rather significant statement from Mitt Romney. Just a week ago, Romney said that he wasn’t concerned about very poor people. Well, Planned Parenthood uses the funding provided by Susan G. Komen to provide cancer screening to low income women who whose lives depend on early detection of breast cancer. Without such funding, the live of millions of women would be in danger. Romney might as well have repeated his “not concerned about the very poor” statement because that is exactly what he is saying here. You cannot be concerned with the poor, and then support cutting funding that saves the lives of poor women. It’s akin to saying you support the troops, and then saying you support cuts to funding that provides body armor to them.
This is also yet another Romney flip flop. It turns out Mitt Romney and his wife once attended a Planned Parenthood fundraiser and even donated some money to the organization. According to ThinkProgress,
“Mitt and Ann Romney attended a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in Cohasset, Massachusetts in 1994, and Ann wrote a $150 check to the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, various news outlets reported. “They were both there, and I remember very well chatting with both of them, and talking about his support for the pro-choice agenda,” Nicki Nichols Gamble, the president of the League told ABC News in 2007.”
Mitt Romney went on to sign a pro-choice pledge to Planned Parenthood during his run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Since he began running for President, Romney has tried to deny his pro-choice past by claiming he just magically changed his mind about abortion. But he can’t hide from the fact that he supported a woman’s right to choose for well over a decade.
Romney is also clearly ignorant about government funding of Planned Parenthood. Not one dollar of taxpayer money is used to fund abortion. That’s because it is against the law. And the fact is, only 3% of procedures performed by Planned Parenthood are abortions. That’s a really insignificant number. And besides, abortion is LEGAL because a conservative leaning Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution and ruled it as such. Romney and the rest of the pro-life fanatics need to get over it.
Romney is taking a double hit by supporting the Komen decision. It clearly shows that he isn’t concerned with the plight of the poor, specifically their health. And it reveals his incredible hypocrisy at the same time. Once again, Romney opens his mouth and reveals his heartlessness and lack of concern for the poor and his hypocrisy. The sad part is that these two things are what the Republican Party is looking for in a presidential nominee.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/02/08/romney-says-komen-foundation-was-right-to-cut-planned-parenthood-funding-for-cancer-screenings-audio/Romney Says Komen Foundation Was Right To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding For Cancer... more
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The obscenely inflated ego known as The Donald didn't take long to avenge his crowned prince Mittens Romney from the triple loss in Tuesday's GOP contests by posting a video rant aimed squarely at yesterday's three-time loser winner Rick Santorum. But in typical Trump style, the (alleged) billionaire reality star's logic is flawed, baseless, and inadvertently exposes Romney's own failures.
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/08/trumps-santorum-rant-backfires-actually-highlights-romney-failures-video/The obscenely inflated ego known as The Donald didn't take long to avenge his... more
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By David Edwards
Monday, February 6, 2012 14:24 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday asserted that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was “uniquely unqualified” for the GOP nomination because of the similarities between health care laws in Massachusetts and President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, including the repeatedly debunked claim that “death panels” would ration care to seniors.
Speaking at a ballroom across the street from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Santorum pointed to a report (PDF) from the the non-partisan organization Families USA that found at least 15 major similarities between Obama’s Affordable Care Act and the reforms Romney enacted in Massachusetts.
“Both create government panels to dictate quality and cost containment,” Santorum explained. “Some of you may be familiar with the Independent Payment Advisory Board — which is a board separate from Congress, independent of Congress — that President Obama created to control health care costs. How? By cutting reimbursements to doctors and hospitals under the Medicare program. Well, Gov. Romney has a similar program called the Council on Health Quality and Costs.”
“Some people refer to these types of boards as death panels,” he added. “Why? Because they ultimately decide to ration care to those procedures and people because they don’t believe these procedures are effective in providing care, that the utilization isn’t worth the costs.”
“So, again, you have government making decisions and rationing and apportioning care based on research that shows what outcomes are dictated by the research that’s out there.”
In 2009, Politifact named “death panels,” a term thought to have been first used by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), as their “Lie of the Year.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/06/santorum-romney-and-obama-both-created-death-panels/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 6, 2012.
"Funny how he says "Some people refer to these types of boards as Death Panels" to the best of my recollection only His Party does!!!"By David Edwards
Monday, February 6, 2012 14:24 EST
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By David Edwards
Sunday, February 5, 2012 11:08 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday suggested that Susan G. Komen for the Cure shouldn’t provide grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings because abortions cause breast cancer, a false claim that has been repeatedly debunked.
The candidate told Fox News host Chris Wallace that he didn’t agree with the Komen Foundation reversing itself last week and making Planned Parenthood eligible for future grants.
“I’ve taken the position as a presidential candidate and someone in Congress that Planned Parenthood funds and does abortions,” Santorum explained. “They’re a private organization they stand up and support what ever they want.”
“I don’t believe that breast cancer research is advanced by funding an organization where you’ve seen ties to cancer and abortion,” he added. “So, I don’t think it’s a particularly healthy way of contributing money to further cause of breast cancer, but that’s for a private organization like Susan B. Komen to make that decision.”
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the several small flawed studies that suggested a link between abortion and breast cancer have been disproven.
“Since then, better-designed studies have been conducted,” the institute’s website said. “These newer studies examined large numbers of women, collected data before breast cancer was found, and gathered medical history information from medical records rather than simply from self-reports, thereby generating more reliable findings. The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.”
In 2002, the Bush administration temporarily altered NCI’s website to say that scientific evidence supported a possible link between abortion and breast cancer. After an outcry from the scientific community, NCI corrected its website with an accurate fact sheet.
A study released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) in 2006 found that the Bush administration also used pregnancy resource centers — commonly known as “crisis pregnancy centers” — to falsely inform pregnant teens that the risk of breast cancer increased by 80 percent after an abortion.
“This tactic may be effective in frightening pregnant teenagers and women and discouraging abortion,” the study concluded (PDF). “But it denies the teenagers and women vital health information, prevents them from making an informed decision, and is not an accepted public health practice.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/05/santorum-suggests-abortion-causes-breast-cancer/
Watch this video from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast Feb. 5, 2012.
"What an Odd thing to say!!!"By David Edwards
Sunday, February 5, 2012 11:08 EST
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With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set to finally enact stricter air pollution standards in accordance with the Clean Air Act and two subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring them to do so, powerful Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are working to make sure that the new standards never see the light of day. The specific measures being targeted are the EPA’s new standards for carbon emissions from power plant smoke stacks.
Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with Republicans Joe Barton (TX) and Ed Whitfield (KY) sent a letter last week to the White House, demanding that the Obama administration take action to stop the EPA from regulating carbon emissions from power plants.
From their letter:
“We are concerned about the regulation’s impact on jobs and the economy, and that it will not comply with all applicable Executive Orders…
“In this rulemaking, EPA may be seeking to do precisely what Congress and the American public rejected in the last Congress. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation from the 111th Congress would have significantly raised the cost of energy and driven US jobs overseas.
“We ask for your help in supporting policies that will encourage economic growth and job creation rather than additional costly regulations that will raise new barriers to job creation and burden struggling businesses and families.”
The three men certainly know how to include the buzzwords that appeal to American citizens – jobs, economy, raising energy prices – but when put through the truth test, their claims simply don’t hold up. For example, enacting the new standards has the opposite effect on the job market – it would create tens of thousands additional jobs for American workers, not destroy them. The conservative Heritage Foundation has also been beating the drum about regulations raising energy costs, which could actually happen. However, any rate increases would be a corporate decision, not a government decision. The electric energy industry in America currently generates $370.5 billion a year in revenue, with an average revenue of $9.88 per KwH sold. With the national average to produce a kilowatt hour of electricity being around 10 cents, that leaves the company a profit of more than $9 per Kwh of electricity sold, meaning that any rate increases are the result of protecting profits, not because they can’t afford the increase.
So why are these Republicans trying to dismantle the work of the EPA? Simple – they are in the pockets of the dirty energy industry. Fred Upton has received more than $640,000 from electric utilities over his career, and an additional $308,000 from oil and gas. Joe Barton has a combined total of more than $3 million from electric utilities and oil and gas over the course of his career. And Ed Whitfield has gotten more than $600,000 from the two sectors during his tenure in Washington. All of these men have a direct financial stake in the profitability of the dirty energy industry. After all, the more money these companies spend on complying with new standards, the less they have to purchase politicians in Washington.
These latest attacks on the EPA and the environment are not a surprise. In fact, the anti-environmental record of the US Congress over the last year was so awful that Democratic Congressmen Henry Waxman, Edward Markey, and Howard Berman prepared a report last December detailing the numerous ways in which the 112th Congress earned the reputation as the most anti-environmental Congress in history:
“House Republicans have repeatedly voted to undermine basic environmental protections that have existed for decades. They have voted to block actions to prevent air pollution; to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of authority to enforce water pollution standards; to halt efforts to address climate change; to stop the Department of the Interior from identifying lands suitable for wilderness designations; to allow oil and gas development off the coasts of Florida, California, and other states opposed to offshore drilling; and to slash funding for the Department of Energy, including funding to support renewable energy and energy efficiency, by more than 80%.
“The House of Representatives averaged more than one anti-environmental vote for every day the House was in session in 2011. Of the 770 legislative roll call votes taken in the House this year, 22% – more than one out of every five – were votes to undermine environmental protection. During these roll calls, 94% of Republican members voted for the anti-environment position, while 86% of Democratic members voted for the pro-environment position.
“The Environmental Protection Agency was the most popular target of House Republicans. Of the 191 anti-environment votes, 114 targeted EPA; 35 targeted the Department of the Interior; and 31 targeted the Department of Energy.”
And that was just in their first year. Imagine what they can accomplish the next round of elections this coming November.
By Farron Cousins | 6 February 12With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set to finally enact stricter air... more
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While campaign laws strictly state that a Super PAC cannot coordinate or contact a political candidate directly, or strategize with that candidate, it is not against the law for the two individuals to be in the same room. But are we really to believe that Santorum’s right-wing sugar daddy, who has bankrolled his Super PAC, shared the same stage with him and the two weren’t strategizing or discussing the campaign? Do they really believe that the American voter is as dumb as all that?
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/08/santorum-shares-stage-with-super-pac-sugar-daddy/While campaign laws strictly state that a Super PAC cannot coordinate or contact a... more
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Greatest Generation telling their history of America before it is lost forever. A wonderful project.
A LIVING HISTORY
I saw this on Nightly News with Brian Williams... It was so poignant; a ten tissue event (a whole box if it had lasted longer than a few minutes).
I downloaded it so that I could share it on thethinkingblue youtube channel...
Amid all the nasty nonsense of this election season, we all need a proverbial breath of fresh air to realize we are not all NUTS!
Watch the courageous people of the Greatest Generation, as they
reflect upon America's recent heroic past.
And to Gingrich, Romney, Karl Rove, Limbaugh, Fox News and the rest of the obnoxious ones who try to spread reprehensible falsehoods about those they wish to destroy through character assassination, in
order to gain power... TAKE A HIKE, WE are tired of you!
Watch as real heroes who live amongst us tell their stories.
A SALUTE TO THE GREATEST GENERATION AND THEIR LIVING HISTORY.
thethinkingblue youtube channel
http://www.thethinkingblue.com
http://thinkingblue.blogspot.comGreatest Generation telling their history of America before it is lost forever. A... more
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By David Edwards
Friday, February 3, 2012 11:05 EST
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is offended that President Barack Obama quoted scripture to make the case for a fairer tax policy.
Speaking to a group of mostly-conservative politicians at the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, the president proved that conservatives do not have a monopoly on using religion to advocate for specific public policies.
“And when I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe at a time when folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income or young people with student loans or middle class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone,” Obama explained. “And I think to myself, if I am willing to give something up as someone who has been extraordinarily blessed, give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy — I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.”
“But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,” the president added.
Only a few hours later, Hatch, who normally favors co-mingling government and religion, was on the floor of the Senate expressing outrage at the president for using the Bible to make a point.
“Just this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president took what has always been a non-partisan opportunity for national unity and used to promote his political agenda,” Hatch complained. “He suggested to the attendees that Jesus would have supported his latest tax-the-rich schemes. With due respect to the president, he ought to stick to public policy. I think most Americans would agree that the Gospels are concerned with weightier matters than effective tax rates.”
“In 2008, the president declared that his nomination was the world historical moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,” Hatch recalled.
“Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water, and he did not occupy the Oval Office.”
Hatch, however, has made the case for religion in public policy when it suits his needs.
During a Republican presidential debate in 2000, the senator from Utah declared, “if I had my way, I’d have a silent prayer reflection constitutional amendment that would give kids a moment of silent prayer reflection at the beginning of every school day.”
He has also leaned on the Bible to make the case against gay rights.
“It’s a religious belief to me that homosexuality flies in the face of biblical teachings,” Hatch, who is Mormon, told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1999.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/03/orrin-hatch-obama-thinks-hes-jesus-christ/
Watch this video from C-SPAN, broadcast Feb. 2, 2012.
"Poor Orrin, I guess BO's speech kinda Rattled some Cages??? Why the Hell can they not get on with the Damned Issues instead of Play Ground Child's Play!!!!!"By David Edwards
Friday, February 3, 2012 11:05 EST
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By David Edwards
Friday, February 3, 2012 9:06 EST
A day after insisting that the media had taken his comments about not being concerned for the poor out of context, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shifted positions on Thursday, claiming he simply “misspoke.”
On Monday, Romney had told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that he wasn’t running for president to help the most impoverished Americans.
“I’m not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there, if we need to repair, I’ll fix it,” he said. “The challenge right now — we will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor. And there’s no question it’s not good being poor. And we have a safety net to help those that are very poor, but my campaign is focused is on middle-income Americans.”
A day later aboard his campaign charter plane, the candidate blamed reporters for not putting his comment in context.
“No, no, no, no,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different. I’ve said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is gonna be devoted to helping middle income people, all right?”
Speaking to KSNV’s John Ralston later that afternoon, Romney finally began to take responsibility for his remarks.
“John, it was a misstatement,” the candidate asserted. “I misspoke.”
“I’ve said something that is similar to that but quite acceptable for a long time. And you know when you do I don’t know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong. And I misspoke, plain and simple.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/03/romney-i-misspoke-about-the-poor/
Watch this video from KSNV, Face to Face, broadcast Feb. 2, 2012.
"Please Define Middle Income, many folks do not get Married because they have to pay Higher Taxes, and speaking of marriage, why are you against Same Sex Marriage???"By David Edwards
Friday, February 3, 2012 9:06 EST
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By David Edwards
Thursday, February 2, 2012 13:36 EST
President Barack Obama proved on Thursday that conservatives don’t have a monopoly on using religion to advocate for specific public policies.
Speaking to a group of mostly-conservative politicians at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, the president quoted scripture in a effort to get Republicans to support a fairer tax code and caring for the poor.
“When I talk about our financial institutions playing by the same rules as folks on main street, when I talk about making sure insurance companies aren’t discriminating against those who are already sick or making sure that unscrupulous lenders aren’t taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us, I do so because I genuinely believe it will make the economy stronger for everybody,” Obama explained. “But I also do it because I know far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years. And I believe in God’s command to love thy neighbor as thyself.”
“And when I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe at a time when folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income or young people with student loans or middle class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I am willing to give something up as someone who has been extraordinarily blessed, give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy — I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.”
He added: “But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”
“Treating others as you want to be treated, requiring much from those who have been given so much, living by the principle that we are our brother’s keeper, caring for the poor and those in need, these values are old and they can be found in many denominations and many faiths and among many believers and among many non-believers. They’re values that have always made this country great when we live up to them, when we just don’t just give lip service to them, and we just don’t talk about them one day a year.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/02/obama-gets-biblical-on-republican-tax-critics/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 1, 2012.
"Excellent job BO, beat the Bastard Bible Thumpers with their own Bible, BRAVO!!!!"By David Edwards
Thursday, February 2, 2012 13:36 EST
President Barack Obama... more
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By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 22:05 EST
Mitt Romney may have won the Florida Republican presidential primary, but Chris Matthews is still not a fan.
The MSNBC host argued on Tuesday that the candidate couldn’t connect with the American people because his wealth meant he did not have a “yearning to do better.”
“There’s nothing in this guys face, nothing in his background that suggests a yearning, an immigrant’s aspiration — if you will — for a better society,” Matthews ranted. “He’s got all he wants. His family has got all they want. They’ve gotten their take.”
“And by the way, when you spend your money — when you’re sheltering it overseas, when you’re hiding your money from the tax collector so that you can have an even fatter life, you know, you don’t really identify with the person out there that’s trying to scrabble along and make it in our society, who is a true patriot, left, right or center. Why are you hiding your money overseas if you are a patriot? It seems like you are part of the problem — in fact, you are one of the bad guys.”
He continued: “He has not identified with the revolutionary struggle of this country for its last 200 years. It is not anywhere in his bones, a revolutionary, anywhere in his bones, is he dissatisfied with the America he was born to — he was born to that weird small portion of America that had it happened to him. He says he didn’t inherit it, he inherited everything: his education, his status, governor, father head of an auto company. Everything about him basically happened to him.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/?p=381680
Watch this video from MSNBC, broadcast Jan. 31, 2012.
"Damn Chris, Get After It!!!!" =)By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 22:05 EST
Mitt Romney may have won the... more
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By David Edwards
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 14:51 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Wednesday suggested that President Barack Obama wanted to every kid to go to college so they could be brainwashed into being a liberal.
Speaking to a crowd of Floridians at the First Baptist Church of Naples, Santorum said that churches and families were under “assault” by the president and liberals.
“We’ve lost, unfortunately, our entertainment industry,” the candidate explained. “We’ve lost our higher education. That was the first to go a long time ago. It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go to college. The indoctrination that occurs at American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America — and it is indoctrination.”
“If they taught Judeo-Christian ideology, they would be stripped of every dollar. If they teach radical secular ideology, they get all the government support that they can possibly get. As you know, 62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it. And I bet you there are people in this room who give money to colleges and universities who are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids in left-wing ideology. And you continue to give to these colleges and universities. Let me have a suggestion: Stop it!”
Santorum added: “What they say is, look, their values trump your religious values. The government can tell you they’re going to starve you by taking money away, by taking out the charitable deductions. They’re going to weaken you by passing statutes to change the institution of marriage, which will ultimately make what is preached here hate speech and bigotry.”
Last month, the former Pennsylvania senator warned voters in Iowa that colleges and universities had become “indoctrination centers for the left.”
For his part, President Barack Obama spoke about the importance of college affordability during his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday.
“We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money,” he said. “So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/?p=380324
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Jan. 25, 2012.
"Hate speech and Bigotry??? He is talking about his own Damned Party!!!!"By David Edwards
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 14:51 EST
Republican presidential... more
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There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.
The findings combine three hot-button topics.
"They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics," said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. "When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it's bound to upset somebody."
Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions, Nosek told LiveScience. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You]
"The unique contribution here is trying to make some progress on the most challenging aspect of this," Nosek said, referring to the new study. "It's not that a relationship like that exists, but why it exists."
Brains and bias
Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]
In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100.
Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority." Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races." (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson's work can't speak to this "underground" racism.)
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.
"This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice," said Hodson, who along with his colleagues published these results online Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Science.
A study of averages
Hodson was quick to note that the despite the link found between low intelligence and social conservatism, the researchers aren't implying that all liberals are brilliant and all conservatives stupid. The research is a study of averages over large groups, he said.
"There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals," Hodson said.
Nosek gave another example to illustrate the dangers of taking the findings too literally.
"We can say definitively men are taller than women on average," he said. "But you can't say if you take a random man and you take a random woman that the man is going to be taller. There's plenty of overlap."
Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
"Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. "Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice."
In another study, this one in the United States, Hodson and Busseri compared 254 people with the same amount of education but different levels of ability in abstract reasoning. They found that what applies to racism may also apply to homophobia. People who were poorer at abstract reasoning were more likely to exhibit prejudice against gays. As in the U.K. citizens, a lack of contact with gays and more acceptance of right-wing authoritarianism explained the link. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]
Simple viewpoints
Hodson and Busseri's explanation of their findings is reasonable, Nosek said, but it is correlational. That means the researchers didn't conclusively prove that the low intelligence caused the later prejudice. To do that, you'd have to somehow randomly assign otherwise identical people to be smart or dumb, liberal or conservative. Those sorts of studies obviously aren't possible.
The researchers controlled for factors such as education and socioeconomic status, making their case stronger, Nosek said. But there are other possible explanations that fit the data. For example, Nosek said, a study of left-wing liberals with stereotypically naïve views like "every kid is a genius in his or her own way," might find that people who hold these attitudes are also less bright. In other words, it might not be a particular ideology that is linked to stupidity, but extremist views in general.
"My speculation is that it's not as simple as their model presents it," Nosek said. "I think that lower cognitive capacity can lead to multiple simple ways to represent the world, and one of those can be embodied in a right-wing ideology where 'People I don't know are threats' and 'The world is a dangerous place'. ... Another simple way would be to just assume everybody is wonderful."
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group's point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
"There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others, particularly foreigners," Hodson said. "Much of the present research literature suggests that our prejudices are primarily emotional in origin rather than cognitive. These two pieces of information suggest that it might be particularly fruitful for researchers to consider strategies to change feelings toward outgroups," rather than thoughts.There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may... more
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By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 21, 2012
As the latest polls point to a Newt Gingrich victory in South Carolina, one unique group is hoping their support will keep Mitt Romney in position to become the Republican presidential nominee.
The group “Rich Kids for Romney” released an ad Friday backing the former Massachusetts governor all the way.
“Do we really want a president who isn’t rich?” one of the group’s members asks. “Mitt Romney took down his mansion, and in the same spot, built another mansion. That’s awesome!”
“Newt Gingrich is rich, but not Mitt Romney rich.”
WATCH: Video from The Huffington Post, which was published on January 20, 2012.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/21/rich-kids-for-romney-release-an-ad/
"Funny how Newt beat out Romney in South Carolina, wouldn't you say!!!" =)By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 21, 2012
As the latest polls point to a Newt... more
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By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) is somehow still confused over the nationality and background of President Barack Obama.
Huckabee appeared on The O’Reilly Factor Friday evening to discuss the growing story of Mitt Romney unveiling his tax returns, saying the GOP candidate should do that based solely on one condition.
“Let him make this challenge,” he said. “I’ll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and the copy of his admission records to show whether he got any loans as a foreign student.”
Huckabee’s bizarre view of Obama stemmed from a 2009 email, based on an Associated Press April Fools joke, claiming Obama received a scholarship for foreign students while he attended Occidental College.
This isn’t the first time Huckabee has sorely lacked knowledge on Obama’s history. Last February, he wrongly claimed that Obama “grew up in Kenya.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/21/huckabee-obama-was-a-foreign-student/
WATCH: Video from Fox News, which was broadcast on January 20, 2012.
"So this Fella says: Why would you Help load a Gun, that is pointed to your own Head???"
I agree, Why do we hire these Dumb Asses to begin with???By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee... more
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