'Crowdfunding'

How you'll soon be able to invest directly in startup companies. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/HNHEoimInxE/crowdfunding.ph
p

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My Wife Has Many Women Friends

Mitt Romney isn't worried about his low favorability ratings with women -- his wife Ann "reports to me" on what they care about, he says. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/khwuet42LAg/my_wife_has_man
y_women_friends.php

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Don't Tell, Don't Tell

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) doesn't care if you're gay -- he just doesn't want to hear about it, ok? [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/hM8pDZxNrVw/dont_tell_dont_
tell.php

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Can't Go Home Again

A new PPP poll suggests Rick Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania won't offer the salvation he's looking for. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/TzsGPG5zfoM/cant_go_home_ag
ain.php

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Redistricting committee hearing uneventful

This morning, the Joint Committee on Reapportionment Redistricting met, and nothing of importance happened.

The full committee must pass plans 15 days before sine die, but there was no indication of when plans would be revealed. Is it really possible that the Republican leadership will manage to goof this as well and force a special session?

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GsAJ/~3/y1s5hVgvVf4/redistricting-committ
ee-hearing.html

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Speaking in Satan's Native Tongue: Dobson and
Hawkins Rant on Planned Parenthood

Click here to view this media
[h/t RightWingWatch]

You know how you can tell when we're winning? When the wingnuts go completely off the reservation and start lying through their tiny little teeth about their opposition. In this case, Planned Parenthood is the target, but they end up making themselves look like the fools and hypocrites they are.

Kristan Hawkins is Dobson's cohort in this radio clip. Kristan is the executive director of Students for Life, an organization dedicated to spreading guilt and hate ahead of its alleged message of love and peace for those Chosen Followers in The Light.

Here's why people like Kristan and Grampy Dobson drive me crazy. First they lie, and they extol liars like Lila Rose, who lied through her teeth and edited video dishonestly to make Planned Parenthood look like the Satan they think it is.

Here is Righteous Kristan's rant about what Planned Parenthood's true motives are, and Dobson's response.

Hawkins: I think the videos of Planned Parenthood have really helped to focus and to shed the light on Planned Parenthood because they are the abortion Goliath, I always refer to them as the abortion Goliath, they are the big man on campus, they?re the ones with the lobbyists, they?re getting the government funding, they?re subsidizing their abortions, they?re the ones making the money off all of this. I think the videos are very, very important in exposing their real agenda. You know Planned Parenthood sounds like a nice name, ?ooh Planned Parenthood, and they?re providing free condoms to me, ooh yay,? but then when you start peeling back, you know, what?s their method?

We have this new postcard, we make these little flashy postcards and they don?t really give students the answer but they?re there to raise controversy and drive people to our website where they can find out more information. It says, Planned Parenthood?s plan for you: One, give you the lowest ranked condoms that are available on the market today, the lowest ranked by Consumer Reports condoms, so you think Planned Parenthood?s great, they?re giving you bad condoms, then they?re going to give you birth control that can cause breast cancer, they?re going to give you low-dose birth control, and then they?re going to give you an abortion, and this is their plan to make money.

Dobson: If you scratch around anywhere near the Planned Parenthood message and the function of Planned Parenthood, you see wickedness; you see evil.

Um, ok. So let's look at Kristan's statement and see if we can find facts.

According to the NIH, there is a higher risk of breast cancer with oral contraceptives, but a lowered risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers. Further, the risk associated with contraceptives disappears 10 years after use is discontinued. So to be clear, there is a risk of cancer associated with any oral contraceptive, low dose or otherwise, and women should know this and be aware of it before using them. On the other hand, there's a risk of being hit by a bus while crossing the street, but that's not Planned Parenthood's fault. Should we condemn streets, or buses? Or just be aware and look both ways before crossing a street?

Hawkins' claim about condoms seems to go all the way back to this 2005 report published on LifeNews.com. I'm certain there was no bias there, but I'd like to reassure Hawkins that since that 2005 report, Consumer Reports has done another review of available condoms and found that all 500 brands they studied passed their minimum requirements for reliability. Strange how she didn't bother to check that before going on about it, much less suggesting that Planned Parenthood is using cheap condoms in order to build a free market for abortion.

Think about that. This is a classic case of wingers leveling accusations about what they are doing themselves! Planned Parenthood, a not-for-profit organization, is really trying to give women cancer and crummy condoms so they can build a free market in abortion? That's so bizarre it defies logic. There's no motive for doing that, despite Mr. Dobson's claim that they are just "pure evil."

Since James Dobson made that pronouncement about pure evil, I think we should consider what the Bible says about what is and what isn't evil.

Take, for example, John 8:44, which condemns liars as the most evil of them all. It says "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." To summarize, when lies are told, the liars are speaking the language of Satan. Evil. Pure evil.

There's more, though. Romans 3:13 calls the throats of liars an "open grave", full of snake venom. Revelation 21:8 offers a list of those most egregious sinners: "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars..."

So you see, if you believe the theology Dobson and Co rely upon to condemn those whom they hate, then you also must believe they are those whom they hate. There is no hierarchy of sin in the Christian faith. A liar is as bad as a faithless person, a liar is as bad as a murderer, and to place this squarely in their context, those who are "sexually immoral" are equal to those who lie about those who are "sexually immoral."

Obviously, if you don't believe these things, the condemnation doesn't mean anything. But these are people who not only claim to believe it, but claim to preach it in the name of righteousness and holy fervor. Because of that, I think it's fair to use their own theology to shine light on their hypocrisy.

Ryan Dobson, James' son and Chosen Successor, couldn't be left out of the liars' loop either. He offered this little gem of a rant, equating the demise of Planned Parenthood to the defeat of the Nazis, and "lessons taught to the Germans" in the aftermath.

Click here to view this media

You know what I hope happens, I hope what happens is what they did in Germany after World War II that the people living near concentration camps, they walk them through those areas. That?s what they did to the Germans, those living near the concentration camps, the government walked them through those places where they were killing people every day saying ?this is what you let happen.? Every Planned Parenthood and abortion provider in America, the people living in those communities around them should have to go through and say ?this is what you let happen.?

You know what I hope happens? I hope the man who lives by the prophecy of a returning Messiah also answers to that prophecy, which says this, as articulated in Proverbs 26:23-28:

Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart. Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. ...

Because it's one thing to think Planned Parenthood is antithetical to Christian values. It's another thing to sacrifice those very same Christian values to spew lies and hate and venom into the air for everyone to hear, to rain down hate so that insane people feel like they shouldn't "let that happen" and shoot doctors or plant bombs in clinics. That other thing is as equal to what they hate as the hate itself.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/get-grip-james-dobson

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Pink Slime manufacturer BPI quadrupled lobbyist
spending since NY Times article

You've been reading a lot about Pink Slime lately (my capitals; our backgrounder here).

Ground zero, I think, for Pink Slime awareness is this 2009 New York Times article "Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned":

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil.

Here's a pic of the vats this is done in. Pink Slime has elsewhere been described as (get ready):

the rejected fat, sinew, bloody effluvia, and occasional bits of meat cut from carcasses in the slaughterhouse were a low-value waste product called 'trimmings'.

"Trimmings." Like ... "parts." Maybe BPI stands for "Beef Parts Inc." Ya think?

That Times article is the reason most people even know this ammoniated tripe exists (oops, "sludge"; I don't want to defame tripe). In fact, that Times article caused a problem, a corporate profits problem for BPI:

[G]rocery stores pulled beef containing the filler off the shelves and BPI closed three of its four plants for lack of demand[.]

And we all know the solution to a corporate-profits problem, don't we? You got it ? a big-money lobbying & PR campaign.

Which brings us to investigative reporter Lee Fang at Republic Report. Here's Fang's latest on Pink Slime and its small army of well-paid friends (my emphasis):

At the core of the controversy over ?pink slime? is a story about corporate corruption. ... Why doesn?t the USDA require school lunches, grocery stores, or restaurants to disclose which food products contain this mystery meat? And if it?s perfectly safe, why have pink slime companies lobbied against bills that would allow industry whistleblowers to speak up?

The answer, again, relates to the influence of money in politics. Beef Products Inc., the top producer of pink slime, has ramped up its lobbying spending since the New York Times helped blow the lid off the controversy in 2009: [chart here] ...

Beef Products Inc. retains a team of lobbyists from the firm Olsson, Frank & Weeda. One lobbyist employed by the firm is Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a former congresswoman from South Dakota and leader of the ?Blue Dog Caucus? of pro-corporate Democrats.

Sandlin recently circulated a letter among congressional insiders to defend her client and warn against efforts to bring greater scrutiny to pink slime:

?Dear colleagues, letters have started to circulate on the Hill which perpetuate serious, misleading [sic] information attacking BPI and its product [...] I respectfully request that the senator/representative not sign such letters and also urge their colleagues to get more complete information beyond what recent sensationalized ?news? stories have provided.?

... With a regulatory battle looming over disclosure of pink slime in our meat...

One can only hope.

There's more at the Republic Report, including information on indirect lobbying as well, and the frighteningly named "Meat Institute." Do read. There's more on the politics of Pink Slime in this from John and Chris as well.

I think this story isn't going away. It's not drone warfare and dead babies, but it's a perfect emblem of so much that's so wrong ? and it has all the elements, a really nasty name (Pink Slime, eww) and the perfect poisonous household cleaner (deadly ammonia) as a key ingredient.

If persistent progressives can't ride this horse to victory, I'm not sure what they can do. After all, even Obama has already half-folded. Let's get the other half.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/nftuy0wv57s/pink-slime-manufacturer
-bpi-quadrupled.html

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Steve Kings War On Vegetarians: Brags Of Forcing
Anti-Meat Crowd To Confess Their Agenda Under Oath

EMMETSBURG, Iowa — Rep. Steve King (R-IA) beamed at a town hall meeting on Tuesday as he recounted a recent congressional hearing where he forced witnesses to “confess” that they were vegetarians.

King said the hearing included witnesses who called to testify before the House Agriculture Committee, including the president of the Humane Society as well as other animal rights groups. He recalled how during the hearing, he asked the individuals, “under oath, are you a vegetarian?” King smiled as he told the town hall constituents that they “confessed they were vegetarians, all of them.”

KING: I’m here to tell you I’m a committed carnivore. I like meat. I sit on the Ag Committee and we had a hearing before the Ag Committee when we invited in the president of the Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, President Wayne Pacelle. And we had one or two other witnesses from the anti-meat crowd or anti-animal husbandry crowd. PETA was there and one other animal activist group. So we just asked them, under oath, “are you a vegetarian?” And they confessed they were vegetarians, all of them. Well there they are with an agenda for our diets.

Watch it:

King offered his own “confession” at the end of the hearing. “I too am a vegetarian,” said the Iowa Republican. “I eat concentrated, recycled, enhanced vegetables in the form of meat.”

ThinkProgress went back to review the hearing transcripts to determine whether King’s story is accurate. It is not. The congressional hearing on animal welfare that King appears to be referencing occurred on May 8, 2007. There were no witnesses from PETA. King did not ask anyone “are you a vegetarian?” In fact, it was another member — Steve Kagen (D-WI) — who asked the Humane Society witness to say he was a vegetarian.

The only thing about King’s story that does appear to be true is that he did in fact say “I eat recycled, concentrated, enhanced vegetables in the form of meat.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/04/05/458465/steve-king-vegetarians-confess/

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Scott Walker: ‘God’s Got A
Plan’ For Me That May Include Higher Office

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who could be recalled from office in the next two months, believes “God’s got a plan for us” that may include “bigger things” than his current job. “Who knows where it might be, beyond just serving as Governor of this state,” Walker told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Watch it:

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2012/04/05/458776/scott-walker-gods-got-a-plan-f
or-me-that-may-include-higher-office/

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Scott Brown To Gay Constituents: ‘I
Recognize The Liberty Of Every Citizen To Live As They Choose’

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has published a peculiar appeal to gay and lesbian voters in Bay Windows, New England’s alternative newspaper serving the LGBT community. The one-term senator who is in a close race for re-election against Elizabeth Warren, highlights his support for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but does not commit to advancing other equality priorities like federal employment nondiscrimination protections or marriage. “I don?t come before you with a checklist of items promising that I will be an advocate for you on each and every one of them,” Brown writes. “My opponent has already started down that road, promising to support everyone?s pet project. That?s not the way I have ever operated.”

Instead, Brown promises to get “this bad economy working again and creating jobs” — a welcome message to be sure — but one that won’t protect LGBT people from on-the-job harassment or unfair termination for being who they are. And in a community where 42 percent of LGB workers and an astonishing 90 percent of transgender workers have experienced some form of on-the-job discrimination, extending anti-discrimination protections to all is more than a mere “pet project” — it’s an outright necessity. Brown has said that “states should take care of” passing their own workplace protections, as Massachusetts has done, and refused to support a federal ban prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Confronted about his callous attitude towards LGBT priorities last month, a Brown spokesperson dismissed community concerns like marriage equality as a ?social issue? and insisted that the senator is focused on the economy and job creation. But he hasn’t exactly shied away from “social” issues either. As a Massachusetts state senator, Brown voted twice in 2007 to ban same-sex marriage, opposed the right of gays and lesbians to adopt children, and even refused to participate in an ?It Gets Better? video with the rest of the Massachusetts congressional delegation. And unfortunately, his “I don’t have to worry about you” attitude is on full display in the Bay Windows editorial, as he signs off with the kind of tone-deaf nugget that shows that he truly doesn’t understand his gay and lesbian constituents: “I recognize the liberty of every citizen to live as they choose, and it is from this diversity that we derive our strength as a nation,” he writes.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/04/05/458652/scott-brown-to-gay-community-i-re
cognize-the-liberty-of-every-citizen-to-live-as-they-choose/

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