Obama Critic Apologizes Now That She Has Cancer It’s a hard way to learn a lesson about administration policy, but for one California woman, the experience has literally been lifesaving. In a letter to the L.A. Times, California mother and artist Spike Dolomite Ward apologized to President Barack Obama, admitting that during his time in office she had gone quickly from supporter to opponent, believing that the president had done nothing to help the country since being elected. But like many Americans, especially the self-employed, Ward and her family eventually found themselves in a personal budget crunch where they could either pay their mortgage or pay their health insurance premiums, but not both. The choice at the time seemed obvious — keep their home. Then she found out she had cancer. Ward was able to use the Obama health care reform laws to get access to affordable insurance without being turned down because of her condition.
Frustration with Congress Could Hurt Republican Incumbents GOP Base Critical of Party's Washington Leadership Overview Public discontent with Congress has reached record levels, and the implications for incumbents in next year’s elections could be stark. Two-in-three voters say most members of Congress should be voted out of office in 2012 – the highest on record. And the number who say their own member should be replaced matches the all-time high recorded in 2010, when fully 58 members of Congress lost reelection bids – the most in any election since 1948. The Republican Party is taking more of the blame than the Democrats for a do-nothing Congress. To be sure, neither party’s leadership is viewed positively right now. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 7-11, 2011 among 1,521 adults, finds that Republicans are as eager to see big changes in Congress as they were two years ago. Yet independents have few positive things to say about the Democratic Party either. the summer.
Time magazine reveals Person of the Year 2011 - Today Celebrates 2011 Time magazine revealed the 2011 choice for its iconic Person of the Year cover live on TODAY Wednesday. The Protester is this year’s choice, managing editor Rick Stengel told Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. “There was a lot of consensus among our people,” Stengel told the TODAY anchors as he revealed the magazine’s cover. As it has for the past 84 years, the weekly newsmagazine selected the person (or sometimes group, or thing) that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse. Time’s Person of the Year has been a perennial topic of year-end debate ever since aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year back in 1927 (the title was amended to Person of the Year in 1999). Slideshow: Time Persons of the Year 1999-2013 (on this page) Other candidates Polled online earlier this week, hundreds of TODAY.com readers came up with many other nominees for 2011, including late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Rep.
Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re-Election SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Unsparing in their criticism of President Barack Obama, Republican presidential hopefuls disagreed in campaign debate Saturday night about the right course in Afghanistan, the use of waterboarding and the wisdom of a pre-emptive military strike to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," vowed the former Massachusetts governor. On waterboarding, Herman Cain and Rep. As for the war in Afghanistan, former Utah Gov. While the Republicans were talking about foreign policy, Obama was on the world stage, as America's diplomat in chief. After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Hawaii, he said the two men intend to "shape a common response" to new allegations that Iran has been covertly trying to build a nuclear bomb. If the presidential trip gave the Republicans pause, they didn't show it in a 90-minute debate. Former Sen.
Bra that turns into a gas mask finally on sale everywhere The Emergency Bra, a brassiere that can turn into two life-saving gas masks for victims of biological warfare won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize. It just went on sale via this website, which describes the invention as "an "Emergency Bra, Nursing Bra, Two Face Masks [and] Strapless bra." The bra, available in sizes 32B to 40C, came as a result of Chernobyl. Seriously. [Dr. Elena] Bodnar studied the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and found that, as Fox News reports, "if people had had cheap, readily available gas masks in the first hours after the disaster ... they may have avoided breathing in Iodine-131, which causes radiation." You may recall my write-up of another Ig Nobel winner on Scanner: the MRI sex tape.
Soraya Chemaly: Women Own 1% of the World's Property -- Occupy That It must be what they're wearing. 1% One Percent. O.N.E. P.E.R.C.E.N.T. That's the number between ZERO and TWO. There must be a good reason for this startling fact. Nah! But, maybe it's because girls and women: Don't get to go to school when their brothers do Get married off (don't worry, at a good price) Are deprived of food when it's scarce Aren't allowed to own anything themselves Don't inherit Aren't paid for their labor Are property. How much poorer do we want women to get in the world? If you doubt what I'm saying just because you have to then look at Half The Sky, or We Are Equals or The Girl Effect or any number of readily available sources. I know, I know, Oprah and the Queen are both on the Forbes List. But there are several lists, one for Women and another for the real people (there is no "Richest Men's List"), which is just called the Forbes Rich List. Which goes to show, money isn't everything. And we, men and women both, get to live with that.
With 'I'm a Mormon' campaign, church counters lily-white image By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor Washington (CNN) - The scene at a Mormon congregation here on a recent Sunday would surprise Americans who think of Mormons as young white missionaries in stiff white shirts, black ties and name tags. Yes, there are white missionaries handing out bulletins at Washington’s Third Ward - what Mormons call their congregations - but there's also Ruth Williams, an elderly African-American woman, decked out in her Sunday best, doing the same. White, black, Asian and Hispanic Mormons mingle before the service begins. How Mitt Romney's Mormon faith helped shape him On this Sunday, the Sacrament - what Mormons call the remembrance of the Last Supper and what other Christians call Communion - is said in French, a nod to the area's burgeoning West African population. It is not a special multicultural celebration Sunday. A diverse group of congregants from the Third Ward listens to a sermon. Explain it to me: What's Mormonism? Video: Defining Mormonism
Paul Ryan Tells Student He Should Work Three Jobs To Pay For College, Not Use Pell Grants By Travis Waldron and Pat Garofalo on October 20, 2011 at 6:20 pm "Paul Ryan Tells Student He Should Work Three Jobs To Pay For College, Not Use Pell Grants" ThinkProgress filed this report from a town hall in Muskego, Wisconsin. The House Republican majority, since it came into power, has repeatedly set its sights on Pell Grants, the federal grants that help low- and middle-income students pay a portion of their higher education tuition. Republicans have not only proposed lowering the maximum Pell amount from $5,500 (which is the level to which the Obama administration raised it) but also limiting eligibility, knocking one million students from the Pell program entirely. During a town hall today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) was asked by Matthew Lowe, a student, why the GOP wants to cut Pell Grants. Watch it: ThinkProgress spoke to Lowe afterward, who said, “If [the Pell grant program] was cut, I’d have to accept unsubsidized loans from banks.
Komen Foundation Controversy Spurs Website Hack The website of Susan G. Komen for the Cure was briefly tampered with by hackers early Thursday morning. Komen, the highest-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S., has been coming under fire for its decision to end financial support of Planned Parenthood. The hack, first noticed by Gather, affected users visiting the site around 12:30 a.m. The original, which reads "help us get 26.2 or 13.1 miles closer to a world without breast cancer:" And the hacker's version, "help us run over poor people on the way to the bank:" According to Gather, the hacking effort was so thorough, it even redirected search engine results for Komen. Komen announced its decision to end its longstanding partnership with Planned Parenthood Wednesday, citing an organization policy that bars it from contributing to groups that are under "local, state or federal" investigation. Komen's past monetary contributions to Planned Parenthood number in the millions, mostly for breast cancer screenings and services.
When Mormons were socialists - Religion “You are cursed because of your riches!” It was a bummer message that nobody wanted to hear. Samuel the Lamanite stood alone atop the great wall of the city of Zarahemla to warn the inhabitants of their pending destruction. Now you have probably never heard of this Samuel, nor the capital city that was once the center of the Nephite nation. But Mitt Romney certainly has. In 6 BC, as the story goes, somewhere on the American continent, the inhabitants of this mythic city had grown decadent. Sound familiar? God had called Samuel to essentially Occupy Zarahemla, to stand up and speak out against corporate greed and wealth accumulation. They had been warned. The rise and fall of the Nephite nation is a cautionary tale included in the Book of Mormon. It’s an ontological dilemma facing every millionaire Mormon. One hundred and eighty-two years after its founding, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is certainly prospering. Young’s egalitarian separatism has long been superseded.