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Co-Chairs Of Congressional Progressive Caucus Support Adding Marriage Equality To Democratic Platform | Momentum continues to grow for including marriage equality in this year’s Democratic Party platform, as the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus add their support. Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) have joined Freedom to Marry’s “Democrats: Say, I Do!” campaign in a letter today, calling upon the Democratic Party to “respect all families in the party platform”:

 

Climate Progress

Conservation Hawks Founder: ‘If Climate Change Isn’t Real, I’ll Give You My Beretta’

When the grizzly charges, what do you do?

The founder of Conservation Hawks, an organization of sportsmen dedicated to fighting climate change, will give up his gun if global warming is a hoax.

“If you can convince Conservation Hawks chairman Todd Tanner that he’s wasting his time, that he does not have to worry about climate change, he will present to you his most prized possession: A Beretta Silver Pigeon 12 gauge over/under that was a gift from his wife, and has been a faithful companion on many a Montana bird hunt,” Hal Herring writes at The Conservationist. “I know the gun, and I’ve hunted and fished with Todd for years. He’s not kidding. You convince him, he’ll give you the gun.”

Let’s say you are walking down a trail in the wilderness with your wife and kids, and you come upon a grizzly sow, standing on a carcass. She charges, flat out. You’re in front of your family. What do you do? Just give up? Pretend it’s not happening? Let her maul you and everything your care about? Of course you don’t. You take action. That is how I see climate change. It’s real, it’s threatening everything we love. Not taking action is not an option.

Tanner rebuffed the argument that action on global warming pollution just means a government takeover. “You want to talk about government intrusion, think about what it means if we don’t address this now while we have the time and resources,” he said. “We will lose the freedoms that we have because somebody—and it will be government—will be in an all out effort to try and address the effects. To try and address the effects of our neglect. We’ll face the worst thing of all- losing our freedom. And we’ll already have lost most of hunting and fishing. That’s how serious I believe this is.”

So those of you who deny the threat of global warming — Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, David Koch — this could be yours if you can convince Tanner that there’s really just a scientific conspiracy to trick people that greenhouse pollution is dangerous:

A Beretta Silver Pigeon 12 gauge shotgun

NEWS FLASH

Romney Supporter Jon Huntsman Criticizes Romney’s China Policy: ‘It’s Wrongheaded’ | Mitt Romney has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today trying to paint President Obama as weak on China. While the piece misrepresents the president’s China policy, Foreign Policy’s Daniel Drezner opined that it also “reads like it was composed by the Hulk.” Now it seems like Romney’s own supporters think it was a bit much. Discussing the op-ed today on MSNBC, former GOP presidential contender Jon Huntsman, who has endorsed Romney, called Romney’s China policy “wrongheaded.” “It’s much easier to talk about China in terms of the fear factor,” Huntsman said referring to Romney’s op-ed. What advice does Huntsman have for Romney and the other candidates on China? “Less pandering.” Watch the clip:

NEWS FLASH

U.N. General Assembly Passes Resolution Condemning Syrian Human Rights Violations | The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad to step down. The reolution strongly condemns human rights violations by his security forces. Earlier today, U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon accused Assad’s regime of committing “almost certain” crimes against humanity. Today’s vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 137-12, with 17 abstentions. Russia and China, who vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council earlier this month, voted against the resolution.

NEWS FLASH

Despite Dropping SOPA, President Obama Raises $4 Million in Hollywood | One of the big questions in the wake of President Obama’s refusal to support the Stop Online Piracy Act was whether his unwillingness to get on board with a big priority for the entertainment industry’s Democratic donors would hamper his reelection fundraising. The answer so far seems to be no. In a two-day fundraising trip to Southern California that, according to The Hollywood Reporter was designed “not only to raise money but also give Obama an opportunity to network with leaders from other sectors and industries in Los Angeles,” Obama raised $4 million that will be shared between his campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Perhaps the SOPA debate will cause problems for the members of Congress who abandoned the bill. But for now, it seems some of the entertainment industry’s biggest donors will continue to open their wallets for Obama himself.

NEWS FLASH

New Jersey Assembly Passes Marriage Equality, Christie To Veto | The New Jersey Assembly has just passed the marriage equality bill with a vote of 41-33. It now proceeds to the desk of Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has promised to “swiftly” veto it. The legislature will have until the end of the legislative session in January 2014 to override that veto, but neither chamber currently has enough votes. The Senate was three votes shy of a two-thirds majority when it voted on Monday, and the Assembly fell 13 votes short today. A poll released this week shows that 54 percent of New Jersey voters support marriage equality.

Update

According to Freedom To Marry, one Assembly member had a broken button, and so the actual count is 42-33. This means the Assembly is 12 votes shy of what would be necessary for a veto override.

Health

The Nation’s Most Radical Abortion Bill? Iowa GOP Proposal Would Ban All Abortions, Sentence Doctors To Life In Prison

In the escalating war on women’s rights in statehouse across the country, Iowa state Rep. Kim Pearson (R) may have just dropped the biggest bomb yet. Pearson, a freshman Tea Party lawmaker so extreme that she’s already drawn scorn from fellow Republicans and decided not to run for re-election, introduced a bill yesterday morning that would completely outlaw all abortions.

Among other things, the bill make it so a doctor that performs and abortion commits “feticide” — a Class A felony, which is punishable by life imprisonment without the chance for parole:

The bill makes “attempted feticide,” where the fetus does not die, a Class B felony, punishable by 25 years in prison. Iowans can even be punished for helping someone else perform an abortion, as, “joint criminal conduct shall apply to persons knowingly participating or concerned in the commission of feticide or attempted feticide under this section.”

Democrats complained the the bill — which would almost certainly violate Roe v. Wade — was a waste of time when there are pressing economic problems facing the state. “House Republicans and their colleagues in the Senate would rather put the lives of women in danger than have a real discussion about how we create jobs and move Iowa forward,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky said in a statement.

While the prospects of Pearson’s bill are unclear, a state House committee is currently debating a separate anti-abortion measure that would make doctors show a woman sonogram of the fetus before terminating a pregnancy. The focus on abortion does seem to violate a pledge made by Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen (R) when he said in November, “we’re also not interested in squandering Iowans’ time” on divisive social issues.

Economy

CHART: Obama’s Latest Budget Would Create 1.5 Million New Jobs In 2012

The Economic Policy Institute released an analysis today of the programs in President Obama’s newly proposed budget plan which are aimed at boosting job growth. All told, it would yield approximately 1.5 million new jobs in fiscal year 2012, and around 1.3 million in 2013. This would result in a drop in the unemployment rate of 0.5 percent in 2012 and 0.4 percent in 2013, EPI estimated.

This is consistent with the overall macroeconomic strategy of Obama’s budget: boosting demand immediately, while holding off on significant budget cuts until later in the 10 year window. This approach drives up job growth and would leave the economy at a much more robust level of output when the budget cuts finally do hit — and thus much less likely to falter again in response to those cuts.

Also worth noting: This collection of programs in the new budget is a slight reworking of the American Jobs Act that the President proposed last fall, and which the GOP filibustered into extinction.

NEWS FLASH

‘Underwear Bomber’ Sentenced To Life In Prison | Umar Faroul AbdulMutallab, 25, who tried to bring down a Christmas Day 2009 flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was sentenced to life in prison today. AbdulMutallab, who pleaded guilty in October to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, argued that a life sentence, as the prosecutors had requested, would be “cruel and unusual punishment.” On December 25, 2009, he attempted to ignite a bomb hidden in his underwear shortly before the plane landed in Detroit. Passengers and crew members subdued him after the device lit him on fire.

NEWS FLASH

Rand Paul Votes To Confirm Judge He Blocked As Part Of Obstructionist Tantrum | As ThinkProgress explained on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) invoked one of the Senate’s many, many broken rules to force it to waste more than a full day debating whether to confirm Judge Adalberto Jose Jordan to a federal appellate court. Yesterday, Paul finally ran out of tactics to delay this vote, and Judge Jordan was confirmed 94-5. As further proof that Paul’s filibuster was motivated entirely by a desire to gum up the Senate as part of an irrelevant crusade, Paul voted for Jordan.

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