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Senator Moved To Stroke Rehab Center

2012-02-11T18:33:05Z

CHICAGO — Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk has left the Chicago hospital where he was treated after his stroke last month and has been transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Dr. Richard Harvey of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago says a team of experts will spend the next few days assessing the 52-year-old Republican's condition. They will also design a rehabilitation program for him.

The doctor said Friday that Kirk's good general health and fitness level before his stroke will work in his favor as he recovers.

On Tuesday, the senator's neurosurgeon said swelling in Kirk's brain had subsided and a portion of his skull that had been removed was reattached.

The stroke is expected to affect movement on the left side of Kirk's body.

Michael Moore: A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream, a 25-Year Anniversary for Me

2012-02-11T18:17:15Z

On this day 25 years ago, in 1987, I became a filmmaker. It was around 10 in the morning and the first-ever roll of Kodak 16mm film for my first-ever movie was loaded into my friend's camera to shoot the very first scene of Roger & Me. I had no idea on that morning in Flint, Mich. what my life would be like after that, or what would happen to Flint, or to General Motors. It all felt fairly ominous, though -- after all, GM, which was posting record profits at the time, was closing its first Flint factory (the first of what would become many) and unemployment in Flint had officially been listed as high as 29 percent. Surely things couldn't get much worse.

That morning, 25 years ago today, a group of autoworkers had come together on the lawn of the soon-to-be-closed Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac assembly plant to raise their voices against the closing -- and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike, which had begun at that very factory. That strike, in 1936-37, was actually an occupation. Hundreds of workers took over the factories in Flint and refused to leave for 44 days until GM capitulated and recognized their union. The strike inspired thousands of other workers across the country to stage their own occupations and, before you knew it, in the years to follow, factory workers were paid a living wage, with benefits, vacations, and a safe working place.

The middle class and the American Dream were born 75 years ago today, on Feb. 11, 1937, the day the Flint workers won their struggle. And for the next 44 years, working people everywhere got to own their own homes, send their kids to college and never worry about going broke if they got sick. That belief, that life would be good if you were a good citizen and a hard worker, now seems out of reach for nearly half the country which is either living in or near poverty. Perhaps people wouldn't mind it as much if the burden were being evenly shared. But everyone knows that's not the case. In a time of record personal bankruptcies, record home foreclosures, record family and student debt, there are a group of people having the best years of wealth and profit ever recorded in human history. And it is those very people who have made the decisions to export our jobs, to decimate unions, to make college unaffordable, to start wars and to pay themselves with gluttonous joy while paying little or no tax -- this is the 1% that has created the burden so many Americans (and people around the world) now share.

And so, 75 years after the victory in Flint, the battle is now being fought all over again. But this time it's not just about getting paid a dollar an hour, or having Sunday off, or reducing the chance of your hand being crushed in the metal stamping machine. This time, the stakes are even greater: Who is going to own America and control the basic functions of our democracy -- the richest 1% who buy the politicians to get what they want, or the 99% who don't have much these days and live in anxiety or fear of what's around the bend.

I believe that justice will win out again, in the end, just as it did 75 years ago today in Flint in 1937.

I have no special plans to mark this day of anniversaries other than to post a short story I wrote called "Gratitude." You may have read it in my book, but if not, here it is to freely download and enjoy.

If you'd like to hear me read it in my own voice, click here.

It tells, in part, the story of that day I first placed that roll of Kodak film into a movie camera. I am proud of the town I was born in, and I'm proud of my uncle who participated in the Sit-Down Strike. I am grateful to those of you who have gone to my movies over the years, and I thank all of you who have been inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement to speak up on behalf of the 99%.

There's no turning back now. Onward!

Mitt Romney Super PAC Donors: Own Your Ad

2012-02-11T18:11:14Z

Thanks to the financial floodgates opened by the Supreme Court's decision in the now-infamous Citizens United decision, campaign spending in the 2012 election cycle is projected to reach a record high.

The decision, along with subsequent lower court rulings, enabled creation of so-called super PACs, which are independent campaign groups that are allowed to solicit and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of their preferred candidates or political issues. Independence, however, is a term that is quite loosely enforced in this case; while the super PACs can't officially coordinate strategy with a candidate's campaign, that doesn't mean that candidate's friends, former employees and business partners can't donate and help operate the committee. Nor does it prevent the candidate from asking their friends to chip in.

The Mitt Romney-supporting super PAC, Restore Our Future, is one of the best funded and active groups; thus far, it has spent over $18 million this election cycle. Largely, it has received donations from wealthy interests and former associates of the candidate; it has received 12 separate $1 million donations, including multiple seven figure deposits from employees of Bain Capital, the financial firm Romney founded. Romney, for his part, encouraged the creation of the Super PAC and attended more than one donor event.

In the video above, in order to give them the publicity they deserve, we put their faces to an attack ad that they helped fund.

William Astore: Why I Still Like Ike

2012-02-11T16:57:20Z

The ongoing controversy over the national memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower provides us with an opportunity to recall Ike's legacy and his deeper meaning to America. Ike was of course a national hero, the supreme allied commander who led the assault at D-Day on June 6, 1944 and who later served as president during the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. His legacies are many and profound, from ending the Korean War to the interstate highway system that bears his name to advancing civil rights to creating the space program to the establishment of the department of health, education and welfare.

As important as Ike's deeds were to our country, in some way his words were (and are) even more important, especially in this time of constant war and bloated budgets for "defense" and our burgeoning trade in deadly weaponry.

Ike was a citizen-soldier first and foremost, not a warrior or warfighter, and like the citizen-soldiers of World War II he came to hate war. This is not to say that Ike was a pacifist. He believed in a strong defense and intervened in countries such as Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon, Formosa, and South Vietnam, in order in his words to prevent "communist efforts to dominate" these countries. And we may certainly question the legality as well as the wisdom of these "wars in the shadows," especially with respect to Iran and Vietnam.

But let us focus on Ike's words -- his lessons to America. Grossly underestimated by intellectuals who were deceived by his amiable public demeanor and his love of golf (with its country-club associations), Ike was a fine writer and a deep thinker who thoroughly understood the American heartland -- and the American heart.

Any memorial to Ike should seek to capture the wisdom of his words and how they struck to the very core of the American (and human) experience. It should confront us with his words and encourage us to contemplate their meaning in a setting conducive to reflection and reconsideration.

First, let's consider what Ike said about war. In a speech at the Canada Club in Ottawa on Jan. 10, 1946, Ike stated:

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

Let all Americans pause and reflect on the hard-earned wisdom of that statement before plotting our next military intervention.

Second, let's consider what Ike said about the true cost of spending on military weaponry. In remarks prepared for the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1953, Ike declared that:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Third, let's consider Ike's final warning upon leaving office in 1961 about the dangers of a growing "military-industrial complex" to democracy and freedom in America. In his words:

The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Ike's tersely prophetic words are rarely heard in American political discourse today. Indeed, his avowed hatred of war, his condemnation of the deadly weapons trade as contrary to human values, his warning about an emergent military-industrial complex with the power to threaten our liberties, would likely be dismissed in this year's election season, whether by mainstream Democrats or Republicans, as the ravings of a left-wing, weak-kneed, liberal.

All the more reason why these words need to be enshrined in a national memorial to Eisenhower.

One more lesson Ike can impart to us: the virtue of humility. In spite of his immense accomplishments, Ike remained a humble man. Doubtless this humility stemmed from his upbringing, but so too did it come from his military service. As he himself wrote, "Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends."

In this age of American exceptionalism, in which our nation touts its "generation of heroes" and boasts of its unrivaled military power, Ike's words remind us that humility is far more becoming a man and a nation.

Even the most powerful nation may fall if it loses itself in its own celebratory braggadocio. Ike knew this, and if despite his efforts such a fate had happened on his watch, he doubtless would have taken full responsibility. Consider here the words Ike prepared in case the D-Day attack had failed on June 6, 1944. This was what Ike was prepared to say:

Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

Fortunately for history, Ike never had to say those words. Left unsaid, they nevertheless live on as an example of Ike's willingness to bear unselfishly the burden of defeat, even as he humbly bore the laurels of victory.

Whatever final form the national memorial to Ike eventually assumes, I sincerely and fervently hope it enshrines the wisdom, the courage, the humility, the humanity of Ike's words, so desperately do we need these qualities today.

For Ike knew that America's true strength resides not in the size of our arsenals but in the generosity of our spirit.

Professor Astore writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.

First Lady Talks Fitness With Religious Leaders

2012-02-11T16:41:36Z

LONGWOOD, Florida — Gearing up for a tough political season ahead, Michelle Obama said Saturday she's trying to get as much done as possible before the general election campaign starts to drown out everything else.

"It's sort of like working before vacation – only it's not a vacation," she said in an interview with a handful of reporters. "It's that same notion of `How much time do we have? What do I have to do?'"

The first lady said she's also reminding herself not to take things personally once the rough-and-tumble of the campaign gets going.

"Things are different in a campaign environment," she said. "It's a competition. Things are said. You just take it one day at a time."

The first lady said she'll devote three days a week to politics once the campaign is in full swing, but she wants to continue working on her signature issues of fighting childhood obesity and supporting military families.

She added that she'll draw a clear line between the campaign and those issues, to keep them from getting bogged down in politics and hurting the credibility of her efforts.

The first lady spoke with reporters on the final day of a three-day national tour marking the second anniversary of her "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity. She visited Iowa, Arkansas and Texas before spending the last day in Florida.

Mrs. Obama also talked about the importance of finding time to escape the White House bubble and have more normal interactions with friends and family – those who know her simply as "Meesh" – shorthand for Michelle.

That includes unannounced shopping trips, outings with friends and even visiting her brother's house in Oregon with her daughters, she said.

At times like that, she says, "I'm not the first lady."

"We sat on the porch and we ate barbeque," she recalled. "It was important for me to go there."

Mrs. Obama began her day at Northland Church outside Orlando, where she highlighted the work of churches and faith leaders in helping families to adopt healthier habits. Her final stop was to be a high-energy event at Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Fox News Pundit Apologizes To Rachel Maddow For Contraception Comment

2012-02-11T16:36:40Z

Rachel Maddow revealed on her Friday show that columnist and Fox News pundit Cal Thomas had personally apologized to her after saying that she was a good argument for contraception.

Thomas called Maddow "the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception" during a panel at the annual CPAC conference in Washington on Thursday. He was immediately criticized for the comment, including from his Fox News colleague Greta Van Susteren, who called on him to apologize publicly and privately.

Maddow responded to Thomas' comments on her Thursday show. On Friday, she told her viewers that Thomas had called her the next morning and said he was sorry.

"He didn't mean it and he wished he hadn't said it," Maddow said. "I completely believe his apology. I completely accept his apology."

She also thanked Van Susteren for coming to her defense, calling it "really nice, particularly given that she works" at Fox News with Thomas.

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Dem Gov Pledges To Make Appeal To Christie On Gay Marriage

2012-02-11T16:00:05Z

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire (D) pledged to make an appeal to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) over same-sex marriage legislation.

Gregoire, who is expected to sign a recently passed gay marriage bill on Monday, said she's been touched by the response she's received over her support of same-sex marriage. During a radio interview with the Wall Street Journal program The Daily Wrap, Gregoire said she "would feel very comfortable" sharing her experience as a same-sex marriage proponent with Christie.

"I respect him as a fellow governor," Gregoire said. "I would feel very comfortable sharing with him my personal journey, the overwhelming response that I've received and how good I feel about myself today."

Gregoire recently criticized Christie for proposing a ballot question to let voters decide whether to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey. Gregoire publicly supported marriage equality herself in early January, saying "it is time, it is the right thing to do."

"I have not felt good about this issue and about where I stood for a number of years," Gregoire said.

Paul Ready For Romney Battle In 'Pretty Important State'

2012-02-11T15:11:25Z

By STEVE PEOPLES, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANFORD, Maine -- Mitt Romney hoped to avoid a fourth straight election setback Saturday in the GOP presidential nomination race, but feisty Ron Paul could extend that losing streak with a victory in Maine's caucuses.

Romney, the one-time front-runner, stepped up efforts to court Republicans in recent days, reflecting growing concern about the outcome of what has become a two-man race in Maine.

Neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Santorum, who won in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday, is actively competing in Maine, where party officials planned to declare a winner Saturday evening.

Paul was optimistic as he greeted morning caucus-goers in Sanford, where a few hundred Republicans gathered in a nearly-filled high school gymnasium.

"I think we have a very good chance," Paul said. Romney will "be better off if he wins it and I'm going to be a lot better off if I win. So this will give me momentum and it will just maintain his. It's a pretty important state as far as I'm concerned."

Romney wants Maine voters to help in his struggle to convince his party's conservative wing that he should be the candidate they back. The former Massachusetts governor said in a Washington speech Friday that he was "a severely conservative Republican governor."

He visited the same Sanford caucus minutes after Paul left.

"I want to be your nominee," Romney said. "I believe I'm the one person in the race who actually can beat the president."

Paul, a libertarian-minded Texas congressman, is fighting to prove he's capable of winning at all, particularly in a state where his campaign has focused considerable attention. He has scored a few top three finishes in other early voting states, but his strategy is based on winning some of the smaller caucus contests where his passionate base of support can have an oversized impact.

Paul suggested his candidacy was at a critical juncture. Asked whether he would stay in the contest until the GOP's national convention in August, he answered: "I'm going to stay in as long as I'm in the race. And right now I'm in the race."

There is no reliable polling to gauge the state of the Maine election, which drew fewer than 5,500 voters from across the state four years ago. But Romney's recent activities suggest a victory is by no means assured, despite the natural advantages of being a former New England governor competing in a state he won with more than 50 percent of the vote four years ago.

He changed his schedule Friday night to add personal appearances at two caucuses Saturday; he had planned to take the day off.

Romney faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Portland Friday night, where one heckler was removed by police. Others asked pointed questions about his off-shore bank accounts, feelings about the nation's poor, and his continued support for the natural gas extraction process known as fracking.

On Saturday morning, he suggested that he's the only one in the race who isn't a Washington insider.

"I have never spent a day in Washington working," Romney said. "I expect to go there, get it fixed, and then go home. I'm not going to stay in Washington."

Some crowd members chanted, "Ron Paul," as Romney left the crowded gymnasium.

Maine's nonbinding presidential straw poll, which began Feb. 4, has drawn virtually none of the hype surrounding recent elections in Florida and Nevada, where candidates poured millions of dollars into television and radio advertising.

Romney and his allies spent a combined $15.9 million in Florida. But his campaign had placed only a small cable television ad buy airing Friday and Saturday, at a cost of several thousand dollars. But he sent surrogates to the state in recent days and hosted a telephone town hall in addition to Friday's campaign stop.

Maine's caucuses are spread over a week.

The state party will announce a winner Saturday evening, although a handful of contests will be held Sunday. Washington County, in the state's far eastern region, postponed its caucuses until next Saturday because of a snow storm.

Paul has been more active and scheduled three public appearances Saturday. There is reason to believe he won't make things easy for Romney.

The tea party, hardly a Romney ally, has exerted significant influence, taking over the GOP platform and helping to elect Gov. Paul LePage.

"Paul needs to show he can win somewhere," GOP strategist Phil Musser said. "My sense is a win in Maine for Romney would be nice. But to be honest, Ron Paul is camped out up there and he needs to win one."

The timing of the contest also raises the stakes.

The narrative coming out of Maine will likely reverberate in the political echo chamber for weeks, given there isn't another election until Arizona and Michigan host their contests Feb. 28. Romney hopes that narrative will be more positive than it has been over the last week, arguably his worst of the year.

Staggered By Santorum's Surge, Romney Resets Campaign

2012-02-11T14:52:07Z

WASHINGTON — Staggered by Rick Santorum's surge, Mitt Romney is trying to reset his presidential campaign by defining himself as a strict conservative.

The former Massachusetts governor had focused on his business credentials and played down his ideology, four years after he failed in his attempt to win the GOP nomination by running as a social conservative.

"I was a severely conservative Republican governor," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual gathering Friday. It was a speech that, advisers said, Romney viewed as an important chance to speak directly to the conservatives who rejected him in three contests last Tuesday.

He insisted that he is a conservative in both record and background, trying to convince the GOP's skeptical right flank that he is acceptable as the party's nominee.

"My path to conservatism came from my family, from my faith and from my life's work," Romney said.

He's working to gain trust from the activists who make up the GOP base and who drive the Republican primary contest. They view him skeptically because of his past shifts on a variety of issues, including his previous support for abortion rights.

Conservatives generally view Romney's chief rivals, Santorum and Newt Gingrich, as having views more in line with their own.

Romney's new message comes as he's trying to prove he can win over a broad spectrum of Republicans. He has yet to win a majority of GOP votes in any of the contests he's won so far. And he's looking to emerge strongly from Super Tuesday, March 6, when 10 states hold nominating contests.

In offering the defense, though, Romney drew attention to the problem he's faced throughout the primary contest.

"I've never heard anybody say, `I'm severely conservative,'" conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday.

Romney's conservative opposition remains divided – the former House speaker has won one state and the former Pennsylvania senator four. But Santorum is suddenly threatening Romney's dominance in states where his team had previously felt comfortable.

This past week, Santorum won contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. While Romney's team decided not to compete in Missouri's nonbinding primary and acknowledged early that Minnesota might pose problems, they were much more optimistic about Colorado. Romney spent several days campaigning there ahead of the caucuses, but his team spent just $32,000 on TV ads in the state.

In a sign it's nervous about continued losses, Romney's team abruptly added campaign events in Maine, where results from the caucuses were to be announced Saturday. He also held a town hall in the state Friday night; it was the first event where he took questions from voters since he campaigned in South Carolina in January.

Romney's team is preparing an aggressive push against Santorum in Michigan, where Romney was born and where Romney is a household name and where his advisers had hoped for an easy victory. Romney's father, George, served as governor of Michigan and chairman of American Motors Corp. before mounting a failed bid for president in 1968.

Romney all but ignored Santorum ahead of this week's contests. Advisers say that will change, with Romney taking on Santorum's record on union issues during his time in the Senate from heavily unionized Pennsylvania.

Santorum joined a filibuster of a national right-to-work act and voted to defend legislation that sets pay for public sector workers. He defends that record as an issue of states' rights.

Romney has also planned a more aggressive campaign schedule in Michigan in the coming weeks. He plans to stop in Grand Rapids on Wednesday and the Detroit area on Thursday, and stay in the Midwest through the end of the week. He's likely to spend some time campaigning in Ohio, which holds its primary on March 6, Super Tuesday, and is the second Rust Belt state to hold a nominating contest.

Romney's big advantage is money. He and his allies, the super PAC Restore Our Future, have spent a combined $25 million on TV ads to date, helping to drive wins in New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada. That dwarfs the $7.1 million Gingrich and his allies have spent on airtime and the $2.5 million Santorum backers have shelled out.

Still, Romney is facing a crush of primaries and caucuses on March 6, when his financial edge will be tested. But he always could add to that himself. He hasn't said if he'll contribute any of his considerable personal fortune to the campaign. In 2008, he spent $45 million.

Bennett L. Gershman: It's Not About Conscience, It's About Bullying

2012-02-11T14:28:30Z

The hysterical arguments by officials of the Catholic Church (and mimicked by their Republican water carriers) about being forced to abdicate their conscientious religious beliefs to accommodate women who seek to obtain contraceptive devices is reminiscent of the moronic arguments about "Death Panels" for elderly under Obama's health care legislation, Obama's birth place, and, for some fanatics, his Muslimness. These are the kinds of phony arguments that appeal to a segment of the population that H.L. Mencken famously described as the Booboisie. From a constitutional standpoint, the church's claim that its free exercise of religion is being subverted is fallacious and demagogic. One hopes that the Obama administration will refuse to back down in the face of these bullying tactics, and will stick to its sound and fair policy of requiring all health providers -- including hospitals and universities affiliated with the Catholic Church, to provide insurance coverage for women who practice birth control, that is, for the 98 percent of Catholic women in America who use some form of contraception.

The argument made by these alleged conscience-stricken church officials is phony. The following are only a handful of the numerous instances in which the Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled that claims of religious freedom and conscience do not override important public policies: the court upheld the power of the Air Force to forbid one of its personnel from wearing a yarmulke while in uniform; upheld the statutory authority of the Internal Revenue Service to deny tax-exempt status to religious institutions that engage in racial discrimination; permitted timber harvesting and the construction of a road through a portion of a national forest used for religious worship by members of three Native American tribes; prevented prisoners from exercising their religious beliefs to attend a Friday Muslim congregational service; denied unemployment benefits to persons dismissed from their state jobs because they used a sacramental narcotic substance in their ceremonial church service; and upheld the suspension from a public school of Native American students who sought to wear their hair in long traditional braids in violation of a school hair-length policy.

Government bodies in all of these cases rejected claims of religious freedom and conscience because an important public policy was deemed to override the individual claims of conscience and religious liberty. But there is no suggestion in any of these cases that the government was hostile to religion or particular religious beliefs, was targeting for invidious motives any particular religion or the freedom of people to worship, or was discriminating against any religion. To be sure, if government is seen to discriminate against religion because of its hostility to that religion -- as was the case in a Florida community which banned the religious practice of Santeria which involved the ritual sacrifice of animals -- then the government would be acting unconstitutionally.

But there is no question that the Obama administration's policy to require religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraception does not discriminate against any religion, and serves an important, even compelling public policy. That the Catholic Church is aggrieved by the law's application is no different than the grievances felt by those persons in the above examples who were prevented from freely practicing their faith. Indeed, nobody in the current controversy is being prevented from practicing their faith. No woman is being prevented from using, or not using, birth control. There has to be a fair and balanced accommodation between religious conscience and public policy, and that appears to be the way this regulation is written.

When officials of the Catholic Church resort to claims of conscience, they are not referring to the conscience of the women who seek insurance coverage for birth control; they are referring to their own stricken conscience, and how their own conscience is being adversely impacted by this regulation. But in seeking to curtail the right of thousands of female employees to receive insurance coverage, they are engaging in an obvious and blatant kind of bullying. Indeed, permitting the Catholic Church to deny insurance coverage to its more than 750,000 employees would effectively eviscerate the regulation. But, as noted, the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom, albeit a majestic protection, doesn't extend that far.

Strong Paul Contingent Gives Candidate Power Boost In Key State

2012-02-11T14:27:44Z

SANFORD, Maine -- A well-organized group of Ron Paul supporters â including a border-jumping New Hampshire contingent â flooded Sanford High School this morning for today's Maine Caucus.

"Ron Paul! Ron Paul!" supporters chanted as Paul arrived here just past 8 a.m.

Navy Honors Giffords With Big Dedication

2012-02-11T14:15:07Z

WASHINGTON -- Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in an assassination attempt 13 months ago, returned to Washington Friday for double honors. The Navy named a ship after her and she saw President Barack Obama sign the last piece of legislation she authored into law.

In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords, a littoral combat ship. The craft is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships.

"God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her," Mabus said at the ceremony.

Giffords was shot in the head and grievously wounded in January 2011 as she met with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Twelve others also were wounded in the rampage that left six dead, including a federal judge, a Giffords aide and a 9-year-old girl. Christina Taylor Green had an interest in government and politics and wanted to hear Giffords speak.

At Friday's ceremony, Mabus announced that Christina Taylor's mother, Roxanna, is the ship's "sponsor." Green's initials will be welded into the ship's keel.

In the months since she was shot, Giffords, 41, has been treated in Houston as well as Arizona as she relearned how to walk and speak. Her progress had seemed remarkable, but she resigned from Congress last month to concentrate on her recovery. Giffords stepped down on the day the House passed her bill by a vote of 428-0.

The legislation Obama signed Friday increases the penalties for using ultra-light aircraft when smuggling drugs into the country. The small, single-seat planes are an increasingly favored tool that smugglers use to fly at night and then release their haul without detection.

Obama said he told Giffords that he expected to see more of her in the months and years to come.

"I'm confident that, while this legislation may have been her last act as a congresswoman, it will not be her last act of public service," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

They Live In Motels And On Friends' Couches, But Are These Kids Homeless?

2012-02-11T14:06:25Z

Homeless kids have the right to an education. That's the basic rationale behind the McKinney-Vento Act of 1987, a law meant to ensure that homeless kids receive the same quality of schooling as everyone else.

But with more families losing their homes as a result of the lingering effects of the recession, many homeless advocates say the law doesn't go far enough to help them. Yet attempts by these advocates to change things have led to a bitter debate within the field of homelessness advocacy itself.

At the center of the debate is the question of who qualifies for government-subsidized housing. As it stands, anyone defined as homeless by the Department of Housing and Urban Development can apply for housing aid from the government. The problem is that HUD's definition leaves out thousands who lack permanent homes -- people who sleep on the couches of friends and relatives, or many who live in cramped motel rooms. Before approving aid in these cases, HUD requires proof that their arrangements are very tentative: either documentation of a lack of funds to afford a hotel room for more two weeks, or confirmation from the friend offering the couch that this setup can not be permanent. Providing such documentation is often a difficult hurdle for people living under these circumstances.

Families with children make up a large part of this population. As the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, homeless families have been especially affected by the recent recession. Since the economic downturn, according the Department of Education, the number of homeless children has increased by 38 percent, to almost 1 million (many experts consider this a low estimate). But by HUD's definition, only about 30 percent of such children, about 300,000, are considered homeless.

In December, six children testified at a congressional hearing on H.R. 32, a bill aimed at expanding HUD's homeless definition and introduced by Republican Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) The children talked about the hardships of sleeping four or five to a room in cheap motels and bouncing from one relative's living room to the next. They said that the resulting stress had caused them to struggle in school. Yet because they fail to meet HUD's criteria for homelessness, they and thousands of others like them aren't eligible for housing help.

On Tuesday, the bill made it out of a markup session of Biggert's Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity. If the legislation is passed this year, HUD would count these kids as homeless. The responsibility of identifying homeless children would fall to organizations that already track them for the public schools; this would bring the homeless children count closer to the Department of Education's estimate of 1 million. Supporters of the bill include the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

But not all advocates for the homeless are on board. The Corporation for Supportive Housing and the National Alliance to End Homelessness have opposed the bill, saying that it would expand the rolls of kids eligible for HUD aid without increasing the amount of funds. They worry that homeless people with the most pressing needs would suffer as a result.

"Our understanding is that this would have a bad impact on the worse-off kids," said Steve Berg, an executive for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, "kids who are living on the streets and in abandoned buildings and in backs of cars." Homeless advocates should devote their energy to getting Congress to enlarge the budget of HUD and other agencies that help the homeless, Berg said.

If Berg and his allies are now in the uncomfortable position of fighting a measure clearly intended to help homeless people, the same is true of several Democrats in the House. Representatives Maxine Waters, Mel Watt, and Luis Gutierrez -- all established liberals -- criticized the bill at the markup session.

To make the bill more palatable, Waters offered an amendment that would provide more funding for homeless children.

"Unless we add the Waters amendment with additional resources for those kids, someone who is currently getting services is going to end up on the street," Gutierrez said. "This is not an easy issue, but the conversation we need to have isn't about how to count homeless kids; it is about how we get resources to those kids."

Yet, Republicans who favor the measure, in part because they believe it could help streamline HUD's bureaucracy, are unlikely to go for Waters' proposal.

Some ardent backers of the bill dismiss Waters' amendment as unrealistic. Even if Democrats regain control of the House, they say, politicians this year will never agree to spend more money on homeless people -- unless they comprehend the full scope of the problem. And that won't happen unless they get an accurate count of the country's homeless families, they say.

"Congress doesn't really think it's a problem," said Diane Nilan, a prominent advocate for homeless families who attended the December hearing. "They don't see the vulnerable families that are just hanging on."

Romney Looks To End Losing Streak

2012-02-11T13:45:08Z

By STEVE PEOPLES, ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine -- Maine's presidential caucuses come at a critical time for Mitt Romney, the one-time Republican front-runner.

Shaken by a string of failures, Romney is hoping to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat Saturday on the path to his party's nomination.

The former Massachusetts governor has stepped up efforts to court local Republicans in recent days, reflecting growing concern over feisty GOP rival Ron Paul in what has essentially become a two-man race here. Neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Santorum, who defeated Romney in contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday, are actively competing in Maine.

Romney wants Maine to help assuage heightened scrutiny over his on-going struggle to win his party's skeptical conservative wing. State officials will announce a winner Saturday evening, a day after Romney delivered a high-profile Washington address in which he described himself as "a severely conservative Republican governor."

Paul, a libertarian-minded Texan, is fighting to prove he's capable of winning at all, particularly in a state where his campaign has focused considerable attention. He has scored a handful of top three finishes in other early voting states, but his strategy is based on winning some of the smaller caucus contests where his passionate base of support can have an oversized impact.

There is no reliable polling to gauge the state of the Maine election, which drew fewer than 5,500 voters from across the state four years ago. But Romney's recent activities suggest a win is by no means assured, despite the natural advantages of being a former New England governor competing in a state he won with more than 50 percent of the vote four years ago.

He unexpectedly changed his schedule Friday night to add personal appearances at two caucuses Saturday â a day he had planned to take off, despite being the last big day of voting in a state where the caucuses span one week. Romney faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Portland Friday night, where one heckler was removed by police. Others asked pointed questions about his off-shore bank accounts, feelings about the nation's poor, and his continued support for the natural gas extraction process known as fracking.

"That's a good question. I gotta take some shots now and then or it wouldn't be interesting," Romney said when asked about investments in the Cayman Islands. "I pay all the taxes I'm required to pay under the law â by the way, not a dollar more."

This Maine caucuses began Feb. 4 and will largely conclude Saturday, when the state GOP will announce the results of the nonbinding presidential straw poll. The contest has drawn virtually none of the hype surrounding recent elections in places like Florida and Nevada, where candidates poured millions of dollars into television and radio advertising.

After he and his allies spent a combined $15.9 million in Florida alone, Romney had placed only a small cable television ad buy to air Friday and Saturday totaling several thousand dollars. But he dispatched surrogates to the state in recent days â including his eldest son, Tagg â and hosted a telephone town hall to supplement Friday's campaign stop.

Paul has been more active, supplementing an aggressive ground operation with visits to shore up support. He has three more public appearances scheduled Saturday. There is reason to believe he won't make things easy for Romney.

Paul did reasonably well here four years ago, earning more than 18 percent of the vote, and his support has grown since then in a state whose electorate isn't afraid to support candidates outside the mainstream. The tea party â hardly a Romney ally â has also exerted significant influence in the Pine Tree State, taking over the GOP platform and helping to elect Gov. Paul LePage.

The timing of the contest also raises the stakes.

Tea Party Group Prepares To Battle Over Walker Recall Effort

2012-02-11T13:33:51Z

Verify the Recall, an effort backed by Tea Party groups to ensure the validity of petition signatures in Wisconsin's recall elections, is now 13,000 volunteers strong and organizers say one signature is being checked every 2.7 seconds.