The longest-serving U.S. senator in Indiana history will extend his record by mere months, not years.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., was clobbered in the Republican primary election Tuesday by second-term state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. When Lugar leaves Capitol Hill at the end of the current session, he will wrap up a 36-year career.

“I understand politics. It’s a competitive business,” Lugar, 80, had said Sunday in Fort Wayne about his race with Mourdock.

Tuesday was anything but competitive. Mourdock, 60, a favorite of state and national tea party conservatives, grabbed about 60 percent of the vote.

He will face Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, in the Nov. 6 general election. Donnelly, 56, ran unopposed in the Democratic Senate primary. Democrats hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

President Obama issued a statement of “deep appreciation for Dick Lugar’s distinguished service,” particularly his “strong, bipartisan leadership on national security.”

Mourdock’s campaign had repeatedly pegged Lugar, who was seeking a seventh six-year term, as too moderate and “Obama’s favorite Republican.”

Lugar said in a written statement: “If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. This is not conducive to problem solving and governance.”

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Mourdock said Lugar “is not now my enemy,” according to The Associated Press. “He will never be my enemy. He was simply over the last 15 months my opponent. This race is not about animosity. It’s about ideas.”

Steve Shine, chairman of the Allen County Republican Party, said he was not surprised by Mourdock’s victory margin. In Allen County, Mourdock lured just shy of 70 percent of the Republican vote. He did as well or better in the rest of northeast Indiana except Steuben County, where Mourdock got 67 percent.

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Mourdock topples Lugar

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NATION: Gay marriage a gamble for Obama

President Barack Obama in New Hampshire March 1st (Image credit Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty)

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) – With his endorsement of gay marriage on Wednesday, President Obama electrified his liberal base, incensed cultural conservatives and may have ensured that a debate on social issues will play a part in the debate ahead of the November election.

For almost two years, President Obama had said that his views on gay marriage were “evolving” – what gay-marriage proponents hoped would signal a full embrace of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. But after days of renewed pressure for clarification on the issue following strong endorsements of gay marriage from Vice President Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Obama decided to change his stated position.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded, that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told ABC News.

But Obama’s endorsement, which comes one day after voters in the swing state of North Carolina overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning gay unions and domestic partnership, is a political gamble.

Americans remain deeply divided on the issue, with 50% supporting gay marriage and 48% against it, according to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday. But polling shows that young voters, who were key to Obama’s victory in 2008, and independent voters are increasingly comfortable with gay marriage.

Likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney told reporters that he disagreed with Obama’s position, as surrogates stressed he has remained consistent on the issue. Romney has never embraced gay marriage, but in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1994, he said that he would be better on gay rights than Sen. Edward Kennedy.

“States are able to make decisions with regard to domestic partnership benefits such as hospital visitation rights, benefits and so forth of various kinds can be determined state by state, but my view is that marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman and that’s my own preference,” Romney said Wednesday.

In the ABC interview, Obama said that his shift in position came after years of careful consideration and talks with friends, family and neighbors. The president said that he and the first lady have discussed the issue across the dinner table, and considered their daughters’ perspectives on the issue.

“Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently,” Obama said. “It wouldn’t make sense to them. And frankly, that’s the kind of thinking that prompts a change in perspective.”

Continued here:
The Political Gamble of Obama's Gay Marriage Support

When Austin Beutner entered the mayor’s race last year, it looked like the wealthy former investment banker and onetime city jobs czar might give the Los Angeles business community its best chance in years at regaining influence at City Hall.

His abrupt exit from the campaign this week after struggles with fundraising and a poor showing in the polls highlights the decline of political power that was once wielded by the city’s business elite.

That weakening comes as the business sector’s traditional rivals organized labor and environmental activists are enjoying increasing influence. Unions and environmental groups are pushing to boost wages for hotel employees, impose potentially costly new regulations on private trash-hauling companies and enact a ban on paper and plastic bags at supermarkets.

Business groups have been fighting those measures while struggling to make headway on issues they support, including the quick elimination of a key business tax that costs companies more than $440 million a year.

How much heft the private sector can muster to battle those proposals and what role it will play in electing the next mayor is a question taking on new urgency at City Hall.

“The record is clear that unions have been much more effective at elections than business has,” said attorney Ben Reznik, a lobbyist who has worked for real estate developers in Hollywood and elsewhere.

Some business advocates and City Hall insiders complain that the private sector fails to invest the time and money needed to compete with organized labor and defend the few remaining council members who have been reliable allies.

“They don’t step up. They don’t spend money. They don’t organize. They don’t talk to each other,” said Steve Afriat, a lobbyist whose firm has represented dozens of companies at City Hall.

Gary Toebben, president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, conceded that business influence in Los Angeles city government has waned in recent decades. It’s part of a national shift, he said, as companies turn their focus to the global market.

“I would suggest that probably there’s no city in the nation in which business has as much clout as it did 20 years ago,” he said, noting that the headquarters of several large corporations that once played a key role in civic life have left Los Angeles.

Original post:
Beutner's exit shows waning influence of business at City Hall

By David Jones

PUBLISHED: 16:12 EST, 4 May 2012 | UPDATED: 23:02 EST, 4 May 2012

Above a cheap mobile phone shop in a chaotic street in north Delhi, there is a grimy apartment whose peeling walls are decorated with photographs of adoring mothers nursing their babies.

The woman cooing at her child in the biggest portrait is beautiful, white and affluent-looking in stark contrast to the flats five residents, four of whom are pregnant, while the other is being pumped full of hormones in the hope she will soon conceive.

They are all uneducated, bare-footed, dirt-poor Indian women from outlying villages and given the emotional turmoil that awaits them, one would have thought the very last thing they would wish to do is spend their enforced nine months of confinement here gazing upon images of maternal bliss.

Baby-making factory: Julie wearing green scarf, pink and white skirt), Pakhi (in pink), Rehana (green with baby on lap), Nazma (dark coloured sari), and Rahima (green dress, rust coloured shawl

Nominally, this forlorn place is a care home for surrogate mothers at least that is how it is described by the company that runs it, Wyzax Surrogacy Consultancy, which is cashing in on Indias booming new babies-for-sale business.

It boasts of being the countrys first one-stop shop for outsourced pregnancy. In truth, though, it is nothing less than a baby factory; the end of a grim production line on which children are being designed to order for wealthy couples, mainly from Western countries including Britain, as if they were custom-built cars.

Indeed, as I have discovered during an eye-opening three-week investigation into Indias burgeoning, billion-dollar surrogacy industry, the motor-manufacturing analogy is all too apt.

The rest is here:
The designer baby factory: Eggs from beautiful Eastern Europeans. Sperm from wealthy Westerners. And embryos implanted …

RAY SUAREZ: And we turn to our regular look at the campaign as it plays out in social media and on the Web.

For that, we’re joined by two journalists from the Web site Daily Download. Lauren Ashburn is the site’s editor in chief and formerly with USA Today Live and Gannett Broadcasting. Howard Kurtz is Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief and host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

And, Lauren, this week, word comes from the Obama campaign that while they are making heavy ad buys, even though the president had no primaries, they’re buying much more on the Web than on television. Is this new territory?

LAUREN ASHBURN, Daily-Download.com: It is.

Take a look at the numbers. They’re really impressive. For March, just for March, the Obama campaign spent $6.7 million online. Their last TV ad buy was $1.4 million and their last print ad buy, big ad buy, was $700,000.

RAY SUAREZ: Is this a creature of it being early the season or is this pointing us toward a new way of talking to voters?

HOWARD KURTZ, Newsweek/CNN: Well, it is early. By the time we get to November, both campaigns will have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the traditional broadcast and cable television.

But what’s so much more efficient, Ray, about online advertising is you can target people. You don’t have to buy the whole state of Missouri, the whole state of Florida. You can target certain types of people who read certain magazines who have certain political views. And that’s very efficient for political operatives.

LAUREN ASHBURN: And they’re using it — they’re using it for text messaging. They’re targeting Google ad searches. They’re using it for the ads that you see in front of videos for Facebook ads. So it’s not as if just they’re putting one ad in one place. They’re putting it everywhere.

RAY SUAREZ: Now, Twitter is getting a lot of action this campaign season. It was around in 2008, but didn’t have the number of users. It wasn’t the fully fleshed-out service, as it is today.

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Twitter #Hashtags a #DoubleEdgedSword for #Obama, #Romney Campaigns

WASHINGTON In a first term marked by clear partisan divisions, President Obama’s decision to order a high-risk special forces operation targeting Osama bin Laden stands out as an unquestioned nonpartisan success.

But the one-year anniversary of the Al Qaeda mastermind’s death has become a flash point in early skirmishing between Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican opponent in the fall election. It reflects both the competitive nature of this year’s presidential contest and Democrats’ zeal to highlight an advantage over the GOP on issues of national security.

Even as they denied the effort was tied to the milestone, senior Obama surrogates over the last week have attempted to raise questions about whether Romney would have made the decision to greenlight the mission at the terrorist leader’s compound in Pakistan.

They pointed to Romney’s own statements in his last run for the White House, in which he questioned the value of “moving heaven and earth” to catch Bin Laden, and criticized then-candidate Obama’s position that he would order military strikes against terrorists in Pakistan even without that nation’s consent.

From the East Room of the White House on Monday, with the prime minister of Japan at his side, Obama indirectly raised the question himself.

“I’d just recommend that everybody take a look at people’s previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and take out Bin Laden,” Obama said. “I said that I’d go after Bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they’d do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it.”

Earlier Monday, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Romney rejected the idea that he would not have given a similar directive.

“Of course, of course,” he said. “Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.”

The White House, in a twist on the traditional Rose Garden strategy of using the trappings of incumbency to full advantage in a reelection effort, seems to be executing a “situation room” strategy.

The administration agreed to let NBC News cameras follow the president into the room where Obama and his top aides watched the Bin Laden operation unfold a year ago, captured in an iconic photograph.

The rest is here:
Bin Laden raid emerges as campaign issue

(Image Credit: AP/Getty Images)

By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone) and AMY WALTER (@amyewalter)

NOTABLES:

THE NOTE:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Can Mitt Romney make up his Latino deficit?

The presumptive Republican nominees speech to a gathering of Republican National Committee leaders in Arizona today will be closely watched not only for the message he is sending to the partys top brass, but also for his attempts to reach out to Latino voters.

According to a new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, President Obama leads Romney among Latinos by a whopping 69 percent to 22 percent.

Today Romney is at ground zero for this voting bloc: If Ohio is all about white working class voters, Arizona and its neighbors are all about the Latino community.And as we noted earlier this week, the Obama campaign isnt wasting any time, launching its first Spanish-language TV and radio ads recently and a new grassroots organizing group Latinos for Obama.

Obama won 67 percent of the Latino vote in 2008, and most independent analysts say the Republican nominee will need to get around 40 percent of Latino voters in 2012 to win the election, ABCs Devin Dwyer notes.

The Obama campaign believes Romney is lagging so far behind among this group, in particular, that they are making a major push here, putting boots on the ground and dispatching high-profile surrogates like Vice President Joe Biden, who offered this unambiguous prediction yesterday:

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Desert Duel: Romney And Obama Vie For Latino Voters

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Desert Duel: Romney And Obama Campaigns Vie For Latino Voters (The Note)

Dear Mark: Democrat strategist Hilary Rosen attacked Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, on CNN this week for being a stay-at-home mom. I realize that liberals tend to go against traditional American values, but this really crosses the line. Being a full-time mom is an honorable choice that involves a lot of hard work. Sometimes my kids drive me mad, but not nearly as mad as lefties like Rosen. What happened to President Obama’s “the family is off limits in politics?” Staying at Home in Houston

Dear Staying: All is fair in love and politics, and Obama campaign officials have this slogan chiseled into every one of their cold limestone hearts. Obama will project the appearance of being above the fray, while his surrogates merrily plant the mustard seeds of negativity, even if it means attacking somebody’s spouse.

Many analysts will report Rosen’s words as a major political gaffe. The Obama campaign will denounce it, and the Romneys will handle it with class and grace. Obama might even fire Rosen to give himself a holier than thou presence. But don’t be fooled, this is just another trap by the left to escalate the fake war on women.

The goal of Team Obama with Rosen’s comments is to bait some obscure right-wing bomb-throwing blogger into making outrageous statements about career women. Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and MSNBC, along with the mainstream media, will then run with this idea and try to paint the entire conservative movement with the comments, thus furthering the liberal narrative that Republicans are anti-woman. This despite the fact that Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Condoleezza Rice and Margaret Thatcher are conservative icons.

Ever since the first Playtex Cross Your Heart bra went up in flames 40 years ago, feminists have condescendingly looked down upon stay-at-home moms as some kind of second-class female. The party that claims to be pro-choice does not seem to respect a woman’s choice to be a full-time mom.

The bottom line is that Ann Romney has proven to be an effective campaigner who connects with independent voters, to the chagrin of liberals. Rosen’s statements may be a subtle tactic to discredit her. Remember that Obama can’t run on his presidential record, and even his handlers recognize this inconvenient reality.

Dear Mark: President Obama and Vice President Biden were on the campaign trail promoting the “Buffett Rule,” which is a proposal that increases taxes on millionaires. I don’t care what the IRS statistics say, the people with the highest incomes don’t pay enough. It’s a crying shame that billionaire Warren Buffett pays less in taxes than his secretary. What do you want to do about it? Fairly Frank in Fairbanks

Dear Fairly: What I want to do is stick to the facts. If Obama’s Buffett rule were to become law, the increase in revenue to the treasury would only amount to $4.5 billion per year. If I’m not mistaken, President Obama is running trillion-dollar deficits for the next 10 years, so where does he plan to come up with the remaining $996 billion each year? The Buffett rule is not a solution, but merely punitive retribution aimed directly at the successful. It’s also another bumper sticker to slap on your Prius.

Forget Warren, I prefer the Jimmy “Buffett” rule, which states that all politicians will don grass skirts, lie on the beach, drink margaritas and quit taking themselves so damn seriously.

More:
Mark Levy: Stay-at-home moms, the Buffett rule

By Paul Waldman, Special to CNN

updated 5:18 PM EDT, Fri April 20, 2012

Mitt Romney is employing a strategy to reach voters first at stops around the country ahead of the president’s appearances.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor’s note: Paul Waldman is a contributing editor at The American Prospect and the author of “Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success”. Follow him on his blog and on Twitter.

(CNN) — We’ve all heard that the news cycle has accelerated to the point where it’s less of a cycle and more of a constantly flowing river of pseudo-issues, feigned outrage, charges and counter-charges. But what if a campaign could not just respond instantaneously to what its opponents are saying, but actually go backward in time to respond before their opponents can even open their mouths?

Welcome to the “pre-buttal.” It may seem like just more campaign silliness, but there’s a method to it, one that, like so much of today’s campaigns, is all about the media.

In a pre-buttal, a campaign let’s say Mitt Romney’s tells reporters that a speech he’ll be giving is actually a response to a speech President Barack Obama is about to give. Romney’s campaign has even decided to (at least part of the time) follow Obama around the country “bracketing” Obama’s speeches by making sure that Romney or his surrogates go to the same places as the president both before and after an Obama appearance, to offer both pre-buttal and rebuttal.

Reactive though it might be, this is pretty smart campaigning. Political scientists have known for some time that candidate appearances actually have a significant impact on the outcome of elections. It’s probably because when a presidential candidate comes to a town, the result is a wave of positive media coverage over a period of multiple days.

Paul Waldman

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Romney tests the power of the 'pre-buttal'

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The War Room (Blu-ray)

Looking relaxed and upbeat, he said he had no fear of criticism and signalled that he thought the recent controversies had helped trigger a stirring within Christianity.

He made his comments during a Sunday service at Springfield Church, an alternative Anglican congregation which meets in a school hall rather than a traditional church building, in Wallington, Surrey.

During an informal discussion with the minister the Revd Will Cookson, he disclosed that even he had not known that he was about to stand down as Archbishop until Thursday afternoon when he received the call to tell him he had been elected Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

He said that he had drawn up shadow plans for a sudden announcement, allowing him to contact the Queen and make the necessary announcement before it leaked out.

Revd Cookson asked him about the recent debate over secularism adding: Do you think that the real issue for them isnt necessarily Christianity but actually radical Islam, that it is more of a reaction to radical Islam and we are the surrogate for that.

Dr Williams said: I think there is a lot of truth in [that]. It is the last decade that has seen the great rise in anxious secularism, a real suspicion of religion in public.

And I think it is 9/11 that has brought that to a head. We are also in a culture where a lot of people simply dont know how religions work.

I sometimes think the problem with a lot of government initiatives is that they assume either that vicars are imams in dog collars or imams are vicars in turbans.

[They assume] that there is one way of being religious either you are a sort of committed fanatic who wants to subvert the whole to your agenda or you are a sort of woolly liberal who can be persuaded who can be persuaded to go along with whatever is happening in society.

The Church isnt either of those things, it is the assembly of Christs friends with good news to share.

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Secularists using Christianity as 'surrogate' for Islamic radicals, says bullish Rowan Williams

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc80rIOgy8Q

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surrogacy, surrogacy agency, surrogacy program, gay surrogacy, lesbian surrogacy, straight surrogacy – Video

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO The long and increasingly messy Republican presidential contest is starting to hit Mitt Romney where it hurts most: his wallet.

New signs of financial stress are emerging in Romneys campaign, which has built a wide lead in delegates thanks in part to the might of his bank account and multistate operation. As rival Rick Santorums surprising strength keeps extending the nomination battle, Romney has scaled back expenses, trimmed field staff in some cases and begun to count more on free media coverage to reach voters. And hes still relying on an allied super political action committee to supplement his spending on expensive TV ads.

This week, the former Massachusetts governor was forced to spend two days privately courting donors in the New York area, even as his Republican rivals were wooing voters ahead of pivotal elections in places like Illinois, where he hasnt been in four months, and as President Barack Obama was stockpiling cash for the fall general election fight.

On Wednesday, Romney had five finance events in New York, all packed, raising about $3 million, with more set for Thursday. So the news is hardly all bad. Wednesday was the best day weve had so far, said New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who accompanied Romney to multiple events, including a donor breakfast in New York City.

But its less encouraging for the campaign that the money is badly needed to re-fill coffers that had sunk close to their lowest levels since Romney launched his presidential effort last year.

Its unclear if he will tap his own personal wealth.

The former financial executive, whose personal wealth is estimated between $190 million and $250 million, loaned his 2008 presidential campaign $42 million. Top aide Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney has not loaned his campaign any new funds this cycle and has no plans to do so.

Illinois, which hosts a primary on Tuesday, is the next big test. And despite financial strains, Romney is showing little sign of abandoning his traditional paid advertising dominance, thanks in part to the Romney-aligned Restore Our Future super PAC working on his behalf.

Romney and that group have been running Illinois television advertising that, combined, exceeds $2.4 million. Santorums aligned super PAC is spending $400,000 there so far.

And Romney super donor Johnson says the fundraising community is as engaged as ever.

Original post:
Romney shows signs of financial strain

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The long and increasingly messy Republican presidential contest is starting to hit Mitt Romney where it hurts most: his wallet.

New signs of financial stress are emerging in Romney’s campaign, which has built a wide lead in delegates thanks in part to the might of his bank account and multistate operation. As rival Rick Santorum’s surprising strength keeps extending the nomination battle, Romney has scaled back expenses, trimmed field staff in some cases and begun to count more on free media coverage to reach voters. And he’s still relying on an allied super political action committee to supplement his spending on expensive TV ads.

This week, the former Massachusetts governor was forced to spend two days privately courting donors in the New York area, even as his Republican rivals were wooing voters ahead of pivotal elections in places like Illinois, where he hasn’t been in four months, and as President Barack Obama was stockpiling cash for the fall general election fight.

On Wednesday, Romney had five finance events in New York, all packed, raising about $3 million, with more set for Thursday. So the news is hardly all bad. Wednesday “was the best day we’ve had so far,” said New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who accompanied Romney to multiple events, including a donor breakfast in New York City.

But it’s less encouraging for the campaign that the money is badly needed to re-fill coffers that had sunk close to their lowest

It’s unclear if he will tap his own personal wealth.

The former financial executive, whose personal wealth is estimated between $190 million and $250 million, loaned his 2008 presidential campaign $42 million. Top aide Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney has not loaned his campaign any new funds this cycle and has “no plans” to do so.

Raising money to get through a protracted primary fight is clearly not how Romney wanted to be spending his spring. He had hoped to have wrapped up the nomination by now, giving him the freedom to raise money for the general election against Obama.

The incumbent Democrat doesn’t have a primary challenge, and already is well into running for re-election. He’s spending 14 hours today raising money; the biggest event is to be with actor/director Tyler Perry and musician Cee Lo Green in Atlanta.

As Romney reloads for his GOP fight, his chief Republican rival, Santorum, is showcasing new fundraising success. The once-lopsided money race between the top two Republican candidates has never been closer. For the month of February, Romney boasted his second-best fundraising month ever, taking in $11.5 million. Santorum, who has a vastly smaller organization to support, wasn’t far off, with $9 million.

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Romney showing signs of cash woes

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Mitt Romney Campaign Starting To Show Financial Strain

The long and increasingly messy Republican presidential contest is starting to hit Mitt Romney where it hurts most: his wallet. New signs of financial stress are emerging in Romney’s campaign, which has built a wide lead in delegates thanks in part to the might of his bank account and multistate operation.

As rival Rick Santorum’s surprising strength keeps extending the nomination battle, Romney has scaled back expenses, trimmed field staff in some cases and begun to count more on free media coverage to reach voters. And he’s still relying on an allied super political action committee to supplement his spending on expensive TV ads.

This week, the former Massachusetts governor was forced to spend two days privately courting donors in the New York area, even as his Republican rivals were wooing voters ahead of pivotal elections in places like Illinois, where he hasn’t been in four months, and as President Barack Obama was stockpiling cash for the fall general election fight.

On Wednesday, Romney had five finance events in New York, all packed, raising about $3 million, with more set for Thursday. So the news is hardly all bad. Wednesday “was the best day we’ve had so far,” said New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who accompanied Romney to multiple events, including a donor breakfast in New York City.

But it’s less encouraging for the campaign that the money is badly needed to refill coffers that had sunk close to their lowest levels since Romney launched his presidential effort last year.

It’s unclear whether he will tap his own personal wealth.

The former financial executive, whose personal wealth is estimated between $190 million and $250 million, loaned his 2008 presidential campaign $42 million. Top aide Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney has not loaned his campaign any new funds this cycle and has “no plans” to do so.

Raising money to get through a protracted primary fight is clearly not how Romney wanted to be spending his spring. He had hoped to have wrapped up the nomination by now, giving him the freedom to raise money for the general election against Obama. The incumbent Democrat doesn’t have a primary challenge, and already is well into running for re-election. He’s spending 14 hours Friday raising money; the biggest event is to be with actor/director Tyler Perry and musician Cee Lo Green in Atlanta.

As Romney reloads for his GOP fight, his chief Republican rival, Santorum, is showcasing new fundraising success. The once-lopsided money race between the top two Republican candidates has never been closer. For the month of February, Romney boasted his second-best fundraising month ever, taking in $11.5 million. Santorum, who has a vastly smaller organization to support, wasn’t far off, with $9 million.

For months, the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign was marked by disorganization and a shoestring operation that largely depended upon passionate but inexperienced volunteers. Santorum has finally opened a national headquarters to replace the post office box that previously served that role. And he’s added several paid staff.

Read the rest here:
Mitt Romney campaign shows signs of financial strain

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (AP) The long and increasingly messy Republican presidential contest is starting to hit Mitt Romney where it hurts most: his wallet.

New signs of financial stress are emerging in Romney’s campaign, which has built a wide lead in delegates thanks in part to the might of his bank account and multistate operation. As rival Rick Santorum’s surprising strength keeps extending the nomination battle, Romney has scaled back expenses, trimmed field staff in some cases and begun to count more on free media coverage to reach voters. And he’s still relying on an allied super political action committee to supplement his spending on expensive TV ads.

This week, the former Massachusetts governor was forced to spend two days privately courting donors in the New York area, even as his Republican rivals were wooing voters ahead of pivotal elections in places like Illinois, where he hasn’t been in four months, and as President Barack Obama was stockpiling cash for the fall general election fight.

On Wednesday, Romney had five finance events in New York, all packed, raising about $3 million, with more set for Thursday. So the news is hardly all bad. Wednesday “was the best day we’ve had so far,” said New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who accompanied Romney to multiple events, including a donor breakfast in New York City.

But it’s less encouraging for the campaign that the money is badly needed to re-fill coffers that had sunk close to their lowest levels since Romney launched his presidential effort last year.

It’s unclear if he will tap his own personal wealth.

The former financial executive, whose personal wealth is estimated between $190 million and $250 million, loaned his 2008 presidential campaign $42 million. Top aide Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney has not loaned his campaign any new funds this cycle and has “no plans” to do so.

Raising money to get through a protracted primary fight is clearly not how Romney wanted to be spending his spring. He had hoped to have wrapped up the nomination by now, giving him the freedom to raise money for the general election against Obama. The incumbent Democrat doesn’t have a primary challenge, and already is well into running for re-election. He’s spending 14 hours Friday raising money; the biggest event is to be with actor/director Tyler Perry and musician Cee Lo Green in Atlanta.

As Romney reloads for his GOP fight, his chief Republican rival, Santorum, is showcasing new fundraising success. The once-lopsided money race between the top two Republican candidates has never been closer. For the month of February, Romney boasted his second-best fundraising month ever, taking in $11.5 million. Santorum, who has a vastly smaller organization to support, wasn’t far off, with $9 million.

For months, the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign was marked by disorganization and a shoestring operation that largely depended upon passionate but inexperienced volunteers. Santorum has finally opened a national headquarters to replace the post office box that previously served that role. And he’s added several paid staff.

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Signs of financial strain showing up for Romney

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Super PACs' $500,000-Plus Donors Account For Majority Of Money

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Ann Romney campaigned for her husband in a diner, and Jim Bob Duggar campaigned for Rick Santorum in a Walmart parking lot. It was that kind of Monday in Huntsville as surrogates for the former Massachusetts governor and Pennsylvania senator tried to get real with Alabama voters on the eve of today’s Republican primary.

“I hope so,” Romney said when asked if her husband can win. “That’s all I can say is I really hope so. I really hope voters here understand how important this election is. It’s a watershed election.”

“Don’t give up today,” Josh Duggar, one of 19 children in the reality TV family, said to Santorum supporters. Duggar referred to Monday polls showing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both ahead of Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi, which vote today.

But the volatile race won’t be decided until the real polls close tonight. Three late opinion polls showed John McCain beating Mike Huckabee in Alabama in 2008, national political blogs noted Monday, and Huckabee defeated McCain by 42 to 37 percent.

Ann Romney waded through Republicans at Edith Ann’s diner on Pratt Avenue including numerous local and state GOP office-holders and Medal of Honor recipients Leo Thorsness of Madison and Lee Mize of Albertville. Romney said her husband can beat President Barack Obama and warned, “That won’t be easy.”

After smiling for pictures with supporters, Romney sat patiently for local media interviews before leaving for the airport. It was her last public event of a day spent campaigning in the state.

Romney told the crowd she had vowed after the 2008 race not to do it again, but she was so concerned about Obama that she urged her husband to run. Later, she said brutal, negative campaigns are why she didn’t want a repeat. “All of the families that are going through this right now, I applaud them all,” Romney said. “It’s not an easy process and it’s not always pleasant.”

Jim Bob Duggar and his children are barnstorming the South for Santorum in a chartered bus. On Monday, he cited Santorum’s authorship of the partial birth abortion bill as evidence of his consistent conservatism. “As president, he will lead in the conservative cause,” said Duggar.

Daughter Jill Duggar, who joined family members singing and playing patriotic songs by the side of the bus, said she backs Santorum, because he “has a track record to prove he will do what he says.” Santorum is also “pro-traditional marriage,” Jill Duggar said, to which her father added, “Amen.”

Several Duggar children joined Santorum supporters after the press conference waving signs at cars on University Drive.

More:
Ann Romney, Jim Bob Duggar stand in for candidates in Monday campaigning

by Emily Le Coz/NEMS Daily Journal Djournal.Com

Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, speak with local voters at Sweet Peppers Deli in Tupelo on Sunday. (Adam Robison)

It’s Santorum’s second Tupelo stop in less than a week, and this time the former Pennsylvania senator was hosted by incumbent congressional candidate U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss.

Accompanied by their wives, the men ate breakfast at Connie’s Fried Chicken, worshiped at Calvary Baptist where the Nunnelees are members, and then hit Peppers before parting ways.

A Catholic, Santorum also attended the 8 a.m. Mass at St. James Catholic Church in Tupelo. He was welcomed by Father Tom Lolar and was received warmly by the congregation.

He will need to connect to the overwhelming number of Protestant Mississippians to carry the state. By worshiping with Nunnelee at a well-known Baptist church, he earns some credibility in that area.

Their joint appearances could help both Santorum and Nunnelee politically, although neither of them said so.

For his part, Nunnelee needs to woo Tea Party conservatives whose support leans more toward congressional opponents Henry Ross and Robert Estes in this campaign. Santorum has high Tea Party approval, and an appearance with him boosts Nunnelee’s standing in that regard.

Santorum’s presence at Calvary was low-key but earned a mention from the Rev. David Eldridge, who publicly welcomed him and praised his religious convictions on the campaign trail. He also said the congregation would pray for him.

Afterward, the two families and their entourage of campaign staffers and Secret Service agents stopped for lunch at Peppers on West Main Street.

See the original post:
Santorum returns to Tupelo ahead of GOP primary

Opinion

March 12, 2012

by Jay Sekulow and Robert Ash, JTA

Bushehr nuclear power plant, 746 miles south of Tehran, on Oct. 26, 2010. Photo by REUTERS/IRNA/Mohammad Babaie

In a world where nuclear weapons could soon be in the hands of a rogue nation like Iran, an Israeli preemptive strike on Irans nuclear facilities would be fully justified. Despite its ban on aggressive war, Article 51 of the United Nations Charter clearly recognizes a states inherent right of self-defense. Thus, Israel has full authority to act unilaterally or collectively in its self-defense.

Yet Article 51 does not create the right to self-defense; it is an inherent right of all states under customary international law. Hence, determining when self-defense is appropriate lies, as it always has, with each state.

Under the charter, however, the U.N. Security Council is charged with lifting the burden of individual national self-defense and taking appropriate steps to restore international peace and security. One must recognize, however, that the muscular Security Council envisioned in the charter has never materialized. As such, threatened states are almost always required to make their own decisions and bear their own burdens.

Article 51 allows Israel to use aggressive force against Irans nuclear program if an armed attack occurs. Its plain language is satisfied when one state has used armed force to attack another state. Under customary international law, a preemptive strike is also permitted when an armed attack is imminent.

Thus an Israeli attack against Irans nuclear facilities would be legitimate for two reasons.

First, Iran already is conducting armed attacks under the plain meaning of Article 51 through Islamist terrorist surrogates Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, so a de facto state of war exists between Israel and Iran.

See the original post:
Opinion: Israel has a legal case for striking Iran

He won Guam. Could the delegate front-runner sweep the upcoming island primaries and caucuses?

Updated 10:51 p.m. Mitt Romney has won Guam’s caucus-like nominating convention held Saturday on the island where “America’s day begins” — that’s Friday on the continental United States — netting nine additional delegates.

Original story: Of the 12 remaining Republican presidential nomination contests in the month of March, six are actually located outside the continental United States. The Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Marianas hold their caucuses this Saturday, March 10. Hawaii and American Samoa follow with caucuses on Tuesday the 13th, and then Puerto Rico will hold a March 18 primary. The 79 delegates up for grabs on these islands constitute an archipelago of opportunity for former governor Mitt Romney.

Polling data for these territories is, understandably, almost non-existent, but there are some activities afoot that indicate which way campaigns are hoping the contests will go. Romney’s son, the 40-year-old Matt, has been dispatched to Guam and the Marianas. Charles Djou, the former Republican congressman representing Honolulu, endorsed Romney on Thursday.

Further, to the extent that John McCain and Romney both represent the Republican establishment, it is worth noting that McCain captured all of these islands in the 2008 primary and caucus battles. (Romney fared poorly, but by that point had already dropped out and endorsed McCain.)

Other data hints at a strong Romney performance in the islands. According to Brigham Young University’s Global Mormonism Project, over 70,000 Mormons live in American Samoa and another 55,000 in Hawaii. Romney has predictably dominated this particular demographic. At a luncheon with the former Massachusetts governor’s son on Friday, Northern Marianas Governor Benigno R. Fitial endorsed Romney, who dialed in and apologized for his absence: “I am apologetic that I can’t be with you today, but as you could imagine I’m running from place to place, trying to secure as many delegates as I can.” According to the Saipan Tribune, Romney’s son Matt also said: “It is important for us to get everywhere we can, everywhere that people vote. This is obviously one of the harder locations to get to but by far, it’s one of my favorites so far.” Other Republican leaders in the Marianas, such as Rep. Fred Deleon Guerrero, have announced for Romney.

A straw poll held by Republicans in Guam also favored Romney. Jerry Crisostomo, co-chair of the Guam GOP State Convention, explained that Romney won more than 50 of 62 votes cast because he is the candidate “most likely to beat Obama.”

Rick Santorum is also making an attempt to win some of these islander delegates. He reached out to GOP leaders in Guam earlier this week for a conference call that lasted over an hour, but the response was mixed after he wound up using the call to apologize for his suggestion earlier this year that liberal judges be relegated to “Guam or something.”

Frank Blas Jr., a Republican senator in the Guam legislature, said of the conference call: “Santorum’s platform is about America’s traditional family values and we asked, ‘How does Guam fit into this family?’” The answer apparently wasn’t clear.

The rest is here:
Romney's Island Getaway

These days, more LGBTQ people are having children, and there are more tools at their disposal to help them do it. From more flexible adoption laws to helpful surrogates, from fertility clinics that simply welcome LGBTQ people to fertility clinics that are in fact gay-only (such as Birmingham’s Gay Family Web Fertility Centre), from DIY kits la turkey basters to websites such as Pride Angel, where wannabe donors (of sperm or eggs) can meet potential recipients and where singles or couples can search for possible co-parents, today it’s much easier for LGBTQ folks to make babies and raise families.

But do children of LGBTQ people know where they came from? They may be and probably are told by their parents, but they may not see children like them represented in literature. And, of course, children created in more “traditional” ways may not learn about making babies the LGBTQ way, and thus meeting such children could confuse them.

Most books that features children and their LGBTQ parents either don’t explain where the children came from or seem to assume that the parents were in heterosexual relationships first. A typical example is Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite, where the main character is the product of a heterosexual relationship, and now that his parents are divorced, his father lives with another man, the so-called “roommate.”

Occasionally, adoption is portrayed. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson is the true story of two male penguins who adopt an extra egg and raise little Tango. Granted, penguins are not people, but perhaps child readers might extrapolate the idea that two males or two females can raise children together.

Another picture book that offers this message is King and King and Family by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, a sequel to their first picture book, King and King. Here, the married royals find an orphaned girl and treat her as their daughter. Interestingly, de Haan and Nijland are from the Netherlands, and their work was originally published in Dutch. Perhaps this suggests that people outside English-speaking countries are more accepting of LGBTQ parents.

This idea might be backed up with the example of Annette Lundborg and Mimmi Tollerup-Grkovic’s Swedish-language picture book Malins mamma gifter sig med Lisa (the title can be translated to English as Malin’s Mama Marries Lisa, but unfortunately the book is not available in English yet). This book simply takes Malin’s mother’s lesbianism for granted and doesn’t offer any explanations about it or suggest that it was a late-in-life realization, which is what some other works imply. Malin finds out that she was created by her biological father giving her mother some seeds. The accompanying picture shows sperm in a jar, which makes it fairly obvious to the knowledgeable reader that Malin was not created in the traditional, heterosexual way. Adults reading the book to their children can use the picture as a starting point for a discussion.

An afterword in the book explains:

The afterword may seem somewhat didactic, but the larger message of the book is a positive one, in that it reminds readers that babies can be created in a number of different ways, and also that such children are equally loved.

Perhaps if there were more children’s books that dared to show LGBTQ people adopting, working with surrogates, going to sperm banks, or meeting co-parents, there would be more understanding about what it means to make and raise babies in non-traditional ways. After all, there are plenty of books that show men and women creating babies, such as Nicholas Allen’s Where Willy Went, or Mick Manning’s How Did I Begin?, but these books are simply not applicable to LGBTQ lives, for the most part.

Children of LGBTQ parents have the right to know how they began, too, and since “it is more and more common for homosexuals to choose to become parents,” we need to have children’s books that represent this, jars of seeds and all.

Excerpt from:
B.J. Epstein: Making Babies the Gay Way