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Congressman’s Bizarre Argument For Banning Abortion: Fetuses Masturbate

What Those Mocking Miss Utah Miss About The Gender Wage Gap

Health

Republican Governor Calls IRS The ‘New Gestapo’

By Judd Legum posted from ThinkProgress Health on Jul 8, 2012 at 9:16 am

In his weekly radio address, Maine Governor Paul LePage compared the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo, “Nazi Germany’s official secret police under Adolph Hitler, who imprisoned and murdered thousands of people without cause.”

This was not an offhand remark. Rather, LePage included the comparison in his weekly radio address. The Portland Press Herald has the story:

The IRS description was a reference to a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires most Americans to buy health insurance or pay an annual penalty when filing their tax returns. The provision, known more broadly as the individual mandate, was the subject of a multi-state lawsuit, but was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

LePage said the court decision has “made America less free.”

“We the people have been told there is no choice,” he said. “You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the IRS.”

During his 2010 campaign, LePage promised voters they’d see headlines saying “Governor Lepage tells Obama to go to hell!” In May, LePage said his message to his state’s unemployed is “get off the couch and get a job.”

LGBT

Google Announces Worldwide Campaign To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage [UPDATED]

By Judd Legum posted from ThinkProgress LGBT on Jul 7, 2012 at 7:50 pm

Today, Google has announced an ambitious effort to legalize same-sex marriage across the globe. The project, called “Legalize Love,” was annouced earlier today at an event in London focusing on LGBT issues in the workplace.

Dot429.com has the details:

The “Legalize Love” campaign officially launches in Poland and Singapore on Saturday, July 7th. Google intends to eventually expand the initiative to every country where the company has an office, and will focus on places with homophobic cultures, where anti-gay laws exist.

Google’s Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe outlined the initiative at a Global LGBT Workplace Summit in London earlier today. “We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office. It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.
Their strategy involves developing partnerships between companies and organizations to support grass-roots campaigns.

The project will initially focus on Poland and Singapore before expanding to other countries. Palmer-Edgecumbe explained that Google will impress on these countries that “being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation.”

The initiative was immediately praised by representatives from Citi and Ernst & Young.

Update

A Google spokesman tells the Washington Post that the campaign is not specifically targeted at marriage equality laws: “‘Legalize Love’ is a campaign to promote safer conditions for gay and lesbian people inside and outside the office in countries with anti-gay laws on the books,’ said a Google spokesperson in a statement.”

NEWS FLASH

Syrian Regime Weakened By Defections | After the bloodiest month yet of the Syrian civili war, the opposition may be divided, but so, too, is the regime. The New York Times confirmed reports that Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass — a Sunni confidant of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad — defected and notes that “at least one deputy minister and 15 generals, all of them Sunnis, have defected to Turkey, 5 in the past few weeks alone.” Attrition appears in lower ranks as well, with “virtually none,” according to experts, of the 80,000 conscripts expected to serve this year in the Syrian military reporting for duty.

By Ali Gharib on Jul 7, 2012 at 5:22 pm

Economy

Republican Congressman Touts Companies That Benefited From Stimulus

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jul 7, 2012 at 1:32 pm

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)

Every single Republican in the House and the overwhelming majority of Republican in the Senate — with the exception of Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter — voted against the Recovery Act. The law passed in 2009, at a time when the economy was hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs per month and has since saved or created 2.5 million jobs.

Publicly, the GOP claims that the policy has “failed” and “made things worse,” but privately even Republicans have tried to take credit for some of its success. A 2010 report from ThinkProgress found that over half of the GOP caucus, 110 lawmakers — from the House and Senate — returned to their home states to claim credit for popular stimulus programs, attended “ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against,” and even sought more stimulus funds for their states.

One such lawmaker is Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA). In February of 2009, Dent explained his opposition to the stimulus by claiming that the law “raises America’s debt by a record amount” and by October of that year pronounced that “stimulus funding has failed its original purpose — to stimulate the economy and create jobs.” However, that didn’t stop Dent from urging the Obama administration to use education stimulus dollars for four Pennsylvania state-related universities or relying on employers who benefited from the stimulus to employ his constituents.

On Saturday, July 14, Dent is hosting a Job Fair “open to anyone seeking a change in employment.” “This event aims to bring job seekers together with representatives from a wide range of employers from a variety of fields, seeking talented and capable workers for a diverse range of positions,” his website claims and lists 33 “employers and organizations that will be in attendance.” Six of those companies benefited from the stimulus, a ThinkProgress search of Recovery.gov revealed, receiving a combined total of $6,252,576 from the Recovery Act:

– Lehigh Carbon Community College: $2,532,039 total funds awarded.

– Lehigh Career and Technical Institute: $75,256 total funds awarded.

– Sacred Heart Hospital: $2,011 total funds awarded.

– Simplex Grinnell: $175,567 total funds awarded.

– Devereux: $1,281,113 total funds awarded.

– Easton Coach Company: $2,186,570 total funds awarded.

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