Santorum: ‘Our Country Will Fall’ As A Result Of Same-Sex Marriage |
Rick Santorum reiterated his support for a federal marriage amendment denying marriage to gays and lesbians during Iowa’s Thanksgiving Family Forum. The former Pennsylvania senator promised to campaign against marriage equality in all 50 states and warned that “the family is the bedrock of our society, unless we protect it with the institution of marriage, our country will fall.” Watch it:
Michele Bachmann claimed that the Affordable Care Act would allow Planned Parenthood to perform “chemical abortion,” during Saturday night’s Thanksgiving Family Forum hosted by the FAMiLY Leader. The claim is a complete misreading of health reform’s regulations, which would require insurers to cover women’s preventive health services without additional cost sharing. Watch it:
The rule is based on recommendations from experts at the Institute of Medicine and would provide services like well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes, sexually-transmitted infection counseling, and FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling at no additional costs. Bachmann is referring to two emergency contraceptives — Plan B and Ella — that don’t disrupt a pregnancy that has already begun. The medication works by primarily inhibiting ovulation (it can also theoretically prevent implantation of a fertilized egg). Conservatives argue that this is an early form of abortion, although the medical community disagrees and sees theses kinds of contraceptives as birth control devices.
This past week, ThinkProgress said goodbye to two wonderful teammates who had provided our readers with interesting and insightful content for many years — Matt Yglesias and Lee Fang.
Matt Yglesias joined ThinkProgress in August 2008. He was already a well-accomplished blogger before he arrived, but over his tenure here, his influence only grew further. Because he has so many eclectic interests, Matt offered keen insights on everything from John McCain’s houses to the Miami Heat to urban infrastructure. Among his numerous accomplishments, Yglesias should be credited for having focused national attention on the obscure and not-well-understood role that the Federal Reserve plays in our economy. He frequently called for greater accountability of the Fed and implored progressives to focus more attention on monetary issues. He will now take that cause and his wealth of knowledge on the issue to Slate, where he will have both a regular column on economics and a blog focused on the same issue.
Lee Fang was a former intern for ThinkProgress. After working as a researcher at Progressive Accountability in 2008, he re-joined ThinkProgress in February 2009. Over his tenure here, Fang broke one big story after another — among them, the role of the Kochs in influencing the political debate, the Chamber of Commerce’s acceptance of foreign funds, Darrell Issa’s questionable earmarks, Newt Gingrich’s extensive lobbying efforts, and a thorough documentation of stimulus hypocrites. Armed with a flip cam, Lee had a number of entertaining run-ins with powerful officials such as Roy Blunt and Mitt Romney. At the beginning of next year, Lee will join UnitedRepublic, a new progressive advocacy outfit that will fight the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics.
We wish Matt and Lee continued success in their next chapters. We’ll be rooting for them and promoting their work here on ThinkProgress.
As for us, we’re working on plans to find new talent to deliver the news and information that you’ve come to rely on. If you’re interested in working in DC with us, send along a resume. As always, thanks for reading ThinkProgress.
Newt Gingrich Calls For A National Personhood Amendment |
Newt Gingrich called for a national personhood amendment during the Thanksgiving Family Forum, which would define life as beginning at conception. Earlier this month, voters in conservative Mississippi resoundingly rejected the state’s personhood amendment because it would effectively ban all abortions, certain forms of birth control, and even in vitro fertilization for couples struggling to have a child. However, Mississippi’s Governor-Elect Phil Bryant (R) is now saying that the personhood proposal or something similar may “resurface in the 2012 legislature” and conservatives are still advancing the initiative in states across the country. Watch it:
Last year at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made headlines when he called on President Obama to support an attack on Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Today at this year’s forum in Halifax, Sen. John McCain (R-SC) noted Graham’s comments, and claimed that since then, talk of striking Iran has become more acceptable. It’s “generally accepted opinion,” McCain said citing former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, that “the only thing worse than attack on Iran is Iran with nuclear weapons.” (Mullen has actually warned against attacking Iran).
Also during the Halifax forum discussion today, McCain criticized Obama for not speaking out more forcefully for the Green Movement in 2009, saying that it amounted to one of the greatest foreign policy missteps of the 21st century. In a press conference after the Halifax forum discussion, ThinkProgress asked McCain what he thought an attack on Iran would do to the opposition movement there. McCain paused, saying, “That’s a good question.” Then after diverting a bit by talking about general sanctions on Iran, McCain came back to the question and suggested that the Green Movement might welcome an attack:
TP: I just wanted to go back to Iran for a second. There was talk of attacking Iran in the discussion earlier over its nuclear program and I’m wondering what you think that would do to the Green Movement.
MCCAIN: That’s a good question and I’d like for Senator Udall to talk about that. First of all on the attack, the issue of an attack on Iran. I do believe that we should pursue sanctions. [...]
The Green Movement in all candor is already very disillusioned with the United States of America because of our failure to support them in 2009 when they rose up and died in the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran. So I think that it — I can’t speak for them but if they thought it was a way that would eventually unseat the government then they might be supportive but they are understandably in my view very skeptical about whatever the United States does now.
Watch it:
While it’s unclear what information the Arizona senator is basing that assessment on, Iranian civil society, human rightsactivists and those close to the Green Movement have said that military action against Iran would be a huge set back for the opposition there. Last June, a spokesperson for the Green Coordinating Council said, “The regime would really like for someone to come drop two bombs” on Iran’s nuclear facilites because it “would then increase nationalism and the regime would gather everyone and all the political parties around itself.”
RAND Corp. Iran expert Alireza Nader agrees. “What a military strike could do is unite all Iran’s various factions and personalities around the supreme leader,” Nader said in June.
Gingrich: Occupy Wall Street Should ‘Go Get A Job Right After You Take A Bath’ |
During this afternoon’s Thanksgiving Family Forum, Newt Gingrich charged that the Occupy Wall Street movement believes that “we all owe them everything” and announced, to great applause, that protesters should “go get a job right after you take a bath”:
Political reporter John Broder had a long piece in The New York Times [Thursday] chronicling Obama’s decision to delay a tighter national smog standard. I have no desire to relitigate that fight, but I do want to pluck out one particular bit of Broder’s piece to illustrate a point.
In a recent piece kvetching about media coverage of Solyndra, I said: “Republican talking points are delivered as first-order news. Liberal talking points are wrapped in meta-news about liberals and their talking points.” Let’s look at an example — not the biggest deal in the world, but quite illustrative.
Here’s the 11th paragraph of Broder’s piece:
The standard for ozone was last set in 2008 by the Bush administration at a level of 75 parts per billion, above the range of 60 to 70 recommended by the E.P.A.’s scientific advisory panel at the time, but never enacted. Environmental and public health groups challenged the Bush standard in court, saying it would endanger human health and had been tainted by political interference. Smog levels have declined sharply over the last 40 years, but each incremental improvement comes at a significant cost to business and government.
Look closely at those last two sentences. They contain four assertions:
Bush’s ozone standard would harm public health.
Bush’s ozone standard was subject to political interference.
Smog levels have declined over the last 40 years.
Each smog reduction imposes “significant costs” on “business.”
Now let’s re-order them based on how well they are supported by evidence:
Gingrich: Secularism Is Responsible For ‘All The Problems We Have’ |
Newt Gingrich said that America’s problem are the result of the country’s growing secularism, telling the FAMiLY Leader’s Thanksgiving Family Forum, “A country that has been now since 1963 relentlessly in the courts driving God out of public life shouldn’t be surprised at all the problems we have. Because we’ve in fact attempted to create a secular country, which I think is frankly a nightmare.” He has previously blamed same-sex marriage for the country’s economic woes. Watch it:
This past week, ThinkProgress said goodbye to two wonderful teammates who had provided our readers with interesting and insightful content for many years — Matt Yglesias and Lee Fang.
by David Roberts, in a 
