Tag Archives: Topic: Politics

USA Today: Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to his Mormon church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.

LifeSiteNews: Now that Todd Akin has said he will be staying in the race for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat, senior pro-life and conservative leaders including Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, and others are telling the Republican Party establishment to back off its “over-the-top” campaign to have him step aside.

Judie Brown at LifeSiteNews: It is astounding that the media has created such a circus over the awkward comments of Congressman Todd Akin on the subject of “legitimate rape.”

AP: NBC News unsuccessfully went back to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to request an interview for this week’s prime-time special on the Mormon faith after he began to seem more open to talking about it.

Froma Harrop at Rasmussen Reports: I believe that abortions should be easy to obtain early in a pregnancy and progressively harder to get as time goes on. The issue isn’t when life begins, but when “personhood” begins. Sperm, unfertilized eggs and fingernails are all life and human. The point of development at which the fertilized egg should be considered a full-fledged person is determined by theology or philosophy, not science. But those who say a day-old embryo is as much a person as a 3-year-old must explain why we freeze embryos and not toddlers. They should explain why fertility clinics are allowed to throw out many thousands of unused embryos every year.

Rasmussen: The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Show Me State finds McCaskill earning 48% support to Akin’s 38%. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

AP: Republican Congressman Todd Akin says he has taken in more than $100,000 from an online fundraising drive that he calls a message to “party bosses” about his commitment to the Missouri Senate race.

Terrey Jeffrey at Townhall: Americans witnessed a remarkable drama this week when some of our most exalted politicians frantically scrambled to reassure voters that they, too, believed that the United States ought to permit the deliberate killing of at least some innocent human beings. They apparently did so to persuade the public they are caring, compassionate and — above all — reasonable people.

Andrew Napolitano at the Washington Times: How low have we sunk? What are the consequences of this mass slaughter? How did we get here? We got here because of the most reprehensible and unconstitutional Supreme Court opinion in the modern era . . . Every abortion ends the life of an innocent unborn human being. When politicians in both parties claim to be pro-life but favor abortions because of the criminal behavior of the father, as in rape or incest, they are politically rejecting that hard truth. What other violations of the natural law will they condone for political expedience?

Robert George at First Things: It looks like the Democratic Party’s leadership has decided to make the Party’s fierce commitment to protecting abortion against meaningful legal restrictions of any kind and extending its availability a, if not the, central theme of its national convention.

LifeNews: The president of the nation’s biggest abortion business will be a featured speaker at the Democratic convention that will be held in September to nomination pro-abortion President Barack Obama for another four-year term.

Religion Clause Blog: Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral yesterday released the August issue of its magazine Cathedral Age which contains an interview with President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney on religious faith in America.

Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review: Gender doesn’t explain abortion views, and abortion policy doesn’t explain Republicans’ gender gap.

The Hill: Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on Tuesday called Republicans’ strict opposition to abortion rights in the party platform “a mistake.”

AP: “He’s never been popular among Republicans, and Todd Akin doesn’t care,” Saint Louis University political science professor Ken Warren said. “The best you can say for Todd is that he’s a very principled guy. He believes what he believes, and he’s not going to compromise those principles just to be in the mainstream.”

USA Today: “The question of rape always stirs the emotions whenever it is introduced into the abortion debate,” Dr. Fred Mecklenburg wrote in 1972. “Unfortunately, the emotional impact of rape often clouds the real issues and the real facts.” . . . One widely accepted study suggests a 5 percent pregnancy rate following rape, resulting in 32,000 pregnancies each year. The report was from the Medical University of South Carolina and was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Christian Science Monitor: Todd Akin, refusing to bow out of the Missouri Senate race, is appealing to social conservatives, religious pro-family groups, and high-profile politicos to try to steer his campaign back on course.

Washington Times: Starting at the end of this month the Democratic National Convention will open with a focus on Islam; 20,000 Muslims are expected to attend, according to the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs, the national Muslim American non-profit coordinating the two days of events they claim are non-political.

Human Events: Approved portions of the 2012 Republican National Platform dealing with defense would support conscience rights of military chaplains, censure “social experimentation” in the ranks, and maintain opposition to women serving in infantry units.

The Hill: Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) campaign has pushed back against a report that he’d denied knowing of any children who’d become pregnant from statutory rape or incest, arguing that he’d been taken out of context and that he meant only that he didn’t personally know of any examples of that happening.

LifeSiteNews: Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, has confirmed he is staying in the race despite national pressure for him to step down after flubbing a response to a question about rape and abortion.

STL Beacon: uch concerns are bubbling up among some Republican activists, who warn privately that the state party’s base of social conservatives — who generally line up with Akin — could mutiny if it appears that their choice is being unfairly forced out. Missouri Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, has issued a statement in support of Akin, praising his “defense of the life of an innocent unborn child conceived by rape. We also support his statement of compassion and support for victims of sexual assault. ” The Missouri Republican Assembly, a staunchly conservative group, also Tweeted its call for Akin to stand pat.

Politico: After the sky fell on Todd Akin’s head the past 48 hours, the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling finds the Missouri Senate race is still quite competitive . . .

Washington Post: Voters in this presidential election may face the starkest choice ever on the hot-button social issues of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and access to birth control.

AP: Mitt Romney is starting to open up a bit more about his lifelong commitment to Mormonism and his lay leadership in the church, following pleas from backers who say that talking about his faith could help him overcome his struggles to connect with voters.

NOW: Yet within the past 24 hours Romney-Ryan have indicated support for rape, incest and life of the woman exceptions to abortion restrictions. So, which is it? If in fact these candidates do support such exceptions, they should renounce the party’s failure to include them in its 2012 platform.

The Hill: But Blunt and former Missouri Sens. John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth and Jim Talent — all prominent names in the state — released a statement Tuesday calling on Akin to withdraw.

Washington Post: The national battle over Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape” has shed light on a “personhood” bill, co-sponsored by Akin and Paul Ryan, called the Sanctity of Life Act. Much of the chatter today has focused on whether Ryan opposes abortion in cases of rape. The Romney campaign confirmed today that Ryan does personally oppose it, while clarifying that a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose it.

Wall Street Journal: Two longshot efforts to alter the Republican Party’s official position on same-sex marriage failed Tuesday morning.

LifeNews: The approved draft of the Republican Party platform will have the GOP again adopting a strongly pro-life document that voters will be receptive to as they consider replacing pro-abortion President Barack Obama this November.

TimesofIsrael.com: TV reporter adds: ‘I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince PM to delay a possible attack’ . . . The report added that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak believe Obama would have no choice but to give backing for an Israeli attack before the US presidential elections in November.

Politico: The Family Research Council offered strong support for Todd Akin on Monday afternoon. “This is an effort to try to direct attention away from … Claire McCaskill, who has been supportive of Planned Parenthood — an organization that’s been under investigation for criminal activity,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in between meetings of the RNC platform committee.

Susan B. Anthony List: “Todd Akin, on the other hand, has a record of voting to protect human life. His opponent does not. Congressman Akin has been an excellent partner in the fight for the unborn.”

ABC: Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards denounced Rep. Todd Akin’s comment that women rarely get pregnant from “legitimate rape,” saying this morning that the statement was an “egregious example” of legislators “making policy on women’s health without understanding it.”

The Hills carries video of Akin’s comments.

Business Insider reports and embeds the video.

Wall Street Journal: Congressman Akin’s statements were wrong, offensive, and indefensible,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I recognize that this is a difficult time for him, but over the next 24 hours, Congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican Party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service.”

LifeSiteNews: Responding to the media frenzy over Missouri Congressman Todd Akin’s gaffe about abortion and “legitimate rape,” the Romney campaign has avowed that it will not oppose abortion in cases of rape. Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said: “a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”

Erick Erickson at Red State: Todd Akin was inarticulate. Some are now accusing him of being pro-rape. The people horrid by Todd Akin’s remarks are, I’m sure, thrilled to have a President who defended infanticide. I’ll take Todd Akin’s inarticulate remarks over an infanticide supporter any day of the week.

Ann Coulter at Human Events: I won’t hate Todd Akin officially unless he refuses to withdraw from the Missouri Senate race. If he does withdraw, honorably sacrificing his personal interests to save the country, it will be time for all good men to rally around Akin as an American patriot.

National Review: Representative Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for senator from Missouri, became nationally notorious yesterday for saying something stupid. In the course of explaining why he believes abortion should be illegal even when pregnancies result from rape, he said that in cases of “legitimate rape” the victim’s body has defense mechanisms that usually prevent pregnancy.

Christian Institute: Nearly 60 per cent of churchgoers say they are less likely to vote for the Conservatives at the next General Election because of the party’s bid to redefine marriage, according to a new poll.

National Review: In a phone interview this morning, Mitt Romney told National Review Online that Representative Todd Akin’s recent remarks on rape are “inexcusable.”

LifeNews: Rebecca Kiessling, a pro-life attorney from Michigan, fully understands the national debate going on concerning the controversial comments Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin made about abortion and rape. Kiessling was conceived when her mother was victimized by a rapist …

Des Moines Register: Gov. Terry Branstad said today that if Republicans gain control of the Iowa Legislature in November, it’s likely they would support a statewide constitutional referendum on same-sex marriage, as well as restrictions on abortion.

NIH: The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.

Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1996 Aug;175(2):320-4; discussion 324-5.
Rape-related pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a national sample of women.
Holmes MM, Resnick HS, Kilpatrick DG, Best CL.
Source
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425-2233, USA.

Quad-City Times: Wiggins is one of four Iowa Supreme Court judges up for retention on the November ballot, but he is the only one of the four who was on the bench when the court unanimously ruled in the Varnum v. Brien case to legalize same-sex marriage in Iowa.

Antony Davies and Kristina Antolin at the Wall Street Journal: But that word—voluntarily—is key, and it’s where Mr. Ryan’s religious detractors go awry: Charity can only be charity when it is voluntary. Coerced acts, no matter how beneficial or well-intentioned, cannot be moral.

LifeNews: And the press continues to minimize, distort, rationalize, or ignore it, because the press is pro-abortion and likes Obama. But the press will take a guy who believes babies shouldn’t be murdered because their fathers are rapists and call that guy grotesque, barbaric, sick, and crazy. Which brings us to Missouri U.S. Senate Republican hopeful Todd Akin, who admirably opposes a rape/incest exception for abortion but who explained his position Sunday in a way that appeared calloused toward rape victims.

Pro Life Blogs: New documents obtained by Operation Rescue through Kansas Open Records Act requests prove that records crucial to the criminal prosecution of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Overland Park that were said to have been destroyed currently exist and were placed under seal in the custody of the Shawnee County Clerk of the Court by Judge Richard Anderson on January 12, 2012.

Washington Blade: The Associated Press reported at around 10:24 pm on Tuesday evening that Mark Pocan, who’s gay and a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, won the Democratic nomination. His main opponent in the primary was Kelda Helen Roys, a fellow Assembly member.

One News: With the Commission on Presidential Debates announcing the moderators for the 2012 presidential and vice presidential debates, a media analyst says the selected moderators compose an “all-star” lineup of the liberal left.

Brian Perry at Madison County Journal: In 2008, former Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove was running for the U.S. Senate and opposed gay-marriage even as the Mississippi Democratic Party shifted its platform position on marriage. Mississippi Democrats removed their platform plank that said, “Marriage: We believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.” The new platform was silent on marriage. But Musgrove was not silent. At one campaign stop in the Democratic Delta he said, “I’m very conservative. I am pro-life, anti-gay marriage. And again, that’s my personal belief, but I think it’s also very representative of Mississippi.” Musgrove was correct; his position was very representative of Mississippi. So, will marriage estrange Mississippi Democrats from their national party and candidates?

Washington Examiner: But Clinton, exhausted from four years of international travel and diplomacy, shrugged off the suggestion to lay the groundwork for her own 2016 bid with her husband at her side, according to author Ed Klein.

Linda Chavez at Townhall: But beyond these questions about conservatives’ objections, a final one seems to me the most compelling. Conservatives often invoke the principle that no one should be held accountable for wrongdoing that occurred in the past and in which the person in question played no role. We oppose reparations for slavery on this basis, as we do most forms of affirmative action. So, too, should we oppose a punitive policy that forces nearly two million young people to choose between continuing living in the shadows, unable to work, or leaving the country they’ve come to know and love.

The Hill: Two polls released Thursday reveal a tight race for the Senate in Indiana, with Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly and Republican State Treasurer Richard Mourdock essentially polling neck and neck.

CBC.ca: A prominent constitutional lawyer says a plan by the Parti Quebecois to restrict certain religious symbols in public institutions would be shredded up in court.

AP: Colo. Shooting Prompts Gun Bills In Big States AP: Some States Try To Fill National Gun Control Void

Blog of the Legal Times: A federal district judge in Tennessee has been asked to void the results of this month’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary vote, won by a man associated with an organization the state’s Democratic party has described as a hate group.

Forbes: In May, opinion tracker Gallup, headquartered in Washington, D.C., found pro-choice identification at its lowest point–41 percent–since 1995, when it first began asking the question. But that finding raises the contentious question of what respondents might think the terms “pro-life” or “pro-choice” mean at a time when both terms carry heavy political freight.

NC Register: Madison, Wis., Bishop Robert Morlino says he’s not endorsing Ryan, but upholds the candidate’s reputation as a serious Catholic committed to applying Church social doctrine.

The American Prospect: Iowa Republicans aren’t ready to cast aside their anger over the state Supreme Court’s 2009 decision legalizing same-sex marriage. After successfully unseating three of the justices who joined the unanimous decision in 2010, they’re going after Justice David Wiggins, who is up for a retention vote this year. The new conservative campaign won’t change Iowa’s same-sex marriage law, but it further politicizes the state’s once-independent judiciary and may boost turnout for Mitt Romney in a key swing state.

PDF download here at the ACLU website.

LifeNews: The man who is alleged to have shot a security guard yesterday at the offices of the pro-life group Family research Council has been formally charged and new FBI documents present more information.

Chicago Tribune: Unity proved to be an elusive commodity for Democrats at their day at the Illinois State Fair today as the party’s key organized labor support bashed Gov. Pat Quinn for his efforts to reform public employee pensions, forego pay raises and close state facilities.

AZ Central: As young undocumented immigrants on Wednesday celebrated the start of a new federal program allowing them to apply to stay and work temporarily in the United States, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order telling state agencies not to grant driver’s licenses to program participants.

LifeNews: Pro-life activist Gary Boisclair is creating quite a stir in his primary bid against Muslim Democrat incumbent Congressman Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s 5th District, up to and including death threats.

Human Events: Rep. Connie Mack was the big winner over former Rep. (1994-2008) Dave Weldon in the Republican Senate primary. The namesake-son of the beloved former senator (1988-2000), young Mack is now sure to be locked in a close race this fall against two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Politico: But that doesn’t mean social conservative groups are ignoring the issue. An email to supporters of the Family Research Council today stresses the issue in advance of the Republican platform committee meetings next week . . .

Journal-Sentinel: A little-noticed liberal group made a big impact in Tuesday’s Democratic legislative primaries in Milwaukee, ousting two longtime incumbents with attacks on their left and likely ensuring that no strongly anti-abortion Democrats will remain in the Legislature when it returns next year. Wisconsin Progress easily won its targeted races with candidates it had helped recruit and train

Centre Daily: There’s an interesting dilemma facing the filmmakers who are presumably hard at work, in some well-hidden editing room, on the biographical movie that will play just before Mitt Romney accepts his party’s nomination: What should the movie say about Romney’s Mormonism? So far, Romney has said very little about his faith in this campaign, which is clearly how he likes it. Indeed, his campaign has pushed back vigorously against even innocuous press coverage of Mormon folkways and beliefs, on the theory that trying to explain a much-distrusted, much-misunderstood religion could only distract from the economic message.

Bloomberg: Four of the court’s nine justices will be at least 74 years old on Inauguration Day in January — the first time that will have occurred in 28 years. Their ages suggest that one or more may be off the bench within the next four years, letting either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney appoint a successor and leave a decades-long legal imprint.

Daily Caller: The 1988 essay, titled “Minority and Women Law Professors: A Comparison of Teaching Styles,” ran in a special edition of the BLSA Memo. The future first lady justified her demands for more black and female law school faculty by attacking the “traditional model,” in which law students were educated through the Socratic method. She also opposed the traditional meritocratic hiring principle, where professors with better legal pedigrees were more often hired, arguing that it limited the success of women and blacks.

The Hill: Thompson will face Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who was uncontested in her primary. Polls show the race will be competitive in the slightly Democratic-leaning state: In the last three public surveys of the race, Thompson leads in one, Baldwin leads in another and they are tied in the third. Thompson likely starts the race with a slight edge due to his popularity with independents in the state, though Baldwin has the cash advantage at this point.

WFMZ.com: Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday refused to stop a tough new voter identification law from going into effect, which Democrats said will suppress votes among President Barack Obama’s supporters.