All Entries in the "Rightwing World" Category

UPDATE: Komen confirms continued involvement of Ari Fleischer on Planned Parenthood strategy

Yesterday, ThinkProgress exclusively reported Ari Fleischer’s involvement — dating back at least to December — with the Komen Foundation, including issues related to Planned Parenthood. Tonight, the Washington Post reports that Komen is now publicly confirming that Fleischer, a prominent right-wing pundit and former press secretary for George W. Bush, will help “on crisis communications” related to Planned Parenthood. Komen stressed that Fleischer, who is a long-time critic of Planned Parenthood, “had nothing to do with the funding decision.”

Full Story Here: UPDATE: Komen confirms continued involvement of Ari Fleischer on Planned Parenthood strategy | ThinkProgress.

Ann Coulter Confronts Mitt Romney: ‘You Owe Me’ (AUDIO)

During a radio appearance on Thursday, conservative pundit Ann Coulter revealed that she once had a rather revealing private talk with GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Coulter was speaking with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity.

Hannity asked Coulter who she thinks Romney will “surround himself with” if he were to be elected president. Coulter, who is a staunch Romney supporter, said, “well I better have his ear.” Coulter added that she was once at a fundraiser and approached Romney just before she was leaving the event. “I just wanted to go up to him and tell him, ‘You owe me and you better be as right-wing a president as I’m telling everybody you’re going to be,’” Coulter said.

Hannity asked how Romney responded to Coulter’s demands. “He laughed about it and acknowledged the point and said something to the effect ‘don’t worry,’” Coulter said of Romney.

Full Story Here: Ann Coulter Confronts Mitt Romney: ‘You Owe Me’ (AUDIO).

Denny Rehberg, GOP Congressman And Senate Hopeful, Blasts Child Labor Regulations

In a speech expounding on the rift between rural America and Washington D.C., Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) vowed Thursday to use his funding powers to stop the Obama administration from implementing new child-labor rules pertaining to agricultural work, accusing the “urban” Labor Department of meddling in a “rural” industry it doesn’t understand.

“This is one of those situations where I think the Department of Labor is overstepping its boundaries, its knowledge base, and frankly I think you’re sitting around watching reruns of “Blazing Saddles” and that’s your interpretation of what goes on in the West,” Rehberg, who holds the Labor Department’s purse strings for the House of Representatives, said as he lectured a labor official during a hearing Thursday. “And it’s not anymore.”

Last year, the Labor Department proposed new rules governing what kinds of potentially dangerous tasks minors can and cannot perform on farms and in grain facilities. Although child and worker advocates said the new rules were long overdue, the proposals created an uproar among farmers and agricultural trade groups, who argued that the rules could hurt family-farming traditions.

Full Story Here: Denny Rehberg, GOP Congressman And Senate Hopeful, Blasts Child Labor Regulations.

Shadrack McGill, Alabama State Senator, Says Keeping Teacher Pay Low ‘A Biblical Principle’

Someone alert the unions: raising teacher pay will actually make for worse teachers–according to one GOP lawmaker.

Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill said that increasing teacher pay is against “a biblical principle” because it might attract people who otherwise wouldn’t do the job.

“Teachers need to make the money that they need to make,” McGill said, according to the Times-Journal. “If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach … and these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It’s just in them to do. It’s the ability that God give ‘em.”

McGill’s comments came at a prayer breakfast this week in Fort Payne, Ala. State legislators are currently weighing raising teacher pay. One GOP leader proposed raising salaries of newer teachers by 2.5 percent, but critics argue that it isn’t fair to longer-serving educators, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Full Story Here: Shadrack McGill, Alabama State Senator, Says Keeping Teacher Pay Low ‘A Biblical Principle’.

Joe Walsh Trailing Democrats In Illinois 8th District Poll: Duckworth Leading Krishnamoorthi

A new poll shows U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh trailing Democrats in Illinois’ 8th District.

The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of House Majority PAC, shows Walsh’s approval rating at 28 percent. Testing the congressman against a generic Democrat, PPP reports that voters chose that unnamed Democrat 49 percent to 35 percent, Politico reports.

Democrat Tammy Duckworth’s campaign said Walsh is “extremely vulnerable” in the 8th, and believes she has the best chance to beat the outspoken, staunchly conservative congressman. According to a poll of 500 registered voters in the 8th, 65% of voters believe former Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Duckworth has the best chance of defeating Walsh.

Against her opponent, former deputy State Treasurer Raja Krishnamoorthi, Duckworth held a 59% to 17% lead.

“I have never seen anyone overcome a 42-point deficit this late in the race,” President Obama strategist and Duckworth supporter David Axelrod said in a statement.

Krishnamoorthi’s campaign, however, begs to differ.

Full Story Here: Joe Walsh Trailing Democrats In Illinois 8th District Poll: Duckworth Leading Krishnamoorthi.

Colorado Republicans Push Bill To Allow Guns In Elementary Schools

Abandoning any pretense that they’re focused on job creation, Colorado Republicans have clarified their priorities for the new legislative session: guns rights. Specifically, they are doing their best to ensure that citizens have the unfettered ability to carry guns anywhere — including into elementary, middle, and high schools:

Colorado Republicans are reloading previous attempts to expand gun rights, bringing back legislation that would allow concealed weapons in schools and let businesses use deadly force against intruders.

Republicans say they want to protect Second Amendment rights, but Democrats accuse them of straying from the job-creation platform both parties promised to focus on this year.

A proposal running simultaneously in the House and Senate would allow concealed weapons on school grounds and college campuses if a person has a permit and another bill would let business owners and employees use deadly force against intruders.

Full Story Here: Colorado Republicans Push Bill To Allow Guns In Elementary Schools | ThinkProgress.

Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder’s Slave-Owning History

A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country’s founders being slave owners.

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.”

“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” Rounds said, according to The Commercial Appeal.

Full Story Here: Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder’s Slave-Owning History.

Rick Santorum On Opposition To Abortion In Cases Of Rape: ‘Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation’

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum explained his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape during an interview Friday, saying that women who face such circumstances should “make the best out of a bad situation.”

Asked by CNN’s Piers Morgan what he would do if his own daughter approached him, begging for an abortion after having been raped, Santorum explained that he would counsel her to “accept this horribly created” baby, because it was still a gift from God, even if given in a “broken” way.

“Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn’t, it will always be her child, and she will always know that,” Santorum said.

Full Story Here: Rick Santorum On Opposition To Abortion In Cases Of Rape: ‘Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation’.

Pawlenty Defends Unlimited Campaign Donations As Citizens United Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary

Two years ago today, the Supreme Court struck down longstanding restrictions on corporate money in American elections, paving the way for super PACs and major third party spending.

Since January 21, 2009, the Citizens United case has had a major effect on money in politics. Already in this year’s Republican presidential primary, we’ve seen a number of freespending super PACs play a major role in the race, including the pro-Mitt Romney Restore Our Future PAC, financed in large part by hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, and the pro-Newt Gingrich Winning Our Future, for whom casino mogul Sheldon Adelson recently cut a $5 million check. In fact, the total amount of money spent by outside groups thus far has outpaced spending by the campaigns themselves.

Despite the proliferation of super PACs and massive uptick in outside spending, former Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty still sees our campaign finance laws as too restrictive.

Full Story Here: Pawlenty Defends Unlimited Campaign Donations As Citizens United Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary | ThinkProgress.

Santorum Staffer Says Women Shouldn’t Be President Because It’s Against God’s Will

In an article about the reasons Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign fizzled, the Des Moines Register points to “sexism among conservatives,” singling out an offensive email written by a staffer to Rick Santorum:

Rival presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s Iowa coalitions director, Jamie Johnson, sent out an email saying that children’s lives would be harmed if the nation had a female president. [...]

“The question then comes, ‘Is it God’s highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will, … to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?’ ” Johnson’s email said.

Johnson, who remains on Santorum’s staff, complained that the email was “blown out of proportion” and should not be held against him because it was sent from a personal email account.

Full Story Here: Santorum Staffer Says Women Shouldn’t Be President Because It’s Against God’s Will | ThinkProgress.

GOP Rep. Berates Student Concerned About Pell Grant Cuts, Tells Her To Join The Military

To avoid a government shutdown at the end of 2011, Republicans succeeded in their campaign to cut the federal Pell Grant program by effectively kicking up to 100,000 low-income students off the rolls.

Last week, Arkansas constituent Kelly Eubanks, a college student who has two jobs and two children, confronted her Congressman, Rep. Steve Womack (R), at a town hall meeting over his attack on the program she now relies on. But instead of any explanation, Womack lashed out at Eubanks, telling her to pay her own way by “joining the military” like he did. After refusing to answer her question, he finally just asked her to “be quiet and listen.” Blue Arkansas reports:

According to Kelly and a handful of other witnesses, Womack happily retorted that it wasn’t the federal government’s job to pay for education (he’s doing this in a college town mind you) and then quickly added that he paid for his education by joining the military, apparently suggesting that the mom of two do the same and totally oblivious I guess to the fact that it was, in fact, the federal government that paid for his education then. Well Womack tried to skirt the rest of Ms. Eubanks question and she proceeded to try and get him to address the discrepancy she pointed out. Well at this point, according to Kelly and several other people that were in the room, Womack blew a gasket.

Full Story Here: GOP Rep. Berates Student Concerned About Pell Grant Cuts, Tells Her To Join The Military | ThinkProgress.

Republican Muslim Declared A ‘Terrorist’ By Own Party:

‘There Was A Well-Orchestrated Campaign Against Me’ 

The Republican Party’s dogmatic Islamophobia is increasingly self-destructive. With the majority of rank-and-file Republicans insisting that Muslims innately pose a threat to American society, Muslim Republicans are fleeing or being forced out of their own party. Florida Republican Nezar Hamze endured the latter when Broward County’s Republican Party Executive Committee rejected his bid for committee membership by a 11-158 vote. The chief charge against him? “Terrorist.” The committee even changed the rules for applicants just so Hamze could be subjected to an interrogation for five minutes, a rule he jokingly called the “Hamze rule.”

Last night on the Daily Show, correspondent Jason Jones sat down with Hamze to discuss the “well-orchestrated campaign” against him. Hamze noted that an individual had printed handouts before the vote that labeled him a “terrorist” and insisted “Islam is evil.” Jones sought out Joe Kaufman, the founder of the organization Americans Against Hate, to enlist his “help” considering that the group’s “goal is to be an active voice against those who spread bigotry and violence.” As it turns out, this “anti-bigotry crusader” actually distributed the fliers smearing Hamze as a terrorist. His chief reason for the charge? Hamze is the head of the local chapter of CAIR:

Full Story Here: Florida Republican Muslim Declared A ‘Terrorist’ By Own Party: ‘There Was A Well-Orchestrated Campaign Against Me’ | ThinkProgress.

Freddie Mac Lets Gingrich Release His Contract — Will He?

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has come under fire for his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which paid him $1.6 million to do “strategic advising,” which many charged was lobbying in everything but name. Gingrich has insisted he did not lobby for the company and was merely employed as a “historian.”

One way to settle the issue would for the former speaker to publicize his contract with Freddie Mac. Gingrich has not done thus far, saying he would like to, but is bound by a confidentiality agreement. A campaign lawyer contacted Freddie Mac, the campaign said, to request the waiver from the agreement. “They wouldn’t do it,” Gingrich said this week of the prospect of Freddie Mac allowing him to break the contract.

However, Bloomberg News reports today that Freddie Mac is okay with releasing the contract:

Full Story Here: Freddie Mac Lets Gingrich Release His Contract — Will He? | ThinkProgress.

Hit And Run: Boeing Leaves Kansas After Promising The State Jobs For $35 Billion Contract And Slew Of Tax Breaks

This week, defense and aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing announced that it will be closing the Boeing Defense, Space & Security facility in Wichita by the end of 2013, which “means the loss of 2,100 well-paying jobs at its Kansas facility, which was once considered the centerpiece of Wichita’s claim as the air capital of the world.” Boeing will instead be performing the operations that were scheduled for Wichita in San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

Boeing’s decision — which it blames on possible defense cuts that may take place in the future — is devastating to Wichita community, which also includes more than four hundred Boeing suppliers. Local news station Fox 4 covered the closure in a video report. Watch it:

Full Story Here: Hit And Run: Boeing Leaves Kansas After Promising The State Jobs For $35 Billion Contract And Slew Of Tax Breaks | ThinkProgress.

Santorum to Mother of Cancer Survivor: Sick to Blame for Pre-Existing Conditions Should Be Charged More

During a town hall in Keene, New Hampshire this morning, Rick Santorum told a mother whose son survived cancer that people with pre-existing conditions should pay more for health care coverage because they make poor health care choices. While specifically exempting the woman’s child from personal blame, Santorum insisted that the sick cost more to insure and insurers should charge them higher premiums:

MOTHER: The comments I heard you make in New Hampshire, comments that you support insurance companies’ right to refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions and that you also agreed with higher premiums for people who are sick, well my son graduated college and I pray that he gets a good job. Why is it alright for him to possibly be denied health care insurance or have to possibly pay a fee that he would not be able to afford or for a company not to hire him because he was five years old and he had cancer? …

SANTORUM: Insurance works when people who are higher risk end up having to pay more, as they should. In your case, your son obviously did nothing wrong. Obviously there are a lot of other people that increased their health risk that did do things wrong and as a result, it resulted in higher health care costs.

Full Story Here: Santorum to Mother of Cancer Survivor: Sick to Blame for Pre-Existing Conditions Should Be Charged More | Truthout.

Chairman of the Somerville Republican Committee videotaped boys in showers at NJ Catholic high school for 3 years

An educator using a secretly installed camera videotaped teenage boys in the shower at a Catholic high school for nearly three years, authorities said.

Patrick J. Lott, who was arrested last week, was arraigned Wednesday on charges he videotaped students in a communal shower area at Immaculata High School in Somerville starting in January 2008. He did not enter a plea.

The prosecutor’s office said that there were at least 22 victims and that nine boys identified in the videos are currently under the age of 16. To protect the boys’ identities, they were referred to only by their initials in court filings.

Lott, 54, is an assistant principal at a public middle school who volunteered at the Catholic high school. Authorities declined to provide further details about his volunteer position.

Full Story Here: Authorities: Educator videotaped boys in showers at NJ Catholic high school for 3 years – The Washington Post.

Virginia GOP Will Require Voters To Sign ‘Loyalty Oath’

Less than a week after announcing that only two GOP presidential candidates qualified to appear on their ballot, the Republican Party of Virginia has adopted a new measure that may leave voters in the state scratching their heads: a loyalty oath.

On Wednesday the Virginia State Board of Elections approved a request from the Virginia GOP that will require voters to sign a loyalty oath in order to participate in the state’s presidential primary on March 6. A spokesman for the state’s election board tells ABC News that although some details are still in the works, voters wishing to cast a ballot must take the pledge.

“We’re still working out the details for how things will work on election day,” says Justin Riemer, spokesman for Virginia’s State Board of Elections, “but the instructions state that they must sign before voting.”

Full Story Here: Virginia GOP Will Require Voters To Sign ‘Loyalty Oath’ – ABC News.

FACT CHECK: Ron Paul Personally Defended Racist Newsletters

Recently, Ron Paul has been subject to intense criticism over controversial newsletters written under his name in the 80s and 90s that frequently included racism, bigotry, and conspiracy theories. Over the last few days, Paul has responded that he did not write the newsletters and disavowed their contents, claiming this has been his consistent position for 20 years. Here’s what Paul told CNN on December 21:

PAUL: I never read that stuff. I never — I would never — I came — I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written… Well, you know, we talked about [the newsletters] twice yesterday at CNN. Why don’t you go back and look at what I said yesterday on CNN, and what I’ve said for 20-some years. It was 22 years ago. I didn’t write them. I disavow them and that’s it.

Paul’s denials, however, are not supported by the public record. When the newsletters first arose as an issue in 1996, Paul didn’t deny authorship. Instead, Paul personally repeated and defended some of the most incendiary racial claims in the newsletters.

In May 1996, Paul was confronted in an interview by the Dallas Morning News about a line that appeared in a 1992 newsletter, under the headline “Terrorist Update”: “If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet of foot they can be.” His response:

Full Story Here: FACT CHECK: Ron Paul Personally Defended Racist Newsletters | ThinkProgress.

Richard Nixon Had Gay Affair, ‘Nixon’s Darkest Secrets’ Claims

Watergate was only one of several scandalous aspects of former President Richard Nixon’s life, according to a new book by a former White House correspondent.

Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President by Don Fulsom (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.99), former correspondent for United Press International, makes several eye-catching accusations, including that the former president had a gay affair with Charles “Bebe” Rebozo, a banker apparently with ties to the mob.

The allegation is especially noteworthy because, as gay news website Queerty reports, Nixon was known to have made homophobic remarks.

Full Story Here: Richard Nixon Had Gay Affair, ‘Nixon’s Darkest Secrets’ Claims.

Ron Paul Took Credit For Controversial Newsletters In 1995 Interview

Ron Paul may now be backing away from controversial newsletters published in the 80s and 90s, but he took a different tone in a 1995 interview.

Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski unearthed this video of Paul taking credit for the newsletters.

“I…do a newsletter, it’s called the Ron Paul Survival Report,” he said. “It’s expressing concerning about surviving in this age of big government.”

Full Story Here: Ron Paul Took Credit For Controversial Newsletters In 1995 Interview (VIDEO).

A Conservative Christmas Carol of Scrooge, Marley, Gingrich and Romney

John Nichols :-:

There is something painfully fitting about the fact that the race for the GOP presidential nomination is hitting its peak during the Christmastide. The open disdain for the least among us, for the toilers in the vineyards, for strangers that has been expressed by Newt “End Child Labor Laws” Gingrich, Mitt “Corporations Are People Too” Romney and their immigrant-bashing, union-hating compatriots has given the 2012 race a distinct 1843 character.

In her exceptional new biography of Charles Dickens, Claire Tomalin explains that the novelist’s tale of that latter year, A Christmas Carol, was “Dickens’ response to the condition of the working class.” And she is right, up to a point. But A Christmas Carol is, as well, Dickens’s response to those who would blame the conditions imposed by economic inequality on children who have not taught themselves how to “rise.”

In seeking to awaken a spirit of charity in his countrymen, Dickens called attention to those who callously dismissed the poor as a burden and the unemployed as a lazy lot best forced to grab at bootstraps and pull themselves upward.

Full Story Here: A Conservative Christmas Carol of Scrooge, Marley, Gingrich and Romney | Common Dreams.

Romney: If I’m President, All College Grads Will Have A Job; If Obama Wins, They Won’t | ThinkProgress

Asked at a campaign stop in New Hampshire why young people should mobilize behind Mitt Romney for 2012, the candidate had a simple but comically pandering answer. Romney promised 21-year-old Kallie Durkit that he will deliver jobs to college graduates if he’s elected president — that as a businessman he knows “what it takes” to help them. If Obama is reelected, Romney explained, all college grads would be simply out of luck:

Kallie Durkit: Relatability has been a large issue for you on this campaign trail, and as a college student many people in my generation find it especially hard to relate to you as a candidate. Why should we mobilize for you as a candidate instead of Obama, which we did in 2008?

Mitt Romney: What I can promise you is this –- when you get out of college, if I’m president you’ll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That’s the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America.

Full Story Here: Romney: If I’m President, All College Grads Will Have A Job; If Obama Wins, They Won’t | ThinkProgress.

OPS: Should be be titled: Romney’s Desperation

More proof that republicans really believe the conservative base is completely brain-dean

Republican Security Advisers Tied to $40 Billion in Contracts

National security advisers to the Republican presidential candidates have ties to defense, homeland security and energy companies that have received at least $40 billion in federal contracts since 2008.

Five of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s 41 national security and foreign policy advisers have links to companies that last year alone received at least $7.9 billion in federal contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Government analyst Christopher Flavelle. Of that, $7.3 billion came from the Department of Defense.

Romney and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who are leading in the polls, have advisers who sit on the board of directors of BAE Systems Inc., which has received at least $37 billion in U.S. government contracts since 2008, the most of any of the companies with ties to Republican national security advisers.

Full Story Here: Republican Security Advisers Tied to $40 Billion in Contracts – Bloomberg.

Ron Paul Walks Out Of Interview After Facing Questions About Racist Content In Newsletter

Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) emergence as the front-runner in the Iowa GOP primary is bringing new scrutiny on Paul’s newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s. The newsletters, published under his name, included content claiming that African-Americans are trying to give white people HIV, suggested that Washington, DC is “anti-white and proud of it,” provided instructions on how to murder African-Americans, and warned of “malicious gay(s)” who spread HIV.

Yesterday, Paul walked out of an interview after CNN’s Gloria Borger pressed him on his role in publishing the racist content:

PAUL: I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it ten years after it was written. And it’s been going on twenty years that people have pestered me about this. And CNN does it every single time.

BORGER: Is it legitimate? Is it a legitimate question to ask that something that went out under your name? [crosstalk]

Full Story Here: Ron Paul Walks Out Of Interview After Facing Questions About Racist Content In Newsletter | ThinkProgress.

‘Shadowy’ Money in Iowa Only a Taste of What’s to Come

Outsider campaign spending, ads surge

Independent groups supporting Republican presidential candidates have sprung to life, funding a flurry of new commercials in recent days to influence the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and other early primary contests.

Restore Our Future, a conservative “super” PAC promoting Mitt Romney, is running $300,000 worth of ads in Florida that question the conservative credentials of GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich. The group also is spending $3.1 million in Iowa.

The Red White and Blue Fund, a super PAC backing former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, recently launched a $200,000 Iowa advertising campaign.

Full Story Here: Outsider campaign spending, ads surge – USATODAY.com.

Romney: Cutting Welfare Won’t Hurt The Poor

While appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney praised Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system in a shot at fellow presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

During the Sunday show, Romney criticized Gingrich, the former House Speaker, for making a statement in May that “cut the legs out” from under the plan, part of a 2012 budget Ryan proposed back in April.

“Are we going to deal with entitlement reform or not?” Romney asked. “Republicans came together, Paul Ryan was the author of the plan. But almost every single Republican voted for it, and the Speaker said this is ‘right-wing social engineering.’”

Full Story Here: Romney Challenges Gingrich On Medicare, Opposes Tax Cuts For The Rich.

Rick Perry’s ‘Early Retirement’ Allows Him To Boost His Income By 60 Percent

Texas’s longest-serving Governor, Rick Perry (R), is retiring at the end of his term in 2015, promising to walk away from his $150,000 annual salary. But by “officially” retiring early, the Texas Tribune reports that the 61-year-old has been taking home not only that salary, but also “lucrative pension benefits” that, altogether, ad up to a 60 percent boost in compensation:

Perry officially retired in January so he could start collecting his lucrative pension benefits early, but he still gets to collect his salary — and has in turn dramatically boosted his take-home pay.

Perry makes a $150,000 annual gross salary as Texas govenor. Now, thanks to his early retirement, Perry, 61, gets a monthly retirement annuity of $7,698 before taxes, or $6,588 net. That raises his gross annual salary to more than $240,000.

Full Story Here: Rick Perry’s ‘Early Retirement’ Allows Him To Boost His Income By 60 Percent | ThinkProgress.

Bashing School Meal Programs, Limbaugh Calls Poor Children ‘Wanton Waifs And Serfs Dependent On The State’ | ThinkProgress

Crooks & Liars catches conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh being even more insulting to poor children than usual. Limbaugh, who once gladly accepted government welfare himself, went on a rant about school meal programs during the school year that “condition [children] to not feed themselves.” According to Limbaugh, getting used to being fed by schools turns children who would otherwise starve into “wanton waifs and serfs dependent on the state.” “If you feed them, if you feed the children, three square meals a day during the school year, how can you expect them to feed themselves in the summer?” he asked. Listen here, courtesy of Media Matters:

Full Story Here: Bashing School Meal Programs, Limbaugh Calls Poor Children ‘Wanton Waifs And Serfs Dependent On The State’ | ThinkProgress.

Rick Santorum: Cut Heating Assistance, Unemployment Benefits

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said on Thursday he would end federal assistance for heating bills and cut down on unemployment benefits, adding that the programs are not necessary to help the country’s unemployed and low-income people.

“There were a lot of programs I supported in the past, but we’re just not in a position to do that anymore,” Santorum told a crowd of about 35 Iowans gathered in a small coffeeshop, referring to federal assistance for heating. “Just because these people need help doesn’t mean the federal government needs to help.”

Former Sen. Santorum (R-Pa.) previously supported the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides assistance to low-income families to pay for heat and cooling. He said he now sees it differently, and believes heating assistance should be done at the state or local level, or perhaps left to the private sector.

Full Story Here: Rick Santorum: Cut Heating Assistance, Unemployment Benefits.

Conservatives Now Mocking Sesame Street for Fighting Food Insecurity

Fox News got all het up about the Muppets being anti-Capitalist before coming to their senses. So it seems strange that conservatives would follow up that loser of a battle by criticizing Sesame Street’s campaign against child hunger by arguing that it’s “Brought to you by the letters ‘B’ and ‘G’… for Big Government.”

This is, of course, a depressing reflection on the state of the current conservative movement. It was a Republican, Sen. Bob Dole, who worked with Sen. George McGovern to make it easier for families to get food stamps and to expand school lunch programs (his commitment may originally have come from his agricultural constituents, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t help people get food assistance). It might be nice to believe that private charity can totally alleviate hunger, but that seems like an optimistic assumption even in the best of times. It doesn’t seem like a tragedy of bureaucratic overreach to suggest that in case of emergency, the government should provide its most vulnerable citizens with access to the minimum essentials they need to be able to work, or study—or live.

Full Story Here: Conservatives Now Mocking Sesame Street for Fighting Food Insecurity | ThinkProgress.

Meet The Florida Family Association: A Faux Outrage Generation Factory

The Florida Family Association (FFA) has attracted national attention this week for convincing Lowe’s and other companies to drop its advertising on the acclaimed new TLC reality show, All-American Muslim. Claiming a membership of 35,000 individuals, FFA’s only paid staff member is its president, David Caton, and it is not affiliated with any national organizations.

FFA is an organization devoted to manufacturing faux outrage. Here is an extensive — though likely quite incomplete — list of the organization’s attention-grabbing complaints over recent years:

Protests annual “Gay Days” at Walt Disney World: Every year, FFA objects to Walt Disney World’s “Gay Days,” when gay and lesbian people create visibility for themselves throughout the theme park. Disney does not officially sanction the event, but FFA calls on followers to complain to Disney officials that it takes place. This year, the organization even paid to have a banner flown over the Interstate 4 corridor warning travelers that Gay Day was that weekend.

Protested “Godless” Family Guy: FFA objects to Family Guy‘s “Godless, Christian bashing and depraved content” and has targeted advertisers such as Chrysler, General Mills, and others.

Claimed Modern Family “degrades marriage”: In 2009, the FFA complained about Toys R Us advertising on the Emmy-winning ABC sitcom Modern Family because it “degrades marriage and promotes same-sex couples and gay adoption.”

Full Story Here: Meet The Florida Family Association: A Faux Outrage Generation Factory | ThinkProgress.

Frum: Fox News creates an ‘alternative knowledge system’

Conservative columnist David Frum, who was speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, blasted Fox News on Sunday for creating an “alternative knowledge system.”

In an article published by New York Magazine in late November, Frum had argued that conservative media like Fox News and talk radio “immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.”

In an appearance on CNN Sunday, Frum cited claims made on Fox News that President Barack Obama was proposing a “new Christmas tree tax,” something that was found by both The Florida Times-Union and PolitiFact Oregon to be not true.

Full Story Here: Frum: Fox News creates an ‘alternative knowledge system’ | The Raw Story.

Gingrich Pledges Not To Commit Infidelity A Third Time, Reaffirms Opposition To Marriage Equality

As Iowa’s FAMiLY Leader prepares to endorse a presidential candidate ahead of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich has issued a statement affirming the Leader’s pledge to oppose marriage equality for gays and lesbians, deny women access to abortion, and reduce the debt. Read his full response here and the marriage excerpt below:

Defending Marriage. As President, I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts. I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman. I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

Full Story Here: Gingrich Pledges Not To Commit Infidelity A Third Time, Reaffirms Opposition To Marriage Equality | ThinkProgress.

Do The Small-Business Owners The GOP Claims To Listen To Even Exist?

Back in September, our own Christina Wilkie teamed up with Shawn Alff of Creative Loafing to talk with some small-business owners in the Tampa, Fla., area about how they were shaping up their operations in preparation for next year’s Republican National Convention. The proprietors went into great detail about their small business, the local economic climate, and their overall strategy for both dealing with and profiting from the economic opportunity that comes with hosting a large, historic political convention. One comment in particular, from a Joe Redner, caught my eye:

In the meantime, Redner’s got a few bones to pick with GOP policymakers. “[Republicans] keep saying this stuff about how if we tax the rich, then small businesses won’t be able to grow. But I’m a small-business owner, and I put all my money right back into my businesses in the form of capital improvements, which I don’t pay taxes on anyway. So their argument isn’t how reality works.”

Now on its own, this is just a stray piece of anecdotal data, wrapped in a complaint. Sure, we take Redner at his word that from his perspective, he is experiencing life as a business owner in the way he describes. And we need to remember that in any survey, there are always outliers. Plus, Redner runs a very specific business — the Mons Venus strip club — and that’s a pretty unusual entrepreneurial undertaking. (Also, all of the small-business owners Wilkie and Alff spoke with work in the local adult entertainment industry. I was just being coy in the lead paragraph!)

Full Story Here: Do The Small-Business Owners The GOP Claims To Listen To Even Exist?.

45 GOP Senators Filibustering Consumer Protection Nominee Have Received Millions From Wall Street This Year

The Senate today is scheduled to vote on the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It’s unlikely, at this point, that Democrats have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. Forty-five Republican senators have pledged to block any nominee until structural changes are made to the Bureau that would undermine its effectiveness.

Wall Street banks have been fighting the new agency tooth and nail, and as it turns out, the 45 Republicans who have vowed to block the agency’s director have been lavished with donations from the financial services industry, as the Public Campaign Action Fund noted:

Full Story Here: 45 GOP Senators Filibustering Consumer Protection Nominee Have Received Millions From Wall Street This Year | ThinkProgress.

Serial Vacationer Newt Gingrich Falsely Claims People Use Food Stamps To Go To Hawaii

As GOP contender Newt Gingrich rides an unexpected surge in the polls, he’s drawing a lot of criticism for his comments deriding poor children for not working and suggesting they should take up janitorial positions at their own schools.

Attacking poor Americans who need government aid is a favorite pastime for Gingrich — in nearly every speech he attacks President Obama for being a “food stamp president.” He took his routine even further this week when he claimed that food stamp recipients use their government aid to take trips to Hawaii:

So more Americans now get food stamps therefore and we now give it away as cash,” Gingrich said of President Obama. “You don’t get food stamps. You get a credit card and the credit card can be used for anything. We’ve had people take their food stamp money and use it to go to Hawaii.”

Full Story Here: Serial Vacationer Newt Gingrich Falsely Claims People Use Food Stamps To Go To Hawaii | ThinkProgress.

GOP Presidential Candidate Roemer: Romney Represents The 1 Percent And Gingrich Is Their Lobbyist

GOP presidential primary candidate and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer has distinguished himself from the rest of the field by allying himself with the 99 Percent, visiting Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C., and running on a platform of attacking Big Money and special interest influence in politics.

This afternoon, during an appearance on MSNBC, Roemer took both the media and his opponents in the race to task. Roemer told MSNBC that he has yet to hear a single question from debate moderators about where the leading candidates are getting their money from. He also concluded that former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney represents the 1 Percent and that Newt Gingrich is their lobbyist:

Full Story Here: GOP Presidential Candidate Roemer: Romney Represents The 1 Percent And Gingrich Is Their Lobbyist | ThinkProgress.

Despite A 0.0002 Percent Rate Of Voter Fraud, Reince Priebus Claims Wisconsin Is ‘Riddled With Voter Fraud’

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made a curious claim on MSNBC today, alleging that Wisconsin is a state “that was absolutely riddled with voter fraud.”

The problem? A recent study by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found just seven cases of voter fraud out of three million votes cast in Wisconsin during the 2004 election, a fraud rate of 0.0002 percent. All seven of these cases involved persons with felony convictions who weren’t eligible to vote after being released from prison.

Unfazed by the minuscule incidence of actual voter fraud – comedian Stephen Colbert joked that “our democracy is under siege from an enemy so small it could be hiding anywhere” – Priebus went on MSNBC to defend Wisconsin’s new photo ID requirement and yesterday’s anti-voting rights measure passed by the House GOP. When host Martin Bashir pushed the RNC Chair about his party’s motivations for restricting voting rights, Priebus pointed to his home state of Wisconsin and declared, “I come from a state in Wisconsin that was absolutely riddled with voter fraud, okay?”

Full Story Here: Despite A 0.0002 Percent Rate Of Voter Fraud, Reince Priebus Claims Wisconsin Is ‘Riddled With Voter Fraud’ | ThinkProgress.

Rick Santorum Defends Health Insurance Companies…

…For Denying Coverage To People With Pre-Existing Conditions

While speaking to a group of high school students in New Hampshire on Friday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum defended insurers for denying coverage or charging more to people with pre-existing conditions, using his own family as an example.

“We have a child who has a pre-existing condition and we went out and we said, we like this plan,” Santorum said, according to ThinkProgress. “We have to pay more because she has a pre-existing condition. Well, we should pay more. She’s going to be very expensive to the insurance company and, you know, that cost is passed along to us… I’m okay with that.”

Santorum’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Isabella has a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, a condition that often results in death within a year of birth. He recently began opening up about “Bella” on the campaign trail.

Full Story Here: Rick Santorum Defends Health Insurance Companies For Denying Coverage To People With Pre-Existing Conditions.

GOP Willing To Raise Payroll Taxes On 113 Million Households To Spare 345,000 Millionaires From Tiny Surtax | ThinkProgress

Senate Democrats yesterday introduced legislation — as they’ve been promising to — that would extend a soon-to-expire payroll tax cut, and pay for it by implementing a surtax on income above $1 million. Republicans, of course, are opposing the plan, reviving their false claims that taxing the very wealthiest Americans will hit small businesses and job creators.

In essence, the GOP is saying that it’s willing to allow higher taxes on middle- and lower-income Americans in order to prevent tax increases on the very wealthy. According to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, provided to the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, the surtax would affect exceedingly few taxpayers, while a payroll tax cut expiration would wallop more than 100 million households:

The surtax would impact around 345,000 taxpayers, roughly 0.2 percent of taxpayers, or one in 500 of them. Those people would pay on average an additional 2.1 percent of their overall income, or just over 1/50th of that overall income, in taxes.

In a majority of states, only one-tenth of one percent, or one in 1,000 taxpayers, would pay this surtax.

Full Story Here: GOP Willing To Raise Payroll Taxes On 113 Million Households To Spare 345,000 Millionaires From Tiny Surtax | ThinkProgress.

Georgia Business Declares New Company Policy: ‘We Are Not Hiring Until Obama Is Gone’

A business owner in western Georgia instituted a new company policy recently: “We are not hiring until Obama is gone.”

Bill Looman, who owns U.S. Cranes, LLC in Waco, Georgia, explained that while “I’ve got people that I want to hire now,” he didn’t think he would be able to foot the expense “unless some things change in D.C.”

Not content to simply implement the new policy internally, Looman decided to plaster it on all his company’s trucks. He did so, as 11Alive noted, “for all to see as the trucks roll up and down roads, highways and interstates.” Watch it:

Full Story Here: Georgia Business Declares New Company Policy: ‘We Are Not Hiring Until Obama Is Gone’ | ThinkProgress.

Newt Gingrich, Pseudo-Intellectual Free-Trade Kool-Aid Drinker

Ian Fletcher :-:

At least one Republican presidential candidate (Roemer) is actually good on trade issues. At least one (Romney) may be at least o-kay if he really means what he says.  At least one (Cain) is an odd mix of very good and very bad. And at least one (Perry) seems to be just naïve and corrupt on the subject.

But I have yet to report on a candidate who is proactively, deliberately, ideologically wrong on trade as a matter of high principle.

Until now.  His name is Newt Gingrich

Gingrich is, of course, already familiar to Americans from his unhappy stint as House Speaker in the mid 1990s, a stint which ended up disappointing both Democrats and his own Republicans.  Republicans, of course, abandoned him as leader in 1999 after he led his party to the worst-ever  Congressional loss by a party not in control of the White House.

And there was all that nastiness in 1997 about  allegedly using tax-deductible charitable donations to fund a non-charitable college course he taught—and of then lying about it to the House Ethics Committee. Was he innocent? Well, the House voted 395-28 to fine him an unprecedented $300,000 as part of a deal to avoid a full hearing, if that helps the reader any.

Gingrich seemed, as recently as a year or so ago, to have been relegated to well-paid has-been land—decorated, of course, with the polite fiction of his being an elder statesman of the party.

During this earlier career, Gingrich racked up a record of supporting every major wrong move on trade issues the United States has made in recent decades. To wit:

• In 1993, he supported the North American Free Trade Agreement. (Which wasn’t even enough, according to him.  He wanted to eventually add Chile to the deal with the aim of eventually expanding it to cover the entire New World.)

• In 1994, he  voted for creation of the World Trade Organization and American membership.
• In 1998, he supported Most Favored Nation (now  known as Permanent Normal Trade Relations) status with China.

Gingrich has been openly contemptuous of American sovereignty when it comes to trade.  He said, in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in June 1994,

I am just saying that we need to be honest about the fact that we are transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization. This is a transformational moment. I would feel better if the people who favor this would just be honest about the scale of change.

This is very close to Maastricht [a key European Union treaty], and twenty years from now we will look back on this as a very important defining moment. This is not just another trade agreement. This is adopting something which twice, once in the 1940s and once in the 1950s, the U.S. Congress rejected. I am not even saying we should reject it; I, in fact, lean toward it.

Gingrich’s naiveté with regards to America’s most formidable economic adversary, the People’s Republic of China, is astonishing. The following PBS interview excerpt is almost painful to read, pure Thomas Friedman fantasy:

INTERVIEWER: Was it a good thing to allow China to become an open trading partner?

NEWT GINGRICH: Absolutely…Trade increases the likelihood that you and they will engage in win-win activities. The difference between politics and trade is that in politics I may take something from you to give to somebody else, even though you don’t want to lose it, so I raise your taxes. I charge you a fee. I confiscate your farm. In a free market you only do the things that make you happy in order for me to get the things that make me happy, and if we’re not both happy the trade doesn’t occur. So free markets dramatically lower the friction of human relationships and increase the relative pleasure and the relative success of human relationships. The more the Chinese and Americans [sit] down together to create more wealth, the happier they’ll be with each other, the less likely we’ll have conflict.

No concept of state capitalism at all. No concept that under state capitalism, capitalism strengthens, rather than disciplines, the state.  No concept of mercantilism, or the idea that trade can be practiced by foreign nations as rivalry, with a deliberate agenda to weaken the U.S.

Gingrich doesn’t seem to have wised up since, either.  If one consults his current campaign website’s section on jobs and the economy, there is no mention of trade issues. I guess they’re just not that important, despite a $500 billion-a-year trade deficit. The closest he comes to trade issues is to suggest some policies to “strengthen the dollar.”  While I’m sure the use of the word “strengthen” may make some conservative hearts beat faster, a strong dollar is actually something that has been inflicted on us by Chinese currency manipulation, it is a bad thing, and we need to go in the other direction if we ever expect to balance our trade.

How did Gingrich end up with these appalling ideas?  I can’t plumb his personality, but one of his worst liabilities, on a personal and political level, is his astonishing pseudo-intellectualism.  Intellectually pretentious politicians are a dime a dozen in, say, France, but they are quite rare here, so he stands out for this. As a PhD and former history professor, he seems to instinctively believe that his thoughts go on a higher level than other politicians.

This is a recipe for disaster.

First, intellectuals rarely make good politicians. It’s just a different skill set. A historian can spend a lifetime pondering a question and then give a carefully hedged and nuanced answer. A politician must vote Yea or Nay today. A physicist can discover a theory than only a dozen other people in the world understand, win the Nobel for it, and deserve it.  A politician in a democracy must think and act in ways that millions can understand.

This doesn’t mean politicians shouldn’t be smart, but it does mean that they generally shouldn’t be intellectuals.

It’s no accident that we haven’t had a decent intellectual president since Teddy Roosevelt, who could have gotten tenure teaching history at any university he wanted and whose naval history of the War of 1812 is still a standard work on the topic. The Founders’ generation had a lot of highly intellectual political figures. But that’s unsurprising, as this was a time when the ideology this country is based on was new, so it took genuine brains to understand and fight for it.

What’s even worse is that Newt Gingrich isn’t even an actual intellectual so much as a pseudo-intellectual.  He’s not somebody who has mastered an actual intellectual discipline and takes seriously the idea of intellectual discipline—that is, thinking not however one might wish, but in accord with certain canons derived from objective reality.  He’s more somebody who just loves ideas. Especially big ideas.  I am told his staffers used to joke about having a whole filing cabinet labeled “Newt’s ideas” and a file folder labeled “Newt’s good ideas.” There’s a gaseousness, a love of big for the sake of big, a preference for the intellectually flashy over the boring truth, that runs through what he writes and says.  And it’s thus no surprise he’s so hot for globalism, this being one of the biggest, flashiest, most gaseous ideas since the death of Marxism.

America has already had one go at being the lab for Prof. Gingrich’s speculations; we don’t need another.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

Mitt Romney: ‘I’m Not Looking To Put Money In People’s Pockets’

If you’re looking for some extra spending money, don’t ask Mitt Romney.

The GOP candidate– who once had a hard time finding a bill in his wallet that wasn’t a $100– told an audience that “I’m not looking to put money in people’s pockets.”

Romney’s claim came in the middle of discussion of his economic plan at a campaign stop in Iowa. After skipping the Iowa Straw Poll this summer, he is taking a more aggressive approach to the state now that its primary is looming.

Full Story Here: Mitt Romney: ‘I’m Not Looking To Put Money In People’s Pockets’.

Sarah Palin Hacking Trial: Husband Todd Paid By Government To Attend Despite Not Testifying

The government paid nearly $2,500 for Sarah Palin’s husband to come to the trial of a Tennessee college student who hacked into her email – even though Todd Palin never testified, court records show.

In all, the government paid more than $29,000 to fly members of the Palin family and other witnesses to Knoxville, send a prosecutor to Alaska for research and pay other travel expenses, according to the Department of Justice records obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. Air travel totaled about $18,600, and hotel bills amounted to nearly $3,300.

Full Story Here: Sarah Palin Hacking Trial: Husband Todd Paid By Government To Attend Despite Not Testifying.

GOP Super Committee Co-Chair: Lawmakers Failed Because Democrats Refused To Privatize Medicare

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) faults the Democrats’ refusal to accept partial Medicare privatization for the super committee’s inability to come up with a bipartisan plan to lower spending in today’s Wall Street Journal. He writes, “Democrats on the committee made it clear that the new spending called for in the president’s health law was off the table” and pretends that the spending in the Affordable Care Act added to the deficit (it actually reduces it). “Republicans offered to negotiate a plan on the other two health-care entitlements—Medicare and Medicaid—based upon the reforms included in the budget the House passed earlier this year,” he continues and lays out the premium support proposal offered by Alice Rivlin and Pete Domenici:

The Medicare reforms would make no changes for those in or near retirement. Beginning in 2022, beneficiaries would be guaranteed a choice of Medicare-approved private health coverage options and guaranteed a premium-support payment to help pay for the plan they choose….These seniors would be able to choose from a list of Medicare-guaranteed coverage options, similar to the House budget’s approach—except that Rivlin-Domenici would continue to include a traditional Medicare fee-for-service plan among the options.

This approach was also rejected by committee Democrats.

The Congressional Budget Office, the Medicare trustees, and the Government Accountability Office have each repeatedly said that our health-care entitlements are unsustainable. Committee Democrats offered modest adjustments to these programs, but they were far from sufficient to meet the challenge. And even their modest changes were made contingent upon a minimum of $1 trillion in higher taxes—a move sure to stifle job creation during the worst economy in recent memory.

Full Story Here: GOP Super Committee Co-Chair: Lawmakers Failed Because Democrats Refused To Privatize Medicare | ThinkProgress.

OPS: The Face of Fascism.

Bill Mitchell, Illinois State Representative, Proposes Separating Cook County From Rest Of State (POLL)

Republican State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Decatur, introduced a bill Tuesday urging Congress to “enact legislation dividing Illinois and Cook County into separate states.”

The bill [HJR0052] argues that the state of Illinois is “functional to the extent that its people agree on politics, society, and economics.” Because, according to the bill, the majority of Cook County residents “hold different and firmly seated views on these important questions” than residents of the state’s other 101 counties and have roughly equivalent populations. They both should each “enjoy the chance to govern themselves with their firmly seated values,” the bill’s sponsors believe.

Mitchell’s bill goes on to cite Maine’s secession in 1819 from the state of Massachusetts after over forty years of being a “physically separate but politically contiguous” part of the state.

Full Story Here: Bill Mitchell, Illinois State Representative, Proposes Separating Cook County From Rest Of State (POLL).

Newt Gingrich Campaign Ad On How Child Labor Laws Are Stupid

Newt Gingrich’s new campaign ad on how child labor laws are stupid, and how schools should fire janitors and have poor kids clean the schools.

Full Story Here: Newt Gingrich Campaign Ad On How Child Labor Laws Are Stupid – YouTube.

Gingrich: Laws preventing child labor are ‘truly stupid’

Newt Gingrich proposed a plan Friday that would allow poor children to clean their schools for money, saying such a setup would both allow students to earn income and endow them with a strong work ethic.

Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the former House Speaker said his system would be an improvement on current child labor laws, which he called “truly stupid.”

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid,” Gingrich said. “Saying to people you shouldn’t go to work before you’re 14, 16. You’re totally poor, you’re in a school that’s failing with a teacher that’s failing.”

Gingrich then proposed a system he said would help those students rise from poverty.

Full Story Here: Gingrich: Laws preventing child labor are ‘truly stupid’ – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.

Cain Flubs Libya Again, Claims ‘Taliban’ Has Taken Control

At a press conference in Florida today, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain — whose foreign policy maxim is “peace through strength and clarity” — attempted to clarify his stance on Libya following his epic whiffing of a question on the country this week. Unfortunately for the former pizza executive, he only muddled things further today. First he attempted to blame the interviewer for not being “specific” enough and for supposedly selectively editing Cain’s response. (Over five uncut minutes of his remarks are visible on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s website.) Then, Cain erroneously claimed that the Taliban has taken control in Libya:

Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that Qadhafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you’ve got Taliban and Al Qaeda that’s going to be part of the government? … Do I agree with not knowing the government was going to — which part was he asking me about? I was trying to get him to be specific and he wouldn’t be specific.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: Cain Flubs Libya Again, Claims ‘Taliban’ Has Taken Control | ThinkProgress.

OPS: Republican, Clueless, and proud of it.

Santorum: Americans Should Suffer

During a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa Friday afternoon, Rick Santorum argued that Americans receive too many government benefits and ought to “suffer” in the Christian tradition. If “you’re lower income, you can qualify for Medicaid, you can qualify for food stamps, you can qualify for housing assistance,” Santorum complained, before adding, “suffering is part of life and it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life.” However, almost all states have curtailed their aid programs, just as the economic downturn is expanding the pool of eligible applicants. Watch it:

Full Story Here: Santorum: Americans Should Suffer | ThinkProgress.

Bachmann: A Seven-Foot Doctor Told Me Obamacare Requires The IRS To Pre-Approve Medical Treatments

Michele Bachmann prides herself for pressing Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but during an appearance at Webster City, Iowa Wednesday night, the Minnesota congresswoman proved that she’s also leading the charge in developing outrageous new attacks against the legislation. At the town hall, Bachmann complained that undocumented immigrants are exempt from paying for the law, claimed that a seven-foot doctor told her the IRS had to approve medical procedures, and reiterated her long-standing view that doctors and hospitals would provide free care to the uninsured if they were shielded from malpractice claims:

– “Under Obamacare illegal aliens don’t have to pay for Obamacare. Only American citizens pay for Obamacare. [...] Illegal aliens have the possibility of getting the care, but they have no requirement to pay for the care. Only the citizens do.”

– “One man stood up, he was over 7-feet tall. He was a physician in the community. And he said, ‘I had a little lady in my office and because of Obamacare, I had to call the IRS and I had to get a number to put on a form before I could see her.’”

Full Story Here: Bachmann: A Seven-Foot Doctor Told Me Obamacare Requires The IRS To Pre-Approve Medical Treatments | ThinkProgress.

Michigan Republicans Push ‘Fetal Remains’ Bill That Traumatizes Women Who Miscarry

Michigan Republicans have seized on a bogus story about abandoned fetal remains to push through a bill that callously disregards the feelings of women who have to abort wanted pregnancies for medical reasons.

RH Reality Check explains that here was never any proof to support an anti-abortion activist’s claim of finding fetal remains in an abortion clinic’s dumpster, but the anti-abortion lobby has nevertheless used the story as an excuse to propose an unprecedented bill about the disposal of fetuses.

Laura Berman of the Detroit News reports that as a result of the bill, one of the first questions hospitals may ask women who have just miscarried or had still births is “what do you want to do with the fetus?”:

Full Story Here: Michigan Republicans Push ‘Fetal Remains’ Bill That Traumatizes Women Who Miscarry | ThinkProgress.

Perry Quietly Signed Health Mandate That Didn’t Help Patients, Drove Up Costs, And Rewarded Donors

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has come under fire from his fellow GOP candidates for signing a mandate that required teenage girls to get HPV vaccines, despite his staunch public opposition to government interference in health care. The HPV mandate became even more damaging after it was revealed that Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the vaccine, was a major donor to Perry, and that a lobbyist who represented the company now heads a pro-Perry Super PAC that vowed to raise $55 million to support the governor’s presidential bid.

Now, the Center for Public Integrity reports on another troubling health care mandate Perry signed into law after receiving considerable funds from a pharmaceutical company that stands to benefit from it:

The 2009 measure, the Texas Heart Attack Prevention Bill, requires insurance companies to pay for CT scans and ultrasound tests that can detect heart disease. [...]

Full Story Here: Perry Quietly Signed Health Mandate That Didn’t Help Patients, Drove Up Costs, And Rewarded Donors | ThinkProgress.

The GOP’s victim-blaming strategy

From Iraq to OWS, Republicans are going to increasingly absurd measures to protect the wealthy

According to the most reliable counts, the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq has killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians, 650,000 Iraqi civilians or more than 1 million Iraqi civilians. In other words, we’ve vaporized the equivalent of Billings, Mont. (pop. 104,170), Memphis, Tenn. (pop. 646,889) or San Jose, Calif. (pop. 945,942).

Horrifying as these statistics are, imagine how much more disgusted you would be if a foreign power actually did vaporize those cities, and then followed up that annihilation by having its leading politicians and pundits demand that Americans pay reparations for the privilege of experiencing such devastation.

If this seems difficult to fathom, that’s only because we live in a culture defined by a particularly American lack of empathy — the fist-thrusting, crotch-grabbing, middle-finger-extending “USA!”-chanting kind that prevents many of us from seeing the world through any other nation’s eyes. Indeed, if we didn’t suffer from this blinding endemic, it would undoubtedly be considered bigger news — and a bigger outrage — that one of our major political parties is now regularly demanding Iraqis pay us remunerations for the expenses we incurred by invading and occupying their nation and then killing large numbers of their countrymen.

Full Story Here: The GOP’s victim-blaming strategy – Salon.com.

How Conservatives Exploit the Myth of “Wealthy Elderly” to Justify Gutting Social Security

Right-wingers somehow think that seniors with incomes under $30,000 a year must sacrifice to balance the budget.

The austerity gang seeking cuts to Social Security and Medicare has been vigorously promoting the myth that the elderly are an especially affluent and privileged group. Their argument is that because of their relative affluence, cuts to the programs upon which they depend is a simple matter of fairness. There were two reports released last week that call this view into question.

The first was a report from the Census Bureau that used a new experimental poverty index. This index differed from the official measure in several ways; most importantly it includes the value of government non-cash benefits, like food stamps. It also adjusts for differences in costs by area and takes account of differences in health spending by age.

While this new measures showed a slightly higher overall poverty rate the most striking difference between the new measure and the official measure was the rise in the poverty rate among the elderly. Using the official measure, the poverty rate for the elderly is somewhat lower than for the adult population as a whole, 9 percent for the elderly compared with 14 percent for the non-elderly adult population. However with the new measure, the poverty rate for the elderly jumps to 14 percent, compared with 13 percent for non-elderly adults.

Full Story Here: How Conservatives Exploit the Myth of “Wealthy Elderly” to Justify Gutting Social Security | | AlterNet.

Gingrich: Republicans ‘don’t rely enough on actually knowing things’

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says that the politicians in his party are guilty of relying on talking points instead of “actually knowing things.”

As Herman Cain’s poll numbers continue to collapse, CBN took another look at Gingrich on Tuesday and released never-before-seen clips of an interview he did with David Brody last month.

“One of the Republican weaknesses is that we rely too much on consultants and too much on talking points,” the former Speaker of the House explained. “We don’t rely enough on actually knowing things.”

Full Story Here: Gingrich: Republicans ‘don’t rely enough on actually knowing things’ | The Raw Story.

OPS: No Shit Newt. Just noticed this ‘eh?

Scott Walker Recall Campaign Ad To Air During ‘Monday Night Football’

On Monday night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) will kick off his campaign to beat a recall effort ahead of recall petitions due to be mailed out Tuesday.

Walker will be airing commercials on “Monday Night Football” on Nov. 14 in four television markets across the state. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal reported that the first-year governor will spend $300,000 on the ads Monday night, as well as purchasing with other commercials around the state. The game features the Green Bay Packers facing off against the Minnesota Vikings.

“That’s a big buy,” said a Democrat who has worked on statewide campaigns.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie referred questions to the state Republican party, which didn’t return calls.

Walker’s biggest buy is in Madison, where the first-term Republican governor will be spending more than $150,000 for air time on four network stations and cable.

Full Story Here: Scott Walker Recall Campaign Ad To Air During ‘Monday Night Football’.

Republicans Are Not Only Out To Help The Rich: RNC Chairman

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus defended the GOP on Sunday against the notion that its policies only favor the rich, arguing that Republicans are out to create jobs and cut taxes for people of all income levels.

“Of course the party doesn’t favor the rich, but what the party does favor is reducing taxes on every single American out there,” Priebus said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Making sure Washington is focused then on job creation, on cutting spending, on reducing the size of government — these are things that will spur the economy and these are things that are cornerstone to the Republican Party.”

As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to sweep the nation and Republicans and Democrats struggle to compromise on a deficit reduction plan, A recent CBS/New York Times poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believe Republican policies favor the rich. Only 9 percent believe they help the middle class.

Priebus blamed that perception on President Barack Obama.

Full Story Here: Republicans Are Not Only Out To Help The Rich: RNC Chairman.

Bachmann: If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps, and China’s growing!

We Should Be Less Socialist… Like China

more at cbs.com

Full Story Here: Bachmann: We Should Be Less Socialist… Like China – YouTube.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) melts down, yells hysterically “don’t blame banks!”

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) melts down, yells hysterically “don’t blame banks!”

Full Story Here: Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) melts down, yells hysterically “don’t blame banks!” – YouTube.

Deadbeat Rep. Joe Walsh, Who Owes $100k In Child Support, Receives ‘Pro-Family’ Award From Family Research Council

In July, the press learned that Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party freshman in Congress, owed $117,000 in unpaid child support to his ex-wife. Walsh, despite earning a hefty salary as a member of Congress, has continued to refuse to pay his ex-wife to support his children. Now, it appears, an influential Christian right lobbying group is lending some support to the deadbeat congressman.

The Sun-Times reports that the Family Research Council, a social conservative advocacy nonprofit headed by CNN pundit Tony Perkins, has awarded Walsh a 100 percent rating as a “True Blue” member of Congress. The FRC said it gave the honor to Walsh because of his “unwavering support of the family”:

“We thank Cong. Walsh who has voted consistently to defend faith, family and freedom,” said FRCA President Tony Perkins. “Cong. Walsh and other ‘True Blue Members’ have voted to repeal Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, end government funding for abortion within the health care law, uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and continue support for school choice. I applaud their commitment to uphold the institutions of marriage and family.”

Full Story Here: Deadbeat Rep. Joe Walsh, Who Owes $100k In Child Support, Receives ‘Pro-Family’ Award From Family Research Council | ThinkProgress.

OPS: Oh those whacky Kristian-Teabaggers

The Secret List Of 14 Words That Republicans Are Never Supposed To Use

At the very back of the now leaked Republican manual from Frank Luntz are 14 terms that Republicans are never supposed to use, and some of the words on the list may surprise you.

The leaked Republican manual is the entire framework which Republicans have been using for years to frame issues and win debates. Although it was written in 2006, much of the Luntz gospel is still not only in use, but is repeated verbatim daily by the GOP members of Congress and the candidates who are running for the 2012 nomination.

Here is the entire manual:

Full Story Here: The Secret List Of 14 Words That Republicans Are Never Supposed To Use.

Perry’s Tax Plan Would Cost More Than $500 Billion A Year While Increasing Taxes On Most Of The Middle-Class

2012 GOP presidential hopeful and Texas Gov. Rick Perry released a tax plan last week that would institute a 20 percent “flat tax,” while giving taxpayers the option of continuing to use the current tax code and all of its deductions and credits. Perry claims that he will be able to balance the budget while making the tax code simpler and fairer.

We already knew that Perry’s plan is the epitome of complicated and unfair, as it layers a new tax code on top of the old, and makes the new code incredibly advantageous to the wealthy by entirely exempting investment income from any taxation at all. And according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Perry’s plan would blow a gigantic hole in the deficit, while increasing taxes for those at the lowest end of the income scale.

In fact, compared to a current policy baseline (where tax revenue is already at historic lows), Perry’s plan would cost $570 billion in one single year. That’s more than half a trillion dollars in revenue, or more than 25 percent of the total revenue that will be collected this year.

Full Story Here: Perry’s Tax Plan Would Cost More Than $500 Billion A Year While Increasing Taxes On Most Of The Middle-Class | ThinkProgress.

Conservatives Have A Different Idea: Tax The Poor

The nation’s ongoing economic downturn has sparked an odd response from a growing number of conservative and Republican leaders: a desire to blame the unfortunate and a demand for the poor to pay more.

With the economy in its deepest crater since the Great Depression and the GOP pushed by the aggressively anti-tax Tea Party, the call to have the middle and working classes help the rich has reached levels not heard since Reagan-era attacks on the mythical “welfare queens.”

It’s most often expressed in the growing complaint that about half the nation’s households pay no federal income tax — an accurate figure that varies from 46 percent to 51 percent, depending on which set of statistics are being used.

Full Story Here: Tax The Poor: Forget Occupy Wall Street, Conservatives Have A Different Idea.

VIDEO: As Republicans Spread ‘Politics Of Division,’ They Hypocritically Accuse Opponents Of Doing The Same

Over the last few weeks, Republicans have begun decrying the “politics of division” supposedly emanating from the White House and Occupy Wall Street, climaxing with Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday. Clearly, these Republicans suffer from some memory loss, or a lack of self-awareness, or both. For some time now, these same people crying about “pitting Americans against Americans” have been enthusiastically labeling various people or groups in American politics as enemies, painting political disagreements as stark divisions over morality and worldview, and describing the Obama administration and Democrats as destructive, tyrannical, and un-American. ThinkProgress has the video report. Watch it:

Full Story Here: VIDEO: As Republicans Spread ‘Politics Of Division,’ They Hypocritically Accuse Opponents Of Doing The Same | ThinkProgress.

Republican Lawmakers Spin Funding Tall Tales

It’s an outrageous tale: The federal government spends one out of every $10 in transportation aid on wasteful projects such as refurbishing a giant roadside coffee pot and constructing turtle tunnels.

That’s what Republican lawmakers have said repeatedly in recent weeks in the Senate, in public appearances and in news releases. They are trying to eliminate a requirement that states use a portion of their highway aid for “transportation enhancements,” 12 categories of projects from bike and walking paths to scenic overlooks and landscaping.

But it’s not exactly true.

To make their case, lawmakers have exaggerated and misrepresented some projects that have received aid.

Full Story Here: Republican Lawmakers Spin Funding Tall Tales.

Perry’s Cornerstone Speech Highlights

Is he drunk or High?

Perry’s Cornerstone Speech Highlights – YouTube.

Trent Franks Thinks Marriage Equality Will Destroy Society

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) vehemently opposes LGBT equality at every turn, but today went so far as to call marriage equality “a threat to the nation’s survival.” This fear-mongering rivals that of Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern (R), who has repeatedly compared the LGBT community to terrorists. In his comments today to the Family Research Council, an anti-gay hate group, he suggested that marriage is a “special right” just for heterosexuals and that somehow marriage equality would eliminate the “launching pad of the next generation,” insinuating that society would die out as a result. Right Wing Watch has the full account:

FRANKS: We understand that when we’re granting the rights of marriage, that that’s a special right Tony, that’s something we have suggested is clearly the best possible way to see children raised through the best possible environment to launch the next generation, we believe that with all of our hearts as a society, I think most people understand that. So we’ve set aside this special area of the law that says we’re going to respect traditional marriage of a man and a woman because that is the launching pad of the next generation. Let’s face it; we have made a special exception in the law that gives special consideration and recognition to that.

Full Story Here: Trent Franks Thinks Marriage Equality Will Destroy Society.

‘StudentsFirst’ Spending $70,000 To Support MI GOP Rep. Who Backed Huge Education Cuts

Earlier this week, Michigan’s Flint Journal reported that Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst has been supporting Michigan GOP Rep. Paul Scott against a potential recall election. Altogether, StudentsFirst has spent and owed $70,000 of political spending on behalf of Scott.

This came as a shock to many, who viewed Rhee’s StudentsFirst as primarily a nonpartisan group dedicated to education reform. By spending tens of thousands of dollars defending Scott, StudentsFirst is drawing a decidedly political line. What’s more, Scott has been a vocal defender of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) economic and education policies, which have lead to significant reductions in the state’s K-12 school aid.

Full Story Here: ‘StudentsFirst’ Spending $70,000 To Support MI GOP Rep. Who Backed Huge Education Cuts | ThinkProgress.

VIDEO: As Republicans Spread ‘Politics Of Division,’ They Hypocritically Accuse Opponents Of Doing The Same

Over the last few weeks, Republicans have begun decrying the “politics of division” supposedly emanating from the White House and Occupy Wall Street, climaxing with Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday. Clearly, these Republicans suffer from some memory loss, or a lack of self-awareness, or both. For some time now, these same people crying about “pitting Americans against Americans” have been enthusiastically labeling various people or groups in American politics as enemies, painting political disagreements as stark divisions over morality and worldview, and describing the Obama administration and Democrats as destructive, tyrannical, and un-American. ThinkProgress has the video report. Watch it:

Full Story Here: VIDEO: As Republicans Spread ‘Politics Of Division,’ They Hypocritically Accuse Opponents Of Doing The Same | ThinkProgress.

Chicago Traders Mock Protesters: ‘We Are The 1 Percent Paying For This, You Are Paying For 1 Percent Of It’

Today, demonstrators from Occupy Chicago continued to protest economic inequality, undeterred by the arrests of 175 of their members by the city for staying overnight in Grant Park. As demonstrators marched past the Chicago Board of Trade, financial traders above dropped flyers upon them that said, “We Are The 1 Percent Paying For This, You Are Paying For 1 Percent Of It.” Here are some snapshots of both sides of the flyers:

Full Story Here: Chicago Traders Mock Protesters: ‘We Are The 1 Percent Paying For This, You Are Paying For 1 Percent Of It’ | ThinkProgress.

Even Pat Robertson Thinks Republican Voters Are Too Extreme

Today on The 700 Club televangelist and past Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson warned that the Republican primary base is pushing their party’s potential nominees to such extremes that they will be unelectable. While Robertson has said that he will not make an endorsement this cycle, in 2008 he caught flak from many in the Religious Right for supporting Rudy Giuliani. After a segment on Herman Cain’s ever-changing and completely incoherent views on abortion rights, Robertson told viewers that he thinks that the Republican presidential nominee may be unelectable if he or she embraces all of the policy positions of the party’s far-right base.

When even Pat Robertson thinks the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right, you know there is a problem:

Full Story Here: Even Pat Robertson Thinks Republican Voters Are Too Extreme | Right Wing Watch.

OPS:  Even THIS idiot is starting to get it

Perry Adviser Steve Forbes Crafted Flat Tax Plan That Would Have Given Himself A $1.9 Billion Tax Cut

After telling former pizza magnate Herman Cain — proponent of the 999 tax plan — that he’d be glad to “bump plans with you, brother,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is set to release his own flat tax plan tomorrow. While many details of the plan are still unknown, it is expected to take similar form to the flat tax pushed by Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Media, when he ran for president in 1996. Forbes officially endorsed Perry today and helped draft Perry’s version of the flat tax.

The flat tax proposal will likely fall short of generating the same amount of government revenue as the current tax structure, as most all flat tax plans do. What it will do, however, is provide a huge windfall to wealthy individuals like Forbes, whose net worth is already about $430 million. In fact, Citizens for Tax Justice analyzed the plan Forbes’ proposed in 1995 and found that it would give him a total tax break worth $1.9 billion over 30 years:

Taking Forbes up on his suggestion, Citizens for Tax Justice, a non-partisan research group, has updated its earlier analysis of Forbes’s personal tax savings from his proposed 17% flat tax. CTJ’s new, more “dynamic” analysis looks not only at Forbes’s current annual savings from his flat tax, but also at his long-term tax savings. Over the long term, CTJ estimates that Forbes’s tax savings from his flat tax would total approximately $1.9 billion.

Full Story Here: Perry Adviser Steve Forbes Crafted Flat Tax Plan That Would Have Given Himself A $1.9 Billion Tax Cut | ThinkProgress.

The Real Agenda Behind the Cain Tax Scheme

The tax plan of Republican candidate Herman Cain is the best current example of the real agenda of the GOP. It is a masterpiece of marketing, with its simple “9-9-9” label being reminiscent of a two-for-one pizza special. It would lower all Federal income tax rates to a single 9-percent rate, set the corporate rate at 9 percent, and levy a national sales tax of 9 percent. It has the sort of meretricious simplicity that appeals both to the simple-minded and the mainstream media. True to its “horserace” philosophy of covering politics, early on most of the the press declared Cain’s plan a brilliant campaign move without making any effort to evaluate its substantive merits.

Bruce Bartlett, formerly an economist in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations (and a fellow Republican apostate), analyzed the 9-9-9 tax plan. His conclusion: it decreases revenue as it drastically cuts the taxes of the wealthy and – here’s the kicker – raises taxes on the least well-off. And it does not in fact tax all income at 9 percent (so much for its appealing tripartite simplicity): it lowers the capital gains and dividend rates to zero. Generally, the richer the individual is, the more likely his income is to be derived from capital gains and dividends, which are already taxed at less than half the top marginal income tax rate. This current inequity in the tax code accounts for the fact that the 400 richest Americans have been paying an average effective Federal income tax rate of 17-18 percent since passage of the Bush tax cuts: little more than half the effective rate they had paid since the early 1990s – even as their combined income quadrupled. Cain’s plan would sharply increase this disparity.

Full Story Here: The Real Agenda Behind the Cain Tax Scheme » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Marco Rubio admits wrong dates in Cuban parents ‘exile’

A Florida Republican often touted as a possible 2012 vice-presidential candidate has admitted his Cuban parents did not come to the US as exiles from Fidel Castro’s rule.

Senator Marco Rubio acknowledges “getting a few dates wrong” about when they left the Caribbean island.

But the 40-year-old says any suggestion he had spun his background story for political advantage was “outrageous”.

He maintains communism in Cuba was a defining event in his parents’ lives.

Full Story Here: BBC News – Marco Rubio admits wrong dates in Cuban parents ‘exile’.

Cantor Cancels Income Inequality Speech After Learning It Will Be Open To The Public.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has abruptly canceled a speech planned for this afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania that was meant to lay out the GOP’s plans to address income inequality. While the university gave no reason for the cancellation, CNN is reporting that Cantor canceled after the university decided to make the speech open to the public. Cantor had signed up for a “selected audience.” The speech was seen as a response to the 99 Percent movement, and Occupy Philadelphia had organized a march from City Hall to the school. The march will still go on, as one of the the messages was that he refused to meet with his constituents to talk about jobs.

Full Story Here: Cantor Cancels Income Inequality Speech After Learning It Will Be Open To The Public. | ThinkProgress.

OPS: Proving once again that Republicans are Fascist Cowards.

Tea Party Group Urges Small Businesses ‘Not To Hire A Single Person’ To Hurt Obama

Congressional Republicans have acted shocked and offended at Democrats’ suggestions that they are intentionally sabotaging the economy to try to win back the White House in 2012. Republicans have refused to pass President Obama’s jobs plan — which experts estimate will create at least 1.9 million jobs — and proposed an alternative plan that Moody’s says “will likely push the economy back into recession.”

Now influential Tea Party leaders are throwing caution to the wind and openly lobbying business owners to stop hiring in order to hurt Obama politically. This week, Right Wing Watch picked up on a message Tea Party Nation sent to their members from conservative activist Melissa Brookstone.

In a rambling letter titled “Call For A Strike of American Small Businesses Against The Movement for Global Socialism,” Brookstone urges businesses “not hire a single person” to protest “this new dictator”:

Full Story Here: Tea Party Group Urges Small Businesses ‘Not To Hire A Single Person’ To Hurt Obama | ThinkProgress.

Sen. Sessions Wants To Cut Food Stamp Program, Claiming It Has ‘Surged Out Of Control’

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is pushing a new amendment that would make it more difficult for people to receive food stamps by restricting eligibility requirements and eliminating a planned $9 billion funding increase for the program. Sessions says his plan is intended to reduce the deficit and combat fraud, which he claims is rampant. From ABC News’ Top Line today:

SESSIONS: No program in our government has surged out of control more dramatically than food stamps. And nothing is being done about it. [...] Multimillion dollar lottery winners are getting food stamps because the money is considered to be an asset not an income. One of the fast and furious gun buyers –

HOST: But hold on, for ever lottery winner that has food stamps, there’s probably a lot more people who really need them who have them, right?

SESSIONS: Well look, do you think there are four times as many people who need food stamps today as in 2001. That answers itself. [...] We cannot do this. We do not have the money. Congress doesn’t understand that we can’t afford to double the program every three years.

Full Story Here: Sen. Sessions Wants To Cut Food Stamp Program, Claiming It Has ‘Surged Out Of Control’ | ThinkProgress.

Birthers say Marco Rubio is not eligible to be president

Unable to prevent Barack Obama from becoming president, rigid followers of the Constitution have turned their attention to another young, charismatic politician many think could one day occupy the White House.

The birthers are calling for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the budding Republican star from Florida.

“It’s nothing to do with him personally. But you can’t change the rules because you like a certain person. Then you have no rules,” said New Jersey lawyer Mario Apuzzo.

Full Story Here: Birthers say Marco Rubio is not eligible to be president – St. Petersburg Times.

The GOP Loves the Federal Spending it Hates

Jim Hightower :-;

Sen. McConnell’s tirade about the Solyndra debacle would’ve had a lot more moral punch if it were not for Zap Motors.

Whatever else you think about tea-party-infused Republican leaders in Congress, at least they’re consistent in their opposition to big government intrusion in the economy, right?

Absolutely. Unless you count intrusions of taxpayer funds into corporate projects back in their districts.

For example, President Barack Obama’s effort to accelerate federal-backed loans to job-creating, green-energy projects has been a target of howling Republican ridicule. In particular, they’re now assailing a 2009 loan guarantee to the failed solar-panel maker, Solyndra, holding it up as proof that green energy programs are a waste, driven by raw politics.

Full Story Here: The GOP Loves the Federal Spending it Hates – OtherWords.

Protesters Confront Rep. Barletta At Town Hall: ‘Stop Treating People Like We’re The Dogs’

Freshman Tea Party Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) was one of several Republicans who refused to hold free and open town hall meetings this summer, choosing to meet only with those who were willing to pay a fee. After a contentious town hall meeting in Hazleton yesterday, it’s not hard to understand why Barletta wanted to avoid his angry constituents.

The Standard Speaker reports that protesters grilled Barletta on everything from jobs to Social Security:

Emotions ran high during Barletta’s fifth stop on his “Home to House” town hall tour at Hazleton City Hall, with a handful of attendees who packed Council Chambers questioning the congressman’s voting record on free trade, health care and jobs.

“You’re not doing your job, Mr. Lou,” said Stroudsburg resident Jennie Schaefer. “Stop treating people like we’re the dogs waiting under the table for some scraps.”

Full Story Here: Protesters Confront Rep. Barletta At Town Hall: ‘Stop Treating People Like We’re The Dogs’ | ThinkProgress.

Romney adviser: Women ‘aren’t discriminated against anymore’ | The Raw Story

A legal adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign recently told Newsweek that women are no longer discriminated against in the United States.

Romney announced the formation of his “Justice Advisory Committee” in August. The group is co-chaired by former District of Columbia federal appeals judge Robert Bork.

Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, but the Senate rejected his nomination because of his controversial political philosophy. He had claimed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment should apply only to racial and not gender discrimination, among other things.

Full Story Here: Romney adviser: Women ‘aren’t discriminated against anymore’ | The Raw Story.

Cantor To Give Speech On Income Inequality And ‘How We Make Sure The People At The Top Stay There’

As the 99 percent movement protests spread across the globe, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) finally agreed yesterday that “there is too much income disparity” in the U.S. and determined that the government should rely on America’s wealthy to take care of this “complaint.” Continuing this theme, Cantor announced today that he will give an address on income disparity “and how Republicans believe the government could help fix it” on Friday. According to his aide, Cantor will specifically focus on how Washington can help “a single working mom…a small business owner..and how we make sure the people at the top stay there.” Of course, with the continued preferential tax treatment the nation’s wealthy are receiving from House Republicans, it doesn’t seem like they’ll have a problem staying at the top at the expense of the middle class.

Full Story Here: Cantor To Give Speech On Income Inequality And ‘How We Make Sure The People At The Top Stay There’ | ThinkProgress.

Newt Gingrich Campaign Debt Tops $1.1 Million

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid is more than $1.1 million in debt.

The Georgia Republican on Saturday said he had about $350,000 in the bank and brought in more than $800,000 during the last three months. The presidential contender says the average donation was $76.

Gingrich’s presidential bid has faced serious challenges, including the resignation of his top aides earlier this year. He spent heavily in the first weeks of his campaign and racked up bills. In the last three months, he paid down $346,000 of that. But he continues to spend; of the roughly $808,000 he raised from July to October, he spent almost $777,000.

Full Story Here: Newt Gingrich Campaign Debt Tops $1.1 Million.

Extensive ties to a powerful Koch group boost Cain

KochCain?

Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation’s capital. But Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his plan to rewrite the nation’s tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

The little-known businessman’s political activities are getting fresh scrutiny these days since he soared to the top of some national polls.

Full Story Here: Extensive ties to a powerful Koch group boost Cain – Yahoo! News.

Liam Fox resignation exposes Tory links to US radical right

Labour and Lib Dem politicians have stepped up demands for the PM to explain ministers’ involvement with Atlantic Bridge

David Cameron has been accused of allowing a secret rightwing agenda to flourish at the heart of the Conservative party, as fallout from the resignation of Liam Fox exposed its close links with a US network of lobbyists, climate change deniers and defence hawks.

In a sign that Fox’s decision to fall on his sword will not mark the end of the furore engulfing the Tories, both Liberal Democrat and Labour politicians stepped up their demands for the prime minister to explain why several senior members of his cabinet were involved in an Anglo-American organisation apparently at odds with his party’s environmental commitments and pledge to defend free healthcare.

At the heart of the complex web linking Fox and his friend Adam Werritty to a raft of businessmen, lobbyists and US neocons is the former defence secretary’s defunct charity, Atlantic Bridge, which was set up with the purported aim of “strengthening the special relationship” but is now mired in controversy.

Full Story Here: Liam Fox resignation exposes Tory links to US radical right | Politics | The Observer.

Romney’s Emerging Economic Strategy: Blame China

Ian Fletcher :-:

I’ve just seen one of Mitt Romney’s new campaign commercials, here, or watch it below.

Romney’s emerging economic strategy is clear: blame China. Not only does this get the heat off of GOP-linked (yes, I know) constituencies like Wall Street, it also skewers the administration, which has played appeaser to Beijing.

Some might call this a cynical case of scapegoating. Comparisons to the old red scare and yellow peril will doubtless be forthcoming.

But this raises an interesting question: Is scapegoating still scapegoating when the scapegoat is guilty? The Chinese economic threat is hardly imaginary, unless one still believes in the Pollyanna “free” (as if!) trade economic fantasies of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Cato Institute, and the Wall Street Journal.

I wrote before about what Romney and the Republican establishment may be up to here: pivoting to economic nationalism as the only rightist economic ideology that is still viable in this country.  On some level, I think that this establishment knows that it’s either that or be swept away in some leftist deluge, even if not an immediate one.

As I noted in this article and this one, the datapoints on Romney’s true intentions are unclear. But the picture does seem to be firming a little, as the more he stays on this trope, the harder it will be to walk away from it if elected.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

VIDEO: Republicans Change Their Tune On The 99 Percent Movement

ThinkProgress has already reported on the disdainful reaction the 99 Percent Movement initially received from the mainstream corporate media, as well as the notable double standard in the right-wing media’s coverage of the movement versus the Tea Parties.

But as the protests have demonstrated their staying power, and polls have shown Americans support the movement, a number of Republican politicians have come around on the 99 percent. After leading the denigration and belittling of the movement, some softened their tone, offering understanding and compassion for those in the 99 percent movement. ThinkProgress has the video report. Watch it:

Full Story Here: VIDEO: Republicans Change Their Tune On The 99 Percent Movement | ThinkProgress.

Tea Party Profiteer Visibly Concerned About Losing Influence & Cash Because Of Occupy Wall Street

October 14, 2011 CNN

Full Story Here: Tea Party Profiteer Visibly Concerned About Losing Influence & Cash Because Of Occupy Wall Street – YouTube.

Top North Carolina Republican: We Must ‘Divide And Conquer’ Welfare Recipients, Deny Assistance To Single Moms

Speaking to a crowd at Mars Hill College last week, North Carolina state House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) extolled the virtues of drug testing low-income people who need welfare benefits, declaring that they need to be “conquer[ed]” because “the money’s not getting to the right people.” “You go in and you see a woman in a wheelchair — she’s from here, she’s from Asheville — who’s on the brink of losing her benefits, and you know that Health and Human Services is sending checks to a woman who has chosen to have three or four kids out of wedlock,” he said. Aghast at such decisions, he declared that government must “find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on assistance”:

TILLIS: At some point, we’ll say, ‘First kid, we’ll give you a pass. Second, third or fourth kid, you’re on your own. But what we have to do is find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on [public] assistance. We have to show respect that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice in her condition, that needs help, and we should help.

Full Story Here: Top North Carolina Republican: We Must ‘Divide And Conquer’ Welfare Recipients, Deny Assistance To Single Moms | ThinkProgress.

NEW ANALYSIS: The Three Things You Need To Know About Herman Cain’s 999 Plan

Our guest blogger is Michael Linden, Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Herman Cain’s 999 plan was the star of the GOP’s primary debate this week, and with the increased attention has come increased scrutiny. Cain has been slow to let the details of his plan dribble out, but in an attempt to back up his claims that the plan is revenue-neutral and not regressive, his campaign finally revealed some specifics yesterday. With those new details, here is an updated analysis, with the three main things you need to know about 999:

1) 999 Will Raise Taxes On Middle- And Low-Income Americans, By A Lot:

Cain’s tax plan consists of three different 9 percent taxes — one on wage income (investment income is exempt), one on sales of goods and services (including food, housing, and medicine), and one on business income (investments and purchases from other businesses are deductible; wages, however, are not). But most Americans will end up paying all three of those taxes, for a combined tax rate of 27 percent of their income.

Full Story Here: NEW ANALYSIS: The Three Things You Need To Know About Herman Cain’s 999 Plan | ThinkProgress.

Florida GOP Rep. Wants To Bring Back Electrocution And Firing Squads: ‘I’m So Tired Of Being Humane’

Considering the case of Florida death row inmate Manuel Valle in August, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state’s use of its lethal injection drug is constitutional and lifted his temporary stay of execution. The 61-year-old Cuban was executed in September after 33 years on death row for killing a police officer.

Florida state Rep. Brad Drake (R) is angry that Valle’s execution took so long. So angry, in fact, that he introduced a bill yesterday to eliminate lethal injection as a execution method altogether in favor of electrocution or the firing squad. “I’m sick and tired of this sensitivity movement for criminals,” Drake declared.

Drake got this ingenious idea to bring back electrocution and firing squads from an equally ingenious place: a Waffle House. Overhearing a constituent call for such methods, Drake said he decided to file the bill. After all, “if it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge,” he said:

Full Story Here: Florida GOP Rep. Wants To Bring Back Electrocution And Firing Squads: ‘I’m So Tired Of Being Humane’ | ThinkProgress.

Sen. Mark Kirk: ‘It’s Okay To Take Food From The Mouths Of’ Innocent Iranians

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), one of Washington’s most reliably hawkish politicos on Iran, made clear yesterday that he wants to go over the heads of the Iranian regime and appeal to the Iranian people’s hearts and minds — and he’s willing to forsake their stomachs to do it.

Appearing on a local Chicago radio show, Kirk said the allegedly Iranian-backed assassination plot exposed by the Obama administration yesterday was the perfect excuse to impose broad-based economic sanctions. So broad-based are Kirk’s sanctions that they’re specifically designed to collapse Iran’s currency, the Rial, by targeting the Islamic Republic’s central bank. Kirk was one of a few Republicans to say in the past two days that the allegedly Iranian-backed assassination plot constituted an act of war.

One of the show’s hosts, Ron Majors, asked Kirk whether, as is often the case with sanctions, going after the Iranian economy with such a broad brush stands to hurt ordinary Iranians. Kirk, who acknowledges later in the interview that the current government was “only able to hold onto power by stealing [the] last election,” then made the stunning admission that he didn’t see anything wrong with literally denying food to ordinary Iranians.

Here’s the exchange:

Full Story Here: Sen. Mark Kirk: ‘It’s Okay To Take Food From The Mouths Of’ Innocent Iranians | ThinkProgress.

Journalists Funded By ‘Vulture Capitalist’ Paul Singer Campaign To Smear Wall Street Protests

The campaign to marginalize and destroy the growing 99 Percent Movement is in full swing, with many in the media attempting to smear the people participating in the “occupation” protests across the country. However, several of the so-called journalists deriding, and in some cases sabotaging the movement, have paychecks thanks to a billionaire whose business practices have been scorned as among the worst of the financial elite.

As the New York Times has documented, Paul Singer, a Republican activist and hedge fund manager worth over $900 million, has emerged as one of the most important power brokers within the GOP. Now, it appears that the reporters financed by Singer are at the forefront of efforts to tarnish the reputation of 99 Percent Movement demonstrators:

Journalist Who Admitted To Infiltrating Protests To ‘Mock And Undermine’ The Movement Works For A Singer-Supported Right-Wing Magazine. In a column posted last night, reporter Patrick Howley admitted that he had surreptitiously joined an anti-war spin-off group from the OccupyDC protests that planned to demonstrate at a military drone exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space museum. Howley wrote that he “infiltrated” the action and sprinted into the police along with a few protesters in order to “mock and undermine” the movement. Singer is a major donor to the Spectator, a right-wing magazine known for its role in the “Arkansas Project,” a well-funded effort to invent stories with the goal of eventually impeaching President Clinton.

Full Story Here: Journalists Funded By ‘Vulture Capitalist’ Paul Singer Campaign To Smear Wall Street Protests | ThinkProgress.

Topeka, Kansas City Council Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence To Save Money

Faced with their worst budget crises since the Great Depression, states and cities have resorted to increasingly desperate measures to cut costs. State and local governments have laid off teachers, slashed Medicaid funding, and even started unpaving roads and turning off streetlights.

But perhaps the most shocking idea to save money is being debated right now by the City Council of Topeka, Kansas. The city could repeal an ordinance banning domestic violence because some say the cost of prosecuting those cases is just too high:

Last night, in between approving city expenditures and other routine agenda items, the Topeka, Kansas City Council debated one rather controversial one: decriminalizing domestic violence.

Here’s what happened: Last month, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office, facing a 10% budget cut, announced that the county would no longer be prosecuting misdemeanors, including domestic violence cases, at the county level. Finding those cases suddenly dumped on the city and lacking resources of their own, the Topeka City Council is now considering repealing the part of the city code that bans domestic battery. [...]

Full Story Here: Topeka, Kansas City Council Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence To Save Money | ThinkProgress.

Herman Cain: Tax Poor People’s Food To Finance Massive Tax Break For The Rich

The centerpiece of former pizza czar Herman Cain’s presidential campaign is his “999″ plan, which would slash taxes on the wealthy, drive up deficits to the worst point since World War II, and force low-income Americans to pay a massive nine times their current tax rate. In an interview this morning with CNN’s Candy Crowley, Cain even said food and clothing would not be exempt from the 9 percent national sales tax he would put in place if elected president. Indeed, he said it would be “fair” for a poor person to pay as much in sales taxes as Crowley does:

CROWLEY: Is there any exception, as you see it, in this consumption tax? Except for clothing, perhaps? Except for food? [...]

CAIN: Nope, you don’t have to do that. Nope, you don’t have to do that. [...]

CROWLEY: So a poor person is paying the same amount of taxes on groceries as I am? Does that sound fair to you, just in a vacuum?

CAIN: Yes, it does sound fair because of the other point I’m about to make. If they need to buy a car or a home or some hard goods that are used, they pay no taxes.

Full Story Here: Herman Cain: Tax Poor People’s Food To Finance Massive Tax Break For The Rich | ThinkProgress.

Is Herman Cain Any Good on Trade? You Try and Figure it Out

Ian Fletcher :-:

Maybe Herman Cain, the latest boomlet in the Republican presidential race, will be elected president. Or maybe his fifteen minutes of fame have just arrived.

Either way, it behooves us to see what he thinks about America’s trade mess.

There are some encouraging signs.  For a start, here’s what he wrote in his column about China earlier this year:

China’s economic dominance would represent a national security threat to the USA, and possibly to the rest of the world.

Look at the facts. China has a billion more people than we do. They aspire to have a greater military might than we do. They currently hold over 25 percent of our national debt. And they have a different view of human rights and how to maintain peace in the world.

It would be naïve to think that China would not be tempted to flex its worldly might if it were bigger than us economically and militarily. And it would be equally naïve to think we could influence their actions on currency or anything else with diplomacy or two verses of Kumbaya.

Appeasement is not a strategy. As Ronald Reagan proved, strength is the strategy. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have shown that appeasement just buys the Chinese more time to talk until they can equal us in size and might.

So far, so good.  He seems way beyond the “let’s all hold hands and do business together” nonsense that the Obama administration, and half his Republican rivals (notable exceptions being Mitt Romney, maybe, and Buddy Roemer, for sure) believe in.

But keep reading, because there’s a problem.  He goes on to say:

Our China strategy should be two simple words. Outgrow them!

There is no doubt that we can outgrow China, but right now we lack the leadership with the courage to propose and implement aggressive economic growth strategies.

Now with all due respect to Mr. Cain and our beloved U.S. economy, this is preposterous.

China has been averaging growth nearing 10 percent a year for three decades now. The U.S. has never grown that fast, ever, except for exceptional periods like 1941 to 1945, when we ramped our economy out of  Depression by the brute force of military spending. Even in our own glory days of the late 19^th century, when we were the new industrial big boy on the block, our economy didn’t grow that fast. We grew faster than the 1-3 percent we expect today, but not as fast as China is growing now.

The basic reality is that China grows as fast as it does mainly because it is a developing country that can grow simply by catching up to the technological standards of the already-developed nations. Every time someone in China moves from toiling in a medieval rice paddy to working in a modern factory, their output doubles. Every time someone in China is the first member of their family to go to college, their output goes up.

But 99% of the U.S. population is already living in the modern world economically, so these easy gains aren’t an option for us.

Every other developed nation is in the same boat. This is why Germany’s growth slowed after the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”) of the 1950s and 1960s, when the nation was recovering from the economic primitiveness imposed by the B-17. It’s why Japan’s growth slowed after about 1990. And it’s why even China’s growth will slow one day.

There’s absolutely no mystery here, and it’s dangerous nonsense to imagine that the U.S. could somehow match China’s growth rate if only we tuned our economic engine a bit better.  Sure, we can do better than we’re currently doing.  But matching Chinese growth is a fool’s errand.

So why does Herman Cain want to try?  Reading a little further in his column supplies a plausible answer:

We need to lower corporate tax rates, starting with dropping the top rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. We are the only nation on the planet that has not lowered its corporate tax rates in more than 15 years. And people wonder why so many jobs have left the USA. It’s not just cheaper labor in more business-friendly nations. It’s also taxes!

We must lower the capital gains tax rate to zero. Suspend taxes on repatriated foreign profits. Give every worker in America a 6.2 percent raise and every business a cost break by suspending the payroll tax for a year. Then! Make the tax rates permanent until they are lowered again in the future to remove this veil of uncertainty hanging over our economy.

Yes, these are aggressive proposals.  It’s going to take aggressive leadership in the White House to get it done. It won’t be easy. But I don’t avoid doing what’s right just because it’s going to be difficult to achieve. That’s not in my DNA.

We can outgrow China because the USA is not a loser nation. We just need a winner in the White House.

Aha!  So it’s all really a pitch for lower corporate and capital gains taxes!  Supposedly, if we cut taxes enough (and perhaps, to be fair, do a few other things he doesn’t mention here), we can outgrow China.

Sorry, but this is delusional.  If Cain really means it, we are in economic Dr. Strangelove territory here.

Granted, America needs reasonable tax rates to prosper.  Excessive taxation is an economic drag, and Republicans are entitled to embrace a Republican definition of what “excessive” is. But the idea that we can tax-cut our way to double-digit compound growth is absurd, and peddling this nonsense to push corporate tax cuts is either extremely cynical or an insult to the intelligence of the American voter.

Now let’s look at what Cain has said specifically about trade.  He has reportedly said:

Uncle Sam has got to stop being Uncle Sucker. We don’t need “free trade” where other countries get rich at our expense, but “fair trade” where everyone plays by the same rules and everyone benefits.

Hmm… This sounds good, but we’ve still got a number of problems here.

For a start, he says he’s against free trade. That’s good.  But “fair” trade where nations behave according to “the same rules” is a bit of a problem—for the simple reason that it’s extremely unlikely to happen with nations that view trade as adversarial and don’t share our conceptions of fairness.

Who’s going to decide what’s fair and enforce it on a nuclear power with three trillion dollars in its bank account?

The standard answer here is “the WTO.” But we tried that.  The whole history of the WTO since its founding in 1995 is one long object lesson in the impossibility of global free trade based on shared rules of fairness.

Far better to demand of our trading partners something like reciprocity, which is an arithmetical concept independent of political culture or shared values. Even the Soviets understood reciprocity when it was backed up with credible power.

Cain exhibited the same frustrating mix of sense and nonsense in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

Interviewer: On free trade, do you support NAFTA, do you support CAFTA, do you support these free trade agreements? Where do you stand on trade?

Herman Cain: There are parts of NAFTA and CAFTA that I support, but I am sure that there are parts that I don’t support, so I can’t give you a specific answer. Basically though, I do support free trade agreements that are done correctly, where we don’t give away more than we gain.

And the reason is because we truly are in a global economy. It doesn’…’’’… moret make sense to be protectionist in a global economy the way we have.

Secondly, the fact that we’ve lost so many jobs to other countries… One of the ways to help with jobs in our own economy is to have good free trade agreements with our friends. Not these one-sided ones, but good trade agreements with other countries around the world.

So, bottom line, where does Herman Cain stand?  I honestly can’t tell, because there’s enough wiggle room in the above statements to drive a container ship through.

If interpreted the right way, they constitute a formula for serious reform of NAFTA and our other trade agreements. Cain seems to understand, for one thing, that mutual gains from freer trade are not automatic, but depend on successful U.S. negotiating.

If interpreted the wrong way, they constitute an Obama-style formula for pretending to be serious about trade reform while not being so.

I’m especially worried about that line about we can’t be protectionist because we’re in a global economy.  The fact of a globalized economy doesn’t, on its own, settle anything about protectionism vs. free trade.

Mr. Cain, you’re showing a few signs of promise on this issue, but also a lot of signs that give pause.  Speak up, and let us all know where you really stand.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

Newt’s Awful Speech Part I: Newt vs. The Little Rock Nine

The following is the first in a multi-part series on former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s speech to the Values Voter Summit

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich just completed one of the most radical speeches ever delivered by a presidential candidate on the judiciary. Gingrich’s speech calls for a radical reshaping of our constitutional democracy, eliminating the judiciary’s power to make binding constitutional decisions. He promises to openly defy Supreme Court decisions he disagrees with, and pledges to intimidate judges who dare to part ways with the Constitution According To Newt.

Newt begins his speech with a rant about an unspecified 1958 Supreme Court decision which, he claims, wrongly created a doctrine of “judiciary supremacy”:

Imagine that, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court decided that 2+2=5. Under the current theory, which the Warren Court promulgated in 1958, the only effective recourse would be either a) to get a future Supreme Court to reverse them, or b) to pass a constitutional amendment declaring 2+2=4. . . . This is an absurdity, foisted on us in 1958 by an historic lie. There is no judicial supremacy, it does not exist in the American Constitution.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: Newt’s Awful Speech Part I: Newt vs. The Little Rock Nine | ThinkProgress.

Conservatives Want America to be a “Christian Nation” — Here’s What That Would Actually Look Like

Let’s compare Rick Perry’s version of “Christian values” to what the Bible really dictates.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, in an appeal to evangelical voters, said “Christian values” and not “a bunch of Washington politicians” should be the touchstone guiding how Americans conduct their lives. …

“America is going to be guided by some set of values,” Perry told a crowd of 13,000 students and faculty members yesterday at a sports arena on the school’s campus. “The question is going to be, ‘Whose values?’” He said it should be “those Christian values that this country was based upon.”

It’s worth calling attention to Perry’s obnoxious rhetorical ploy of using “Christian values” to refer only to his own very specific, right-wing set of beliefs — preemptive war, gay-bashing, tax cuts for the rich, creationism in schools, deregulating corporations, dismantling the social safety net, the standard Republican package — as if he owned or had the right to define all of Christianity. In reality, there’s such a huge diversity of opinion among self-professed Christians past and present that the term “Christian values” could mean almost anything.

Full Story Here: Conservatives Want America to be a “Christian Nation” — Here’s What That Would Actually Look Like | Belief | AlterNet.

Sen. Rand Paul Blocks $36 Million For Disabled And Elderly Refugees, Including Those Who Aided American Troops

Like his father, GOP contender Rep. Ron Paul (TX), freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is well known for his beliefs that the government should not be in the business of helping the poor and downtrodden. Now Politico is reporting that Paul is single-handedly holding up $36 million in benefits for elderly and disabled refugees.

Funding for the refugees ran out on Friday, but Paul refuses to lift his hold out of a professed concern that the money could be used to aid terrorists:

In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, Paul confirmed he was blocking the bill over concerns the money could be used to aid domestic terrorists. Two alleged terrorists, who came to the U.S. through a refugee program and were receiving welfare benefits, were arrested this year in Paul’s hometown of Bowling Green, Ky.

Full Story Here: Sen. Rand Paul Blocks $36 Million For Disabled And Elderly Refugees, Including Those Who Aided American Troops | ThinkProgress.