Bad Deeds for 5-5-2012

Romney and Big Oil Team Up for Shameless Lies in New Ad – A new Romney ad is so blatantly false, the Washington Post said the “erroneous” attacks were made “without any shame.” The Washington Post also said, “There is no excuse for these kinds of ads, which take facts out of context or simply invent them.”

The ad was created by Mitt Romney’s Big Oil allies, “Americans for Prosperity,” and they just launched it in some important battleground states.

Click link above for a video about the lies in Romney’s/BigOil’s ad.

Liberatarian Think Tank Equates Science to the Unabomber – The liberatarian think tank called the Heartland Institute commissioned billboards that compare good, decent Americans who believe in climate disruption to murderous psychopaths like Charles Manson and unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Heartland said has removed the billboard; but, late Friday afternoon said in a statement. “We do not apologize for running the ad, and we will continue to experiment with ways to communicate the ‘realist’ message on the climate.”

At least 32 recognized scientific academies and societies agree that global warming is happening. Even the Pope agrees! Are they equating scientific academies /societies and the Pope with the unibomber?

It’s not funny. It’s not even controversial. It’s unacceptable. Tell the Heartland Institute to apologize for its hateful ad campaign!

Republican Ted Poe Doesn’t Want the Poor Defended in Court – In a recent appearance on PBS’s Red White and Blue, Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe gave his take on the Public Defender system:

“The Public Defender system is just another bureaucracy set up and paid for by the taxpayers to make us feel good, but doesn’t make much difference at all. I am not so sure they are that good and I have received information from attorneys and some defendant’s families that it is not a good system. It costs too much and allows the Judges to push their responsibility for quality representation off on a government bureaucracy. I am not a big fan of the Public Defender system for Harris County.”

More about Ted Poe and the courts – (Ted Poe is the bully with the booming voice)

Texas Cuts 7,000 Workers Over Past Year – A state auditor’s report showed that state agencies have cut their employment ranks by 5 percent since this time last year. Higher education, which went through sizeable staff cuts a few years ago, also has shrunk, but at a lesser rate.

State agencies, currently at 147,100 full-time equivalent positions, were pared by 7,322, with some of the biggest downsizing coming with prison correctional and probation officers at the Department of Criminal Justice, which lost 2,000 employee positions. Also slashed were the Juvenile Justice Department, Texas Education Agency, the Department of Aging and Disability Services and Family Protective Services, whose primary responsibility is investigating the abuse of children.

(And we wonder why the economy is not doing better?)

Texas Puts Ideology Above Women’s Health – In its admitted zeal to cut off all funding to Planned Parenthood, the state of Texas is making it perfectly, chillingly clear that it is willing to wreak havoc with the lives and health of low-income Texas women to achieve that goal. On Monday, it fired its latest salvo, securing a stay of an order, granted earlier that day, that would have allowed the organization to temporarily provide family planning services to tens of thousands of Texas women.

Planned Parenthood serves almost 50 percent of the 130,000 or so low-income women served by the Medicaid Women’s Health Program in Texas. The state enforced new rules this year that would exclude funding to Planned Parenthood clinics because the organization provides abortions as well as basic women’s health services.

Texas Thinks it’s OK to Deny Healthcare Access to Tens of Thousands of Women – Here is what the state of Texas considers “irreparable harm”: Continuing to provide Planned Parenthood with federal funds for the Texas Women’s Health program, which it has done for several years. Here is what it does not find harmful: immediately denying healthcare access to tens of thousands of women who have been going to Planned Parenthood affiliates for basic health services that aren’t abortions.

Rand Paul Contradicts Himself – Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday’s MSNBC show said Paul Ryan was loves notorious author Ayn Rand. But Paul Ryan dismissed that charge as an “urban legend.” After all, Ayn Rand made clear that she was an atheist and Rand Paul is a Catholic. But O’Donnell then played a speech that Ryan had given in honor of Ayn Rand’s 100th birthday.

Then Stephen Colbert weighed in on the subject. You’ll get to hear what Paul Ryan had to say on the occasion of Ayn Rand’s 100th birthday in the first video. And then you’ll get to hear Colbert’s fascinating interview with Father Thomas Reese in the second video.

Colbert’s interview with Father Thomas Reese of Georgetown University – (If there is an urban legend about Rand Paul’s love of Ayn Rand, then Paul is the father of that legend. – JLV)

Republican Party Tells States: Stop Looking For Poor Children To Insure – In the latest budget reconciliation package is a proposal to cut $400 million in bonus money used by states to find and enroll children who are likely to qualify for and benefit from CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, told Politico, “The whole purpose of the funds is to make sure that children who are eligible based on state-determined standards have an easier time — rather than a harder time — getting enrolled.”

But Republicans want to gut the funds, claiming they lead to potential enrollment fraud. Who are these children who might be “fraudulently” added to the program when they don’t belong? Children of parents who are on public assistance. By delaying their entry into the program, Republicans are declaring that they would rather put children’s long term health in jeopardy in order to score political points and say they are allegedly “battling waste and fraud.”

Mitt Romney Tells Ohio Students: Just Borrow Money From Your Parents to Get Your Business Started – Mitt Romney continues to show that he’s not in touch with most working Americans when he says things like this. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio, Mitt Romney told students, “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.” Most students don’t have parents with $20,000 in disposable capital sitting around to give to their kids to start a business.” Most Americans are not fortunate enough to be able to sell off part of the stock portfolio given to them by their father to get by either.

Regards,

Jim