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Democrats refuse to take down ad making fun of MS patient Ann Romney

Last week, LifeNews reported on a Democratic Party ad that essentially made fun of a patient with multiple sclerosis, the wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Democratic National Committee unveiled a video featuring footage of Ann Romney’s dancing show horse as a way of mocking Mitt Romney for “dancing” around the issue of his taxes and whether he would make public additional tax returns that the IRS has certified are legitimate. The video was meant to be the first in a series of videos on the topic and the first featured the horse, owned jointly by Ann and Mitt Romney.

However, Ann Romney owns the horse in part because she relies on the animal, and other show horses she trains, to help her with therapy for her multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease. Ann Romney, in an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America,” took offense to the ad.

That eventually led DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told ABC News to issue an apology of sorts.

“Our use of the Romneys’ dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did,” he said. “We have no plans to invoke the horse any further to avoid misinterpretation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: andreavallejos

Hypocrite: Pelosi made up to $5 million on Asian investments in 2011

On the heels of The Weekly Standard’s report yesterday that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — a vocal critic of Mitt Romney‘s investing practices, had herself dabbled in the foreign markets — we can add Nancy Pelosi to the list of prominent Democrats to profit from overseas investments.

According to Pelosi’s 2011 financial disclosure statement, the Democratic House Minority Leader received between $1 million and $5 million in partnership income from ”Matthews International Capital Management LLC,” a group that emphasizes that it has a “A Singular Focus on Investing in Asia.” A quick trip to the company website reveals a featured post extolling the virtues of outsourcing.

“Designed in California, Made in Manila” sounds like an excellent title for a smear ad to be run the by the Barack Obama campaign. Instead, it appears to be Nancy Pelosi’s investment strategy.

Pelosi is also a small investor in the embattled “Moduslink Global,” one of the “outsourcing pioneers” that Mitt Romney has been criticized for associating with while at Bain Capital.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service

Romney slams Obama’s pandering statement to Spanish TV that Chavez is no threat to US interests

Republican Mitt Romney chided President Barack Obama on Wednesday for playing down “the threat” posed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as he sought to portray the Democrat as soft on national security, an issue that may resonate with Latino voters in November’s election.

Romney was reacting to remarks Obama made to a Spanish language television station that Chavez’s actions over recent years had “not had a serious national security impact” on America.

“This is a stunning and shocking comment by the president. It is disturbing to see him downplaying the threat posed to U.S. interests by a regime that openly wishes us ill,” Romney said in a statement. “President Obama’s remarks continue a pattern of weakness in his foreign policy, one that has emboldened adversaries and diminished U.S. influence.”

Pushing back, Obama’s campaign team accused Romney of playing into the hands of the leftist Venezuelan leader by granting him the international attention that he craved.

“Hugo Chavez has become increasingly marginalized and his influence has waned. It’s baffling that Mitt Romney is so scared of a leader like Chavez whose power is fading,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: William Hernández

Perry to Pose Major Threat to Romney

The biggest development of the Republican presidential campaign on Thursday happened in Austin, Texas – 1,000 miles from the leadoff caucus state where GOP front-runner Mitt Romney and seven of his opponents squared off ahead of an important test vote this weekend.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent word that he was running for the GOP nomination, casting a shadow over the debate and threatening to upend the race.

Back in Iowa, Romney emerged unscathed with his leader-of-the-pack status intact after two feisty hours; his two Minnesota rivals – Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty – sparred repeatedly as each sought advantage ahead of Saturday’s Iowa straw poll.

Overall, the dynamics of the campaign did not change with a single debate. And they may not change when Saturday’s straw poll results are announced.

But the race could well change in the coming days as Perry dives into it.

Read More at Real Clear Politics By Thomas  Beaumont, Real Clear Politics

Big Media’s Big Palin Problem

Are some things inevitable? Do certain circumstances lend themselves to the unavoidable hand of destiny? Are Washington politicos usually correct when making predictions based upon “conventional wisdom”? Per the media’s prodding, shall we just go ahead and start calling him President Rick Perry? Not if former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has anything to say about it. Last week, in what is best described as trademark Palin unpredictablity, the self-described hockey mom drove a stake into the heart of three distinct narratives that, for months, have been reverberating throughout the echo-chambers of Big Media.

First, in an interview with FOX News’ Sean Hannity, the former Alaska governor began gently tarring former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with the same sort of criticism she has more often reserved for President Obama — that of ditherer-in-chief. Mrs. Palin pointedly mocked Romney’s political wind-testing approach to the debt debate, and in her genuine “bless his heart” way, she began the uneasy task — oft-loathed by competitors within the same political party — of pointing out the many differences between herself and Mr. Romney. This crucial contrast-drawing can most likely be interpreted as a move toward announcing her candidacy.

Next, ever since Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced her decision to run for the GOP nomination, the media has been salivating over a potential “mud-wrestling” match between Mrs. Bachmann and Gov. Palin. But on the same night, and in nearly the same breath used to chastise Romney, Palin silenced the media-driven girl-fight meme by praising Bachmann’s principled “no” vote on the debt-ceiling debacle. (The elites are confounded by Palin’s willingness to both criticize and praise, as a matter of principle rather than politics, even her presumed competitors.)

Lastly, in their usual cynical tone, the political spinsters have been pushing a run for the GOP nod by current Texas governor Rick Perry. Trumpeting Perry’s alleged popularity within the Tea Party movement, the jammer-jawing intelligentsia spin a tale aimed at convincing voters of his viability, as a worthy opponent for Pres. Obama, while attempting to shut the door on the idea of nominating Gov. Palin. Of course, the flurry of pro-Perry news items is also intended to demoralize any pro-Palin forces by persuading them that Gov. Palin herself will ultimately decide against running. They want Americans to believe that Palin acknowledges her own cerebral shortcomings and will instead endorse the much more sophisticated Gov. Perry. (It’s intriguing that, when it’s convenient for Big Media, Governor Palin is painted as severely lacking in intelligence, yet as soon as they need a villain to decry, she becomes an evil genius who plans the destruction of polar bears from high atop her Alaskan ice castle.)

However, in yet another apparent step toward a 2012 run, Gov. Palin slyly re-tweeted a piece written by Whitney Pitcher, and featured on www.conservatives4palin.com, that puts Perry in a fairly negative light. In the post, Pitcher analyzes the dismal fiscal numbers in Texas garnered by the anemic leadership of Rick Perry, compared with Alaska’s example of financial discipline under the leadership of the former mayor of Wasilla. If Governor Palin intended on endorsing Gov. Perry — should he choose to run — why would she trumpet his poor financial record to her legions of followers? It should also be noted that, according to conservatives4palin, Pitcher’s post “pretty much calls for her (Palin) to run for the presidency.”

Read More at American Thinker By James P. York, American Thinker

Exclusive: New information on Romney’s views on global warming

 

Recently, various media outlets have reported on Romney’s statement in which he expressed support for global warming: “I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that.” This despite the last two winters being among the coldest in recent history and the recent evidence revealing pro-global warming scientists to have made fraudulent claims and suppressed contrary views. Romney also called for America to “reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases,” which, will, of course entail massive new government programs despite air quality in the United States being among the cleanest in the world.

I have always argued that Romney’s long history of promoting liberal causes make him unfit as the GOP nominee and that should he win, his lack of a consistent worldview would set the party back decades. But the “Romney is a conservative” myth has become so entrenched that when people hear about his global warming views, they’re surprised. But Romney has always held liberal views on the environment – he’s just downplayed them for the last five years and hoped no one would notice.

Most voters seem unaware of that Romney ran for Governor on a global warming platform. In 2004, Governor Romney initiated the “Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan” which just about every New England free market group attacked due to the harmful effects the plan would have upon the state’s economy. This plan morphed into a larger regional plan called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), that Romney and ten other liberal Northeastern governors signed. The goal of the pact was to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by ten percent by 2019. This pact, of course, assumed the global warming theory was scientific fact and to carry it out its wide-ranging dictates, Romney hired Douglas Foy, a radical environmental activist.

Foy’s claim to fame was his notoriety for suing businesses for not complying with various draconian environmental regulations. Not surprisingly, RGGI was a disaster from day one and created such economic uncertainty that businesses began to flee the state. Indeed, the job creation record of Gov. Romney became the second worst in the country, another shocking fact most voters are unaware of. Nevertheless, against all evidence, Romney insisted that RGGI was “good for business,” a statement which sounds like Obama’s statements about how his policies promoting alternative fuels are “good for business.”

As a result of the negative economic impact and a pressure campaign mounted by the business community, Romney did eventually pull out of RGGI. However, shortly after pulling out of RGGI, Romney initiated new regulations that essentially did the same thing RGGI was planning to do: a series of damaging emission regulations targeted at power plants. Incredibly, in preparations for these regulations, Romney proceeded to demonize the plants, even claiming “the Salem Harbor Plant is responsible for 53 premature deaths, 570 emergency room visits and 14,400 asthma attacks each year.” It turned out that these stats were false and borrowed from extremist environmental propaganda. Moreover, the stats were based upon a theoretical model created by the American Cancer Society and had nothing to do with the Salem Harbor plant. Even though there were zero deaths associated with the Salem Harbor power plant, Romney held a press conference in front of the power plant with all his extremist environmentalist friends present and recited these phony statistics while hysterically announcing “that plant kills people.” Bear in mind Salem Harbor was a legal power plant in full compliance with the law in every respect. Due to the impact Romney’s regulations had upon energy rates, the Salem Harbor power plant filed for bankruptcy two years later but was then purchased by Dominion Power. Foy later became a “super-secretary” in the Romney administration, responsible for overseeing the transportation, housing, environmental and energy agencies.

 Read More at Romney Exposed By Rino Hunter, Romney Exposed

Fox Host: Mitt Romney Obviously Not a Christian

 

Mitt Romney is “not a Christian” and therefore he may not have a good chance of raising big money among Christians if Rick Perry runs for president, “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said Sunday.

The discussion on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s possible run for the White House Sunday morning led Earhardt, Fox News correspondent and weekend co-host of the daily news analysis, to pronounce what many evangelicals and mainstream Christians believe: former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, a Mormon, is “obviously not a Christian.”

The talk turned to Romney, the presumptive frontrunner, when host Dave Briggs said he wasn’t sure if Perry could “get in and raise money with Mitt Romney.” Co-host Clayton Morris replied that many Republican thought he couldn’t. But Earhardt disagreed. “Well the Christian coalition … I think [Rick Perry] can get a lot of money from that base because [of] Romney obviously not being a Christian … Rick Perry, he’s always on talk shows, on Christian talk shows, he has days of prayer in Texas,” she said.

This comes amid efforts of Romney, one of the two Mormon presidential contenders apart from Jon Huntsman, to woo evangelical voters. Both Romney and Huntsman spoke at the last month’s Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, D.C., in an apparent attempt to show their commitment to key social issues and to conservative voters.

However, many evangelicals say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Romney’s denomination, is non-Christian. While a June 2011 Pew poll showed that 58 percent of white evangelicals didn’t see a problem in supporting a Mormon candidate, evangelicals are warning the voters to be careful.

Read More at Christian Post By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post

Romney is What’s Wrong With the Republican Party

Reading Al Gore’s comments on Mitt Romney we were reminded of all of the reason’s we don’t trust the man: “Good for Mitt Romney though we’ve long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis. While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party.

The so-called science of global warming is more media hype and Wall Street attempts to profit on trading carbon credits than it is real science. The scientific community is split on the topic with some climatologist predicting a new mini ice age. Mitt Romney’s gullibility on this issue helps us understand why he has been so wrong on most of the vital issue of the last decade.

Romney is often trumpeted by his supporters as having business experience and they love to site this record of taking Massachusetts from a three billion dollar deficit to a one billion dollar surplus. But the cost of his balanced budgets was tough on business. Peter Nicholas, founder of Boston Scientific Corporation, stated it this way: tax rates on many corporations almost doubled because of legislation supported by Romney. Romney’s tax policies were not helpful for many small businesses, when Romney took many IRS subchapter S businesses in Massachusetts and almost doubled their tax rates; it was an important disincentive to investment, growth and job creation.

The Cato Institute reports as Governor, Romney opposed $140 million in business tax hikes through the closing of loopholes in the tax code. This led to Joseph Crosby of the Council on State Taxation to say, Romney went further than any other governor in trying to wring money out of corporations.

Romney raised taxes on business by a total of $309 million. He increased taxes on business property. He then tried to raise taxes on hotels, but was stopped by the Democrat legislature. Romney at the time joined a coalition lobbying congress to tax internet activity, and he even supported a tax on out of state commuters.

Read More at Townhall by Douglas Kellogg, Human Events

Joe Miller focused on defeating Mitt Romney in 2012

Tea Party hero Joe Miller says he’s focused on making sure Mitt Romney doesn’t become president.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, Miller, who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Alaska in 2010, said his Western Representation PAC hopes to spend at least $500,000 campaigning against Romney, a Republican candidate, in early primary states like New Hampshire.

“It’s about getting the government back to its fundamentals, limiting government and showing that Romney is not embracing that approach,” Miller said of his PAC’s “Stop Romney” campaign.

Miller, who chairs the Western Representation PAC, said he’s not supporting any other GOP candidate.

Miller said Romney has a “big government approach.” The PAC will publicize the former Massachusetts governor’s history of flip-flopping, or as Miller said, “where Romney use to be and where he claims to be today.”

Read More at the Daily Caller by Alex Pappas, The Daily Caller

Tea party pushes GOP candidates to right

In the first presidential election since the tea party’s emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election.

On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.

The shifts reflect the evolving views of conservative voters, who will play a major role in choosing the Republican nominee. In that sense, the candidates’ repositioning seems savvy or even essential.

But the eventual nominee will face President Obama in the 2012 general election, when independent voters appear likely to be decisive players once again. Those independents may be far less enamored of hard-right positions than are the GOP activists who will wield power in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and other nominating contests.

“The most visible shift in the political landscape” in recent years “is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives,” says the Pew Research Center, which conducts extensive voter surveys. Many of them “take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues,” Pew reports. They largely “agree with the tea party” and “very strongly disapprove of Barack Obama’s job performance.”

Read More at the Washington Times by Chris Babington, The Washington Times