–Garrison Keillor, Homegrown Democrat

From U.S. Senator Dick Durbin:

I wrote to you a few months ago to tell you about a remarkable candidate for Congress — Tammy Duckworth.

Joe Walsh continues to be the most outspoken (and controversial) Tea Party member of the House.

He relishes the endless confrontation and works overtime to fuel the bitter rhetoric attacking the Democrats and the President. He is proud of the Tea Party threats to shut down essential government services and destroy America’s reputation for paying its debts. Joe Walsh promises more confrontation; more personal attacks and more stalemate.

Illinois and our Congress deserve better.

Will you help Tammy defeat Walsh by contributing $5 or more to her campaign?

Tammy is a true public servant who knows what it means to serve our country.

She’s also a proven leader who understands what it will take to rebuild our economy and create jobs. Her courage and common sense make her exactly the kind of person we need in Congress.

I can’t think of a better person to replace Joe Walsh than Tammy.

Please join me in supporting her with a contribution of $5 or more.

Thanks for your help,

Welcomed with cheers by the audience, Ron Paul called former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum "a fake."

Personally, I wouldn’t vote for either of these guys, but in the circular firing squad called the Republican race for the White House, this was a laudable moment.

Recall that, while serving as a United States senator, Santorum took $100,000 from Pennsylvania tax payers to home school his children — while living in Virginia.

Never, ever forget that.

Pennsylvanians still have not.

This is not a joke.

According to a lawsuit filed February 21, 2012 by a Mr. Gordon Warren Epperly, who lists his address as a P.O. Box:

Barack Hussein Obama II, Aka Barack Hussein Obama, Aka Barack H. Obama has the race status of being a “Mulatto.” Barack Obama’s father (Barack Hussein Obama I) was a full blood Negro being born Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya and raised in the Colony of Kenya. Barack Obama’s mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) was a white Caucasian woman being born in Wichita, Kansas on November 29, 1942 and raised in the state of Washington and in the State of Hawaii.

Therefore:

As stated above, for an Individual to be a Candidate for the Office of President of the United States, the Candidate must meet the qualifications set forth in the United States Constitution and one of those qualifications is that the Candidate shall be a “natural born Citizen” of the United States. As Barack Hussein Obama II is of the “Mulatto” race, his status of citizenship is founded upon the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before the [purported] ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the race of “Negro” or “Mulatto” had no standing to be citizens of the United States under the United States Constitution.

View the entire complaint here. (PDF)

Between 2001 and 2004, Santorum enrolled five of his children in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. Since Pennsylvania law requires school districts to pay for students who live in their district but enroll in cyber schools – and since Santorum claimed his residence was a house in Penn Hills, Allegheny County – the Penn Hills School District paid $100,000 for the Santorum children’s tuition.

But wait a minute – it turns out Rick Santorum, his wife, and their children don’t actually live in Penn Hills…in Allegheny County…or even in Pennsylvania. They actually live in a big house he owns in Leesburg, Virginia.

Yes, that’s correct. And everyone, even conservatives in Pennsylvania, know that to be true.

Rick Santorum took $100,000 from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania to pay for his childrens’ tuition, even while living in Virginia.

And he’s okay with that.

He has not re-payed that.

Nor has he offered to repay that.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Cal Thomas tells CPAC Rachel Maddow is the "best argument in favor of her parents using contraception."

[Applause from CPAC]

And then apologizes to Maddow personally, and Rachel completely accepts his apology.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Doug Wead, Ron Paul campaign senior advisor, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Paul campaign is taking advantage of the peculiar rules of assigning delegates within the Republican Party.

Is it right to ignore the will of the people?

Nod to Robert Marchini for this one.

Is Senator Richard Lugar a Carpetbagger?

Would you like to serve in the United States Senate in Indiana? Turns out you don’t even have to live there. And there is more than three decades of legal precedence.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar allegedly represents the people of the state of Indiana, a state where he has not resided for over 30 years.

In 1982, then-Indiana Attorney General Linley Pearson said that the senator is not required to actually live in the state he represents because he is acting “on business of this state or of the United States,” according to Will Rahn at The Daily Caller. The Attorney General issues legal opinions that are not binding. The AG does not make the law.

Here’s the truth: Sen. Richard Lugar is running for re-election in a state he has not lived in for over 30 years.

Should that matter to anyone in Indiana or the rest of the United States?

From The Daily Caller:

Lugar sold his home at 3200 Highwoods Court in Indianapolis shortly after first assuming office in 1977. But due to a loophole in Indiana law, both he and his wife Charlene Lugar are still registered to vote at that address.

Greg Wright, an Indiana tea party member and certified fraud examiner, told The Daily Caller that he has been investigating Lugar’s residency situation “for a few weeks” and has not been paid for his efforts. He just heard one day from some tea party friends that Lugar didn’t actually live in the state, and took it upon himself to find out if it was true.

According to The Daily Caller, Richard Lugar and his wife Charlene both have driver’s licenses indicating that they currently live at 3200 Highwoods Court.

The current resident of 3200 Highwoods Court was surprised to hear that Lugar still claims that address as his own:

“I knew [Lugar] built it,” Hughes told TheDC. “Every now and then we get his mail, and we couldn’t figure out why after all these years we were still getting his mail every now and then. And now we know why.”

“I was surprised, but I was more surprised that no one seemed that interested,” she added.

Is it enough that Lugar slips through a loophole in the law? Would you be concerned if you found out a pol was claiming your address as his or her own? Would you be concerned if that same pol had a legal document – a driver’s license – indicating that he or she resided at your address?

I wonder which address he uses for his tax returns?

Only in America.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com

Newt Gingrich, fighting for the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, was sued for unauthorized use of “Eye of the Tiger,” the Grammy-winning theme song from “Rocky III.”

Rude Music Inc., an Illinois corporation owned by Frank Sullivan, a co-author of the song, sued the candidate today in federal court inChicago, seeking a court order blocking Gingrich’s unauthorized use of the song at campaign rallies. Rude Music is also seeking unspecified money damages.

Newt 2012 Inc. and the American Conservative Union, a political advocacy group, are also named as defendants in the five-page complaint.

You mean you can’t just take anyone’s music and play it anywhere, particularly for the purpose of raising money for your own political campaign? What? What about the First Amendment.

Oh. Right.

That doesn’t apply in this case.

Yoi. Another ethical lapse for the former speaker?

And, yes, you can be sued for stealing music.

Is that what Newt did? The courts will decide.

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy hit back at Fox News during a UK press conference following the London Premiere of their new film. Fox had publically criticized the film for supposedly pushing a ‘dangerous liberal agenda’ at kids.

Kermit mocks their blatant and pointless fear mongering before Miss Piggy offers her own opinion on Fox News.

Camera and Post by Russell Nelson.

So, so cool.

Tip of the hat to Media Matters for America.

Gingrich told a crowd on Florida’s so-called Space Coast on Wednesday that “by the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the Moon. And it will be American.” And he said that he would push for the introduction of a “Northwest Ordinance for Space” so that when the number of colonists reached 13,000, they could petition for statehood.

(By the way, I find it interesting that Gingrich didn’t insist on answering the question about Puerto Rican statehood at Thursday’s debate, yet he’s advocating for a state on the Moon. Earth to Newt: phone home.)

The writer notes former Senator Bob Dole’s concerns as well:

One of the latest establishment Republicans to try to avert the Gingrich catastrophe is former Senator Bob Dole, who wrote a letter to the Romney campaign on Thursday saying: “I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich, but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late.” It only got better from there. Dole continued, “hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice.”

How long until Newt is tossed aside?

Or, dare we say it, how long until he wins the nomination from the GOP? Then what? Will the Dems finally win the south again, as well as the east, west and north?

Watch this entire video.

You will understand.

From Paul Krugman at the New York Times:

When you hear about the low, low taxes of people like Mr. Romney, what you need to know is that it wasn’t always thus — and the days when the superrich paid much higher taxes weren’t that long ago. Back in 1986, Ronald Reagan — yes, Ronald Reagan — signed a tax reform equalizing top rates on earned income and capital gains at 28 percent. The rate rose further, to more than 29 percent, during Bill Clinton’s first term.

Low capital gains taxes date only from 1997, when Mr. Clinton struck a deal with Republicans in Congress in which he cut taxes on the rich in return for creation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. And today’s ultralow rates — the lowest since the days of Herbert Hoover — date only from 2003, when former President George W. Bush rammed both a tax cut on capital gains and a tax cut on dividends through Congress, something he achieved by exploiting the illusion of triumph in Iraq.

Correspondingly, the low-tax status of the very rich is also a recent development. During Mr. Clinton’s first term, the top 400 taxpayers paid close to 30 percent of their income in federal taxes, and even after his tax deal they paid substantially more than they have since the 2003 cut.

And here’s more from the same source:

And the economic record certainly doesn’t support the notion that superlow taxes on the superrich are the key to prosperity. During that first Clinton term, when the very rich paid much higher taxes than they do now, the economy added 11.5 million jobs, dwarfing anything achieved even during the good years of the Bush administration.

Read more here.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, currently on trial.

When I think of Charles Taylor, I think of “blood diamonds.”

And I am relieved that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is currently President of Liberia, a country still recovering from the slave trade.

Still recovering from the devastation wreaked by Europe and the Americas.

So I was distressed to learn this week that Charles Taylor, currently on trial for Crimes Against Humanity, was at one point employed by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency.

From Al Jazeera:

Liberia’s Charles Taylor, the first African head of state to be prosecuted for war crimes by an international tribunal, used to work with the CIA, according to a report in the Boston Globe from this week.

The report, based on information uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request made six years ago, said that Taylor had a relationship with the US spy agency for years, although the details of what he actually did were unclear.

“The Pentagon’s response to the Globe states that the details of Taylor’s role on behalf of the spy agencies are contained in dozens of secret reports – at least 48 separate documents – covering several decades,” the US newspaper said.

“However, the exact duration and scope of the relationship remains hidden.”

A spokesperson for the ICC told the Globe that the Taylor-CIA relationship was unrelated to his charges at the court.

The Globe report backed up long-standing rumours of Taylor’s work with the CIA, which confirmed a relationship with Taylor beginning in the early 1980s.

Even though this happened during the Reagan administration, this still gives me no pride.

Charles Taylor?

Think “blood diamonds.”

And mass executions.

Taylor  is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on claims that he armed Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for illegally mined, so-called blood diamonds.

More than 40 national Catholic leaders and prominent theologians at universities across the country released a strongly worded open letter today urging “our fellow Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail.”

In the lead up to Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich has frequently blasted President Obama as a “food stamp president” and implied that some African Americans are more content to collect welfare benefits than work. Rick Santorum attracted scrutiny for telling Iowa voters he doesn’t want “to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”

The open letter reminds the two presidential candidates, vying for Christian conservative voters, that U.S. Catholic bishops have called racism an “intrinsic evil” and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans.

The full text of the statement and signatories follow.

An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum:

As Catholic leaders who recognize that the moral scandals of racism and poverty remain a blemish on the American soul, we challenge our fellow Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail. Mr. Gingrich has frequently attacked President Obama as a “food stamp president” and claimed that African Americans are content to collect welfare benefits rather than pursue employment. Campaigning in Iowa, Mr. Santorum remarked: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” Labeling our nation’s first African-American president with a title that evokes the past myth of “welfare queens” and inflaming other racist caricatures is irresponsible, immoral and unworthy of political leaders.

Some presidential candidates now courting “values voters” seem to have forgotten that defending human life and dignity does not stop with protecting the unborn. We remind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum that Catholic bishops describe racism as an “intrinsic evil” and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans. At a time when nearly 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, charities and the free market alone can’t address the urgent needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. And while jobseekers outnumber job openings 4-to-1, suggesting that the unemployed would rather collect benefits than work is misleading and insulting.

As the South Carolina primary approaches, we urge Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and all presidential candidates to reject the politics of racial division, refrain from offensive rhetoric and unite behind an agenda that promotes racial and economic justice.

Francis X. Doyle
Associate General Secretary
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (retired)

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute Leadership Team:
Sisters Patricia McDermott, RSM (President) Eileen Campbell, RSM Anne Curtis, RSM Mary Pat Gavin, RSM Deborah Troillett, RSM

Sister Pat Farrell, OSF
President
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Rev. Bryan N. Massingale
Associate Professor of Theology
Marquette University

Rev. Clete Kiley
Director for Immigration Policy
UNITE HERE

Rev. Anthony J. Pogorelc,  M.Div., Ph.D.
The Catholic University of America
Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies

Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J.
University Chair in Human Rights and International Justice
Boston College

Sr. Patricia J. Chappell, SNDdeN
Executive Director, Pax Christi USA

Marie Dennis
Co-President, Pax Christi International

Rev. John F. Kavanaugh S.J.
Professor of Philosophy
St. Louis University

Rev. Jim Keenan, S.J.
Founders Professor in Theology
Boston College

Rev. Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Georgetown University

Sister Mary Ellen Howard
Executive Director
Cabrini Clinic, Detroit

Rev. James E. Hug, S.J.
President
Center of Concern

Sister Simone Campbell
Executive Director
NETWORK, A Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Steven Schneck
Director
Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies
The Catholic University of America

Sister Karen M. Donahue, RSM
Justice Team
Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community

Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale
Assoc. Prof. of Theology
Boston College

Tom Allio
Cleveland Diocesan Social Action Director (retired)

M. Shawn Copeland
Associate Professor of Theology
Boston College

Sister Maria Riley, OP
Senior Advisor
Center of Concern

Todd Whitmore
Associate Professor
Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame

Terrence W. Tilley
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology
Chair
Theology Department
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Michael E. Lee
Associate Professor
Theology Department
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Paul Lakeland
Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Professor of Catholic Studies
Director, Center for Catholic Studies Fairfield University

Lisa Sowle Cahill
Monan Professor of Theology
Boston College

Eric LeCompte
Board Member
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Tobias Winright
Associate Professor of Theological Ethics
Saint Louis University

Christopher Pramuk
Assistant Professor of Theology
Xavier University, Cincinnati

John Sniegocki
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
Xavier University, Cincinnati

Kathleen Maas Weigert
Carolyn Farrell, BVM Professor of Women and Leadership
Loyola University, Chicago

Daniel K. Finn
Professor of Theology and Economics
St. John’s University, Minnesota

Gerald J. Beyer
Associate Professor of Christian Social Ethics
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia

Jeannine Hill Fletcher
Associate Professor of Theology
Faculty Director
Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale
Assoc. Prof. of Theology
Boston College

John Inglis
Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
University of Dayton

Anthony B. Smith
Associate Professor
Department of Religious Studies
University of Dayton

David O’Brien
University Professor of Faith and Culture
University of Dayton

William L. Portier
Mary Ann Spearin Chair of Catholic Theology
University of Dayton

Alex Mikulich
Research Fellow
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Loyola University, New Orleans

Susan M. Weishar
Migration Specialist
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Loyola University

Kristin Heyer
Associate Professor
Religious Studies
Santa Clara University

James Salt
Executive Director
Catholics United

Vincent Miller
Professor of Religious Studies
University of Dayton

Nancy Dallavalle
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Religious Studies
Fairfield University

Source: http://www.faithinpubliclife.org