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When I"m not doing that, I blog about politics, nerdstuffs and probably the Green Bay Packers.
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Well, he got his talking points, he was programmed to speak to the fringe and it worked! By seven whole percent.
Romney defended his one term as governor of Massachusetts, saying he erased a large deficit to balance the budget, eliminated government agencies and applied the lessons of private enterprise to running the state government.
By being a moderate. Shh! He’s a right wing loon now… here’s hopping everybody forgot.
“I want to get my hands on Washington, DC,” Romney said.
I hope he means the city instead of this guy:
Because otherwise that’s gonna muddy the whole “I’m a homophobe just like you” message he spent crapping out this week.
More fun with Mitt:
He detailed a laundry list of pledges to the crowd about social issues, saying that if elected president he would fight for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman,
At least this week.
that he would reinstate the Mexico City policy, that he would cut off funding for the United Nations Population Fund — which he said “supports China’s barbaric One Child Policy”
Hmm. Seems like he’s already on the path to making friends globally. Any things else?
— and that he would cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Unless women have a problem with that, and considering they vote more than men, I would imagine this softens too.
But congratulations, Rombag! At least today, in the little petrie dish of fear mongering, you are KING OF THE LOONS!
Try not to suck in Maine, ‘kay?
That’s right. Foster Friess not Foster Freeze. Not an ice cream, but definitely vanilla.
On his personal YouTube page, more than a dozen sparsely-viewed videos show Friess discussing his philanthropic endeavors as well as his thoughts on President Obama, health care reform and the cause of the economic crisis. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting things about Friess that you may not know: 1. He has a long history funding Islamophobic organizations. One of Friess’ biggest beneficiaries is a collection of some of the largest Islamophobic organizations in the country, including Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy and David Horowitz’s Terrorism Awareness Project. 2. He filmed an introduction video to Clarion Fund’s Islamophobic “Obesession” Documentary. The controversy and outrage over the film “Obsession” has been well documented, but that didn’t seem to phase Friess, who filmed a five and a half minute promotional video in which he encouraged viewers to purchase the full DVD and use it “as a voting guide when you go into the election booth on election day.” 3. He preached intolerance in a commencement speech at the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University. “Be more intolerant,” urged Friess to a room full of graduating students in 2007. “There’s a group of people—maybe the secular Taliban is a good name for them—who have morphed this idea, that you have to accept my values being every bit as cherished as your values. That’s not tolerance…there are too many things in this world which we sit back and tolerate.” 4. Friess has given A LOT to Republican politicians. Rick Santorum’s not the only beneficiary of Friess’ campaign contributions. Over the years, Friess has contributed millions of dollars to Republican candidates and committees across the country, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry’s also not the only former Santorum competitor who cashed big checks from Friess. Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign has received $5,000 from Lynette and Foster, Mitt Romney received $1,000 for this election (and the campaign maximum $4,600 from both Friess’s in 2007) and even Tim Pawlenty’s presidential exploratory committee deposited a cool $5,000. Talk about hedging your bets. 5. Friess donated to gay rights advocate, former Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato. And not just a few thousand dollars either. In the mid-1990s, Friess funneled over $260,000 to committees with ties to the former New York senator, who famously bucked his party on LGBT issues and voted against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 1993 and for the Employee Non Discrimination Act. Granted, the donations were more likely contributed as a way to protect his own business interests than actual gay rights, but D’Amato is a strange bedfellow for someone supporting a candidate who compared homosexuality to man-on-dog sex. 6. He was a founding donor to conservative news site The Daily Caller. A $3 million initial investment into Tucker Carlson’s news site in early 2010 helped it get off the ground. He’s since made at least one additional contribution of $500,000. Yet as POLITICO notes, The Daily Caller has thus far failed to disclose its connection to Rick Santorum when covering him on the campaign trail. 7. Claimed liberals were to blame for Columbine shooting. In a speech deliveredat the Metropolitan Club in New York City in 2002, Friess tried to pin the blame for 1999′s Columbine school shooting on liberals. “How hard have those intolerant of John Adam’s perspective worked to strip from young people any hope of knowing the concepts and truths that help deal with life…They have gone to great lengths to strip all of this away and we have sat back in the name of tolerance while our youth were robbed of these truths and proven tools. I think we should be encouraged to learn from Columbine and let it be a battle cry for all of us so that we may change our society through productive intolerance.”
Foster Friess, the multi-millionaire financial investor who—until recently—was practically single-handedly bankrolling Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign, has a long history supporting Republican candidates and conservative causes. And unlike some of his fellow mega-donors like the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson, Friess has never tried all that hard to hide his intentions or methods.
What a day!!!
First, Karen Handel exits:
Karen Handel, vice president for public affairs at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, resigned on Tuesday following public outcry over the announcement Komen would pull funding from Planned Parenthood. After Komen reversed its decision, The Huffington Post reported thatHandel drove the decision to defund Planned Parenthood over abortion politics and crafted the strategy to clean up the public relations mess that ensued.
Although she acknowledges her involvement in the Planned Parenthood decision in her resignation letter, she also decries what she calls “gross mischaracterizations” of the situation and maintains that the decision was not about politics:
I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen’s future and the women we serve. However, the decision to update our granting model was made before I joined Komen, and the controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the organization. Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology. Rather, both were based on Komen’s mission and how to better serve women, as well as a realization of the need to distance Komen from controversy. I believe that Komen, like any other nonprofit organization, has the right and the responsibility to set criteria and highest standards for how and to whom it grants.
What was a thoughtful and thoroughly reviewed decision — one that would have indeed enabled Komen to deliver even greater community impact — has unfortunately been turned into something about politics. This is entirely untrue. This development should sadden us all greatly.
She leaves as she entered and worked - a liar.
Well, we’re all disappointed that someone like you was allowed anywhere near the levers of women health so, good bye and good riddance, bad person.
Then, Prop 8 is overturned!
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that a lower court judge correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedents when he declared in 2010 that Proposition 8 – a response to an earlier state court decision that legalized gay marriage – was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.
And of course, this gives the four stooges a talking point for this election, and Rick Santorum (who is insane) something to freak out about, which I’ve had my fill of. When are they going to put sleeves on that sweater vest and make it a straight jacket?
Still. Awesome.
AND THEN THIS!!! THE SPIDER-MAN TRAILER! AND IT’S AWESOME!
Seriously. This much good in one day? I’m going to go play the lotto now.
Wow.
LANSING, Mich. — A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called Monday for U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of the Democratic incumbent’s economic policies.
The request came a day after an Asian-American group called the ad “very disturbing.”
The Michigan Republican began taking heat after his ad targeting Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow as “Debbie Spenditnow” ran statewide Sunday during the Super Bowl. Some detractors said the ad was racially insensitive, while national GOP consultant Mike Murphy tweeted that it was “really, really dumb.” Foreign Policy magazine managing editor Blake Hounshell called the ad “despicable.”
“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”
The 30-second ad created by media strategist Fred Davis of California-based Strategic Perception Inc opens with the sound of a gong and shows the Asian woman riding a bike on a narrow path lined by rice paddies.
Stopping her bike, the woman smiles into the camera and says, “Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. Debbie spends so much American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”
The scene then shifts to Hoekstra telling viewers near a cozy fire, “I think this race is between Debbie Spenditnow and Pete Spenditnot.”
Hoekstra defended the ad, calling it a “home run” during an interview Monday with Detroit radio WJR-AM’s Paul W. Smith. He said it’s only “insensitive” to the spending philosophy of Stabenow and Democratic President Barack Obama.
Here she is, ladies and gentlemen… the girl that Pete used to try to scare the living crap out of whitey.
Good God. This isplay the “Gong” whenever you see Long Duk Dong on the screen dippiness and it’s not even a ham-fisted attempt at comedy.
The only difference is, it’s 30 years later and you would think we’d know better. At least ONE person would know better and go “Uh… dude. Let’s talk about this.”
But he APPROVES THIS MESSAGE! This isn’t even a Pac! This is a guy who probably looked at it on his phone after a nice round of golf, laughed his fat neck off and went on with his day.
I am white, but Jewish, and I am not cheap. You also don’t want me balancing your books.
I have met Southerners with thick accents that happen to be very smart even though they sound like “Larry The Cable Guy”
So please, everybody still not living in the 1950s, or even the 1980s, even though Pete is white and very, very stupid, please don’t stereotype us the way he does you.
I am guessing Pete probably doesn’t believe in evolution, but for f***’s sake, dude, could you evolve? Just a little bit?
Jackass.
“I don’t believe breast cancer research is advanced by funding an organization that does abortions where you’ve seen ties to cancer and abortions,” said a hoarse Santorum on “Fox News Sunday.”
In fact, a 2007 study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine studying 105,716 women found no link between breast cancer and abortions. Abortion services account for about three percent of Planned Parenthood’s activities, while cancer screening and prevention accounts for 16 percent.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum sounded off on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure decision to cut off funds to Planned Parenthood for breast exams, which it reversed in part Friday.
First, lets be clear, Komen reversed nothing. They bought themselves time and space by saying they’ll review it. But as long as Karen Handel is making decisions, it’s not going to happen. So prepare for that.
Second, I call douche. He’ll deny climate change, but back this “science?” How convinient.
While I enjoy the chaos going on in the Republican nomination process, I want this guy on the next boat to “You’re a jackass, please crawl back into your hole” ville.
You’re probably thinking “where are the jokes?”
My answer: I’ll throw you punchlines when there’s something worth spinning into something amusing. Tragedy + Time = Comedy. Right now, every time he opens his mouth, it’s tragedy.
He tarnishes every intelligent, compassionate Christian who walks this planet.
Back to the 1650s, you lunatic Quaker.
I knew that sooner or later, it would come out that some professional wingnut was behind the little love match between the Susan G. Komen Foundation and anti-Planned Parenthood VP Karen Handel. Surprise! It’s Ari Fleischer:
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, wassecretly involved in the Komen Foundation’s strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.
Fleischer’s relationship with Komen and the Planned Parenthood controversy was previously undisclosed. He confirmed to ThinkProgress his recent role in filling a key communication position at Komen. Fleischer stressed, however, another communications firm (Ogilvy PR) was retained by Komen to deal with crisis communications over the last few days and he has not been involved.
In November, Komen advertised for a top level communications position in Roll Call. Promising applicants received a call from Fleischer. The advertisement is no longer posted on the Roll Call website, but a portion is accessible via Google:
According to a source, during at least one interview, Planned Parenthood was a major topic of conversation. Fleischer indicated that he had discussed the Planned Parenthood issue with Komen’s CEO, Nancy Brinker, and that she was at her wits end about how to proceed. Fleischer described himself as a longtime friend of Brinker.
Fleischer confirmed to ThinkProgress that he would receive a fee from Komen when the search is complete. Fleischer did not specify the amount of his fee but said it would be “substantially below the normal placement fee charged by executive search companies” because “they’re a charity I believe in.”
#FF @jamiekillstein, @ThinkProgress & @pamelaoldham for information that lead to the following.
We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Yes they were. But, whatever. Continue.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process.
So far so good. Now what?
We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
Ah. There we go. Weasel clause #1. The Affiliates can decide now, which means the heinous policy can be continued but now smaller organizations can be blamed. ”It wasn’t us, it was the Mississippi branch!”
It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women.
Ah. Weasel clause #2. ”Without controversies.” Well, this is one now. And now they can say funding Planned Parenthood is ALSO a controversy. This smells of smoke and horse crap.
We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics - anyone’s politics.
Well, you started it. You can stop it by firing Karen Handel, the Sarah Palin Tea Party puppet that has her finger prints all over this. You started it by singling out Planned Parenthood out of 2000 organizations you fund.
So no - those of us who believe you have overreached, overstepped and catered to a fringe, anti-science mentality will not “slow down and reflect.” If anything, we will stay vigilant and watch: What you do, who you fund, and what your decisions regarding Planned Parenthood are in 2012 and beyond.
Because YOU were the one that put them in the crosshairs.
And surprise. Despite what a small group of loud, hard-minded zealots might have told you, people know bullish*t when they smell it, and not only did you create your own, you stepped in it.
Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.
Weasel Clause #3 clarifying weasel clause #1: Shifting any blame for negative moves on local affiliates. Have fun, small town people that just wanted to do something good! You’re about to bear the brunt!
We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.
And, finally, a thank you to the people who they didn’t delete off their Facebook page.
I don’t trust this. Not as far as I can throw it.
I will watch with a wary eye, and hope for the best but expect more of the same.
UPDATE: 11:21
Yes, 4800 articles about it and probably not one of them looking at this critically.
