Open thread: Santorum is Jesus in a sweater vest

post from Daily Kos on 28 February 2012 06:00:02 PM. © Daily Kos

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/Sp5nUrHppZQ/-Open-thread-Santorum-
is-Jesus-in-a-sweater-nbsp-vest

Digg this

Democracy Alliance Pulls Support for
Organizations that Dont Play Ball

post from Firedoglake on 28 February 2012 05:45:25 PM. © Firedoglake

Concerning membership and sustaining progressive support, the Democracy Alliance's decision to pull funding from may progressive groups is an example of the corruption of that process, and how worthiness of support can get conflated with how well you[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/htnx7Xbn_4o/

Digg this

Senator Olympia Snowe Announces Retirement

post from DemConWatch on 28 February 2012 05:37:35 PM. © DemConWatch

DSCC STATEMENT ON OLYMPIA SNOWE RETIREMENT
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil released the following statement regarding news that Republican Senator Olympia Snowe would not seek reelection:
“As we said from day one, unexpected opportunities will emerge and the DSCC will be in a position to seize on these opportunities.
“Maine is now a top pick up opportunity for Senate Democrats. If there is one place in the country that is likely to reject the extreme, anti-middle class, divisive Republican agenda it is Maine. Democrats not only hold a strong registration advantage in the state, but this is a state that the President won by 17 points in 2008 and will likely win by a significant margin this year as well.”

Read The Full Article:
http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com/diary/5172/senator-olivia-snowe-announce
s-retirement

Digg this

Senator Olivia Snowe Announces Retirement

post from DemConWatch on 28 February 2012 05:37:35 PM. © DemConWatch

DSCC STATEMENT ON OLYMPIA SNOWE RETIREMENT
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil released the following statement regarding news that Republican Senator Olympia Snowe would not seek reelection:
“As we said from day one, unexpected opportunities will emerge and the DSCC will be in a position to seize on these opportunities.
“Maine is now a top pick up opportunity for Senate Democrats. If there is one place in the country that is likely to reject the extreme, anti-middle class, divisive Republican agenda it is Maine. Democrats not only hold a strong registration advantage in the state, but this is a state that the President won by 17 points in 2008 and will likely win by a significant margin this year as well.”

Read The Full Article:
http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com/diary/5172/senator-olivia-snowe-announce
s-retirement

Digg this

Rick Santorum: 'I'm not a multi-millionaire.'
Really

post from Daily Kos on 28 February 2012 05:30:02 PM. © Daily Kos

More Santorum: "No, I'm not a heavyweight. I'm not a multi-millionaire."
? @samyoungman via web
I wonder if this is true. Not to get all technical on Rick, but "multi" is generally used to refer to "two or more," though I admit rich people use words differently from the rest of us (examples: "unemployed," "negligible," "law-abiding.")

According to Santorum's tax returns, Rick made $659,000, $952,000, $1.1 million, and $923,000 from the years 2007-2010. He also owns a $1.4 million dollar home and $1.75 million in rental properties. That all adds up to "more than two" easily, but to be fair he might not own those properties outright, and he might blow through that $900,000+ a year in cash without saving any of it. Maybe he goes around the eastern United States buying up condoms and burning them on his lawn, or maybe those sweatervests are a hell of a lot more expensive than we imagine.

Well, no need to go all PolitiFactish on this one, I suppose. If Rick is comparing himself to Mitt Romney, who is worth a few hundred million, then yeah, he's a real pauper. But being America's top moral scold pays pretty well, so if Rick Santorum can make that much money a year, own all that property and still not be a multi-millionaire, I think maybe we should take his budget advice with a grain of salt.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/GqXdIRPE9E4/-Rick-Santorum-I-m-not
-a-multi-millionaire-Really-

Digg this

ME-Sen: Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to retire

post from Daily Kos on 28 February 2012 05:16:28 PM. © Daily Kos

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R)

Red alert! Longtime Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe?in a huge, huge shocker?says she's retiring! All we have is a tweet so far:

?After an extraordinary amount of reflection and consideration, I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate."

While I can imagine many reasons why Snowe, age 65 and a member of Congress since 1979, would want to depart, I most certainly cannot say I (or anyone else) saw this coming. Nevertheless, though Snowe was set to cruise to re-election, it would have meant another six years serving as part of an increasingly ultra-hard-right, Tea Party-hijacked caucus?something the faux-moderate Snowe might just have gotten sick-and-tired of doing.

Whatever the cause, Snowe's departure creates an enormous pickup opportunity for Democrats in this decidedly blue state. While several lesser-known candidates had been running against her (including former SoS Matt Dunlap, state Rep. Jon Hinck and state Sen. Cynthia Dill), expect a lot more interest now from bigger names, such as Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud. This is going to be a huge contest and it automatically makes Republican hopes of re-taking the Senate that much more distant. We'll bring you more news as it develops.

2:21 PM PT: Snowe's full statement is now available, and as I suspected, she does cite increased partisanship as a key reason for deciding not to seek re-election (though of course she doesn't point any fingers):

I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and ?my way or the highway? ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions. [...] Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/VGIv2ArDBgA/-ME-Sen-Republican-Sen
-Olympia-Snowe-to-retire

Digg this

Primary Night Primer: Michigan and Arizona

post from Firedoglake on 28 February 2012 05:15:40 PM. © Firedoglake

In Arizona, Mitt Romney is a clear favorite to win a big victory, and under Arizon'a winner take all rules, that would give him all the delegates. Unfortunately for the Romney campaign, almost all of the media's focus has been on Michigan where the race[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/JtZHMb-QwXE/

Digg this

Alabama lawmaker backing off his state-sponsored
rape bill, partly

(Guttmacher Institute)

Maybe it was the backlash in Virginia or maybe it was the unwanted attention a fellow lawmaker was getting for his personal financial stake in the legislation, but something has made Alabama Republican State Sen. Clay Scofield back away from his state-sponsored rape ultrasound bill.

The bill would have mandated that the doctor decide whether to perform a transabdominal or transvaginal ultrasound, ?whichever would display the embryo or fetus more clearly.?
?We?re not requiring it unless the woman wants to get an abortion. If she doesn?t want to get an abortion, she doesn?t have to do it,? Scofield said last week. [...]
The bill passed out of Alabama?s Senate Health Committee by a 4-1 vote last Wednesday, but on Monday Scofield indicated that he is having second thoughts. Scofield said that he?s planning to amend the bill so that the woman can choose which type of ultrasound she prefers ? though she would still be required to receive an ultrasound before getting an abortion.
?I am committed to amending this (bill) to specify that it is the woman?s choice which method of ultrasound that she would be more comfortable with,? Scofieled said.

To be clear, not forcing a woman to have a wand shoved up her vagina against her will is better, but there's still nothing in this that should be construed in any way as a "woman's choice." Forcing a medically unnecessary and expensive procedure?which either form of ultrasound is?on a woman who is attempting to obtain a legal abortion has absolutely no resemblance to anything like choice at all. It's just one more barrier between a woman and the legal, medical procedure she's seeking.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/dEVEVJ8Dark/-Alabama-lawmaker-back
ing-off-his-state-sponsored-rape-bill-partly-

Digg this

The Doctor Won't See You Now

Feds say a Texas doctor perpetrated biggest Medicare scam in U.S. history. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/2assEwIRH1E/the_doctor_wont
_see_you_now.php

Digg this

Study: Rich More Likely To Lie, Cheat and Steal

From the Department of Duh: Maybe we can add this to the studies showing the upper classes don't have empathy for poor people and arrive at some kind of explanation for our present plight. Because I just keep scatching my head over how poisoning the air, land, water, economy and media dialogue makes sense to our political elites:

Maybe, as the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested, the rich really are different. They?re more likely to behave badly, according to seven experiments that weighed the ethics of hundreds of people.
The ?upper class,? as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, researchers reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Taken together, the experiments suggest at least some wealthier people ?perceive greed as positive and beneficial,? probably as a result of education, personal independence and the resources they have to deal with potentially negative consequences, the authors wrote.
While the tests measured only ?minor infractions,? that factor made the results ?even more surprising,? said Paul Piff, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a study author.

More details here:

The team's findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty. For example, upper-class subjects were more likely to cheat. After five apparently random rolls of a computerized die for a chance to win an online gift certificate, three times as many upper-class players reported totals higher than 12?even though, unbeknownst to them, the game was rigged so that 12 was the highest possible score.

When participants were manipulated into thinking of themselves as belonging to a higher class than they did, the poorer ones, too, began to behave unethically. In one test, subjects were asked to compare themselves with people at the top or the bottom of the social scale (Donald Trump or a homeless person, for example.) They were then permitted to take candies from a jar ostensibly meant for a group of children in a nearby lab. Subjects whose role-playing raised their status in their own eyes took twice as many candies as those who compared themselves to "The Donald," the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.