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By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 16:37 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Tuesday charged that the Obama administration was full of “elite snobs” who were looking “down their nose at the average American.”
The former Pennsylvania senator went on the attack against President Barack Obama and Democrats for rejecting Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) to replace the current Medicare program with a voucher scheme.
“They don’t believe you can make these decisions,” Santorum told a crowd in Boise, Idaho. “They need to makes these decisions for you because if you were left to make decisions you will obviously jump off a cliff.”
“Don’t you see how they see you? How they look down their nose at the average American — these elite snobs.”
He continued: “Guess what Paul Ryan’s plan is modeled after? Members of Congress’ plans. It is the same model, exactly the same. It says because members of Congress have the same plan as every federal employee, which is a pretty good plan. … It gives everybody the opportunity to go out and get what they need. What they think they need.”
Although Ryan told NBC that his his plan “works exactly like the health care I have as a member of Congress and federal employees have,” Princeton economics professor Uwe E. Reinhardt says there is at least one “huge difference.”
Under the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP), the government contribution rises at the rate of average premiums charged by private insurers. But Ryan would only have Medicare spending tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has historically not kept up with health care costs.
“Indexing the federal contribution to Medicare beneficiaries to the C.P.I. can thus be expected to shift an ever-larger share of the total health spending on Medicare beneficiaries from the books of government to the household budgets of these beneficiaries,” Reinhardt wrote in May.
“It is fair to wonder whether members of Congress would ever pass a bill indexing the federal contribution to their insurance premiums only to the C.P.I. rather than, as now, to the growth in insurance premiums.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/santorum-dems-look-down-their-nose-at-americans/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 14, 2012.
"Elite Snobs!!! Yup that's why I Abhor Both Parties!!!"By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 16:37 EST
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By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:42 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has released a new ad warning voters to expect an onslaught of attack ads from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In the new commercial, a Romney look-alike uses an assault rifle to fire mud at Santorum.
“Mitt Romney’s negative attack machine is back on full throttle,” the narrators says. “Romney and his super PAC have spent a staggering $20 million attacking fellow Republicans. Why? Because Romney’s trying to hide from his big-government Romneycare, and his support for cap and trade.”
The ad, titled “Rombo” after the “Rambo” movie character, goes on to show the weapon backfiring mud onto Romney.
In Florida alone, the former Massachusetts governor and super PACs supporting him spent nearly $16 million to destroy former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s chances in the state. Santorum is bracing for the same type of assault in upcoming primary states like Michigan, Arizona and Ohio.
Appearing on Fox News Wednesday, Romney laughed off the accusations in the ad.
“That’s the nature of politics which is that you always accuse the other guy of what you’ve done yourself,” he chuckled. “My campaign hasn’t run any negative ads against Rick Santorum. His campaign ran attack ads against me in South Carolina and his PAC did so in Missouri.”
“So, I’ not saying we won’t finally go after the guy, but frankly, he’s been going to go after me, as that ad suggests.”
As for the actor portraying him, Romney asked, “The guy looked pretty good, didn’t he?”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/romney-is-machine-gun-toting-rombo-in-new-santorum-spot/
Watch this video from Rick Santorum, uploaded Feb. 14, 2012.
"Oh this is Killing me, I can't Stop laughing, Romney shooting Froth at Santorum!!!" =)By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:42 EST
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And our State Dept. will not admit this is a coup. Tell me oil (oil routes) is not part of this.And our State Dept. will not admit this is a coup. Tell me oil (oil routes) is not... more
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The Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington
How telling the truth could leave you unemployed, bankrupt, and even jailed.
—By Peter Van Buren
This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.
On January 23rd, the Obama administration charged former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to journalists about the waterboarding of al-Qaeda suspects. His is just the latest prosecution in an unprecedented assault on government whistleblowers and leakers of every sort.
Kiriakou's plight will clearly be but one more battle in a broader war to ensure that government actions and sunshine policies don't go together. By now, there can be little doubt that government retaliation against whistleblowers is not an isolated event, nor even an agency-by-agency practice. The number of cases in play suggests an organized strategy to deprive Americans of knowledge of the more disreputable things that their government does. How it plays out in court and elsewhere will significantly affect our democracy.
Punish the Whistleblowers
The Obama administration has already charged more people—six—under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information than all past presidencies combined. (Prior to Obama, there were only three such cases in American history.)
Kiriakou, in particular, is accused of giving information about the CIA's torture programs to reporters two years ago. Like the other five whistleblowers, he has been charged under the draconian World War I-era Espionage Act.
That Act has a sordid history, having once been used against the government's political opponents. Targets included labor leaders and radicals like Eugene V. Debs, Bill Haywood, Philip Randolph, Victor Berger, John Reed, Max Eastman, and Emma Goldman. Debs, a union leader and socialist candidate for the presidency, was, in fact, sentenced to 10 years in jail for a speech attacking the Espionage Act itself. The Nixon administration infamously (and unsuccessfully) invoked the Act to bar the New York Times from continuing to publish the classified Pentagon Papers.
Yet, extreme as use of the Espionage Act against government insiders and whistleblowers may be, it's only one part of the Obama administration's attempt to sideline, if not always put away, those it wants to silence. Increasingly, federal agencies or departments intent on punishing a whistleblower are also resorting to extra-legal means. They are, for instance, manipulating personnel rules that cannot be easily challenged and do not require the production of evidence. And sometimes, they are moving beyond traditional notions of "punishment" and simply seeking to destroy the lives of those who dissent.
The well-reported case of Thomas Drake is an example. As an employee, Drake revealed to the press that the National Security Agency (NSA) spent $1.2 billion on a contract for a data collection program called Trailblazer when the work could have been done in-house for $3 million. The NSA's response? Drake's home was raided at gunpoint and the agency forced him out of his job.
"The government convinced themselves I was a bad guy, an enemy of the state, and went after me with everything they had seeking to destroy my life, my livelihood, and my person—the politics of personal destruction, while also engaging in abject, cutthroat character assassination, and complete fabrication and frame up," Drake told Antiwar.com. "Marriages are strained, and spouses' professional lives suffer as much as their personal lives. Too often, whistleblowers end up broken, blacklisted, and bankrupted," said the attorney who represents Drake.
In Kiriakou's case, the CIA found an excuse to fire his wife, also employed by the Agency, while she was on maternity leave. Whistleblower Bradley Manning, accused of leaking Army and State Department documents to the website WikiLeaks, spent more than a year in the worst of punitive conditions in a US Marine prison and was denied the chance even to appear in court to defend himself until almost two years after his arrest. Former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Morris Davis lost his career as a researcher at the Library of Congress for writing a critical op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and a letter to the editor at the Washington Post on double standards at the infamous prison, as did Robert MacClean for blowing the whistle on the Transportation Security Administration.
Four employees of the Air Force Mortuary in Dover, Delaware, attempted to address shortcomings at the facility, which handles the remains of all American service members who die overseas. Retaliation against them included firings, the placing of employees on indefinite administrative leave, and the imposition of five-day suspensions. The story repeats itself in the context of whistleblowers now suing the Food and Drug Administration for electronically spying on them when they tried to alert Congress about misconduct at the agency. We are waiting to see the Army's reaction to whistleblower Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, who documented publicly this week that senior leaders of the Department of Defense intentionally and consistently misled the American people and Congress on the conduct and progress of the Afghan War.
And this remains the most partial of lists, when it comes to recent examples of non-judicial government retaliation against whistleblowers.
Government bureaucrats know that this sort of slow-drip intimidation keeps people in line. It may, in the end, be less about disciplining a troublemaker than offering visible warning to other employees. They are meant to see what's happening and say, "Not me, not my mortgage, not my family!"—and remain silent. Of course, creative, thoughtful people also see this and simply avoid government service.
In this way, such a system can become a self-fulfilling mechanism in which ever more of the "right kind" of people chose government service, while future "troublemakers" self-select out—a system in which the punishment of leakers becomes the pre-censorship of potential leakers. At the moment, in fact, the Obama administration might as well translate the famed aphorism "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to remain silent" into Latin and carve it into the stone walls of the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, or NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, or the main office of the State Department at Foggy Bottom where I still fight to keep my job.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/campaign-against-whistleblowers-washington-john-kiriakou-espionageThe Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington
How telling the truth could leave... more
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“Western politicians and media are not yet fighting World War III, but they are talking themselves into it.” What if pollsters put this question to citizens of the United States and the European Union : “Which is more important, ensuring disgruntled Islamists freedom to overthrow the secular regime in Syria, or avoiding World War Three?” ----------- I’ll bet that there might be a majority for avoiding World War III. ----------- But of course, the question is never framed like that. ------------ Who are Obama&Clinton's advisers? US&allies trying to destroy Syria&create a failed state.Whose interests do they repr?--- Media tends to depersonalize Syrians, unless they're opponents of "brutal Assad regime". Hope my images correct this. Know faces of Syrian people being targeted by militia,Al-Qaeda,Brit & Qatari forces http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43055-road-to-damascus-and-on-to-armageddon-know-faces-of-syrian-people-being-targeted-by-imperialists-“Western politicians and media are not yet fighting World War III, but they are... more
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By David Edwards
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:50 EST
Less than an hour after same sex marriage became legal in Washington on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was meeting with opponents of the law.
Speaking at Calvary Chapel in Olympia, the former Pennsylvania senator promised about 100 pastors and so-called “values voters” that he would work to repeal marriage equality in the state.
“We have a serious issue about trying to get moms and dads to marry and stay together,” Santorum explained. “I don’t see this as encouraging that. I think that at least from my perspective it tends to water down marriage instead of encouraging men and women to form healthy marriages, and that to me should be the objective of the government because that is in the best interests of our society.”
The candidate also spoke out about a recent U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that overturned the same sex marriage ban in California.
“It’s pretty intolerant to suggest that people have no rational reason to be in favor of this institution that has been the bulwark of society for 235 years,” Santorum said, adding that both sides needed to “be respectful.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/14/santorum-lgbt-equality-waters-down-marriage/
Watch this video from KIRO-TV, broadcast Feb. 13, 2012.
"That to Me should be the Objective of the government" Guess what Douche Bag, the Objective of the government should be to stay the Hell out of people's bedrooms and get on with fixing issues that your party screwed up!!!! Sheeesh!!!!By David Edwards
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:50 EST
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By Eric W. Dolan Monday, February 13, 2012 19:18 EST
Fox News contributor Liz Trotta on Monday suggested women serving alongside male service members should expect to be raped and complained about the money spent on women who are “now being raped too much.”
Trotta appeared on Fox to discuss new Department of Defense rules allowing women to serve in more than 14,000 jobs that had been off-limits to female soldiers. They still cannot join infantry, armor or special forces units, however. “But we have women once more, the feminist, going, wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time,” she said.
“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta commented on a new Pentagon report on sexual abuse in the military,” Trotta added. “I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it’s strictly been a question of pressure from the feminist.”
She then noted that the budget of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office increased from $5 million in 2005 to more than $23 million in 2010.
“So, you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much,” Trotta remarked.
“Well, many would say that they need to be protected, and there are these sexual programs, abuse programs, are necessary,” co-anchor Eric Shawn interjected, but to no avail.
“That’s funny, I thought the mission of the Army, and the Navy, and four services was to defend and protect us, not the people who were fighting the war,” Trotta responded.
Watch video, clipped by Media Matters, below: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/13/fox-contributor-on-women-raped-in-the-military-what-did-they-expect/
"Did she say women are being 'Raped Too Much'???" WTF is going on Here!!!!! =(
By Eric W. Dolan Monday, February 13, 2012 19:18 EST... more
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By David Edwards
Sunday, February 12, 2012 12:24 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday dismissed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s win in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll by insinuating the vote had been rigged.
On the third an final day of the conference, CPAC announced Romney had beaten Santorum, 38 percent to 31 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul trailed with 15 percent and 12 percent respectively.
“Well, you know, those straw polls at CPAC — as you know for years Ron Paul has won those because he just trucks in a lot of people, pays for their ticket, they come in a vote, and then they leave,” Santorum explained to CNN’s Candy Crowley. “We didn’t do that. We don’t do that. I don’t try to rig straw polls.”
“Do you think that Gov. Romney rigged it?” Crowley asked.
“Well, you have to talk to the Romney campaign about how many tickets they bought,” Santorum replied.
“Somebody is telling you that they think Mitt Romney’s team, at least, paid for folks to go and vote for him at the straw poll,” Crowley observed.
“That’s standard procedure at all of these straw polls, that campaigns that want to win go out and recruit people and provide free tickets for them to come and vote,” Santorum explained. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, and that’s absolutely a strategy. We just think just don’t think that’s a good use of our resources. Gov. Romney obviously may have a different idea.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/12/santorum-suggests-romney-rigged-cpac-straw-poll/
Watch this video from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Feb. 12, 2012.
"Awww yeah, it's nothing new, I just thought I would Whine about it cos I couldn't fly more people in to Vote for Me!!!" =(By David Edwards
Sunday, February 12, 2012 12:24 EST
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"We will fight the Condoms on the beaches. we will defend our Island whatever the cost may be... We will NEVER surrender!!!!"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101711382"We will fight the Condoms on the beaches. we will defend our Island whatever the... more
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By Andrew Jones
Saturday, February 11, 2012 13:59 EST
Controversial right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart lashed out at “Occupy” protesters Friday evening outside the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
According to Campus Progress, Breitbart began yelling “Behave yourself!” repeatedly to protesters, then called them “freaks and animals.” He was ushered out of the area by hotel security a few moments after, but increased in his tirade by also screaming “Stop raping people!” to protesters.
Earlier in the day, Breitbart spoke at CPAC and continued to describe President Barack Obama as having “communists” friends who plotted to obtain the presidency in the 1980′s.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/11/andrew-breitbart-losses-control-at-occupy-protesters/
WATCH: Video from Campus Progress, which was published on February 10, 2012.
"I guess if you are Yelling at protestors, you are given the Badge of "Not" being Pepper Spayed???" What did the quote "Stop raping people" mean???By Andrew Jones
Saturday, February 11, 2012 13:59 EST
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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
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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
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Rick Santorum fabricates statistics about euthanasia in the US and Netherlands, appears nostalgic for days when abortions "were in the shadows."
Look at what’s happened just in our tolerance for abortion. Fifty years ago…60 years ago, people who did abortions were in the shadows, people who were considered really bad doctors. Now, abortion is something to that is just accepted. This is the erosion. And it happens in the medical profession. It happened very fast. And I think Obamacare will lead us down that road.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101710875
"I am so sick of this Clown!!!"Rick Santorum fabricates statistics about euthanasia in the US and Netherlands,... 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 12:31 EST
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday accused President Barack Obama of trying to “bribe the voters” with benefits and “checks from government.”
During his victory speech following the Nevada caucuses, the candidate told a crowd of supporters that voters shouldn’t expect a “free ticket” when he is president.
“I will not attempt to bribe the voters with promises of new programs and new subsidies and ever-increasing checks from government,” Romney declared. “If this election is a bidding war for who can promise the most benefits then I’m not your president. You have that president today.”
“I’m asking each of you to remember how special it is to be an American. I want you to remember why it was that you or your ancestors, who sacrificed to come to America and to overcome the challenges of life in a new country, why they came here. It was not for a free ticket; it was for freedom.”
Last week, the former Massachusetts governor claimed he had misspoken when he said that he was “not concerned about the very poor.”
“We have a safety net there,” he had told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/05/romney-obama-trying-to-bribe-the-voters-with-benefits/
Watch this video from ABC News, broadcast Feb. 4, 2012.
'Sheeesh, all his talk about America and being an American, and he ends with 'God Bless this Great Land????'By David Edwards
Sunday, February 5, 2012 12:31 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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By Muriel Kane
Friday, February 3, 2012 21:26 EST
During a campaign speech delivered in Missouri on Friday, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum did his best to make his audience shake in their boots with the specter of an Iranian nuclear attack.
“Once they have a nuclear weapon, let me assure you, you will not be safe, even here in Missouri,” Santorum predicted.
According to The Hill, Santorum is hoping to attract conservative votes in Missouri, where Newt Gingrich is not on the ballot.
Santorum went on to accuse the Iranian government of supplying all the improvised exposive devices used by Middle Eastern insurgents against U.S. troops. “These are folks who have been and are at war with us since 1979,” he stated. “This is a country that has killed more troops in Afghanistan and Iraq than the Iraqis and the Afghans.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/03/santorum-iranian-nukes-would-threaten-missouri/
This video was uploaded to YouTube by Akaczynski1 on February 3, 2012.
"Ok Mr. Santorum, Show us the Proof or just simply Stop talking your BS!!!!"By Muriel Kane
Friday, February 3, 2012 21:26 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
A day after insisting that the... 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
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is... more
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This is really powerful!!!
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002260692This is really powerful!!!
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