In Indiana, Sen. Dick Lugar's Political Career Put On Ice At Age 80

 

Ice Sculpture created for Senator Dick Lugar's primary victory celebration. Image Credit: NBC's Kelly O'Donnell

In Indiana, Sen. Dick Lugar's Political Career Put On Ice At Age 80

Can anyone believe that the Tea Party is just an "astro-turf" political/cultural movement that has outlived its time in the functional protest limelight?

Tonight, Senator Dick Lugar doesn't think so. After 6, six-year terms, and running for a 7th, lost the ability to represent the Republican political party for one of the State of Indiana's two federal Senatorial seats. He was swept aside by a challenge from Richard Mourdock.

Richard Mourdock had a successful 30 year career in the private sector, managing businesses in the energy, environmental and construction industries. He also served two terms as County Commissioner of Vanderburgh County.

Mourdock became a viable challenger for the Senate seat after he proved as Indiana’s State Treasurer that he had been an integral part of the state’s fiscal health.  His leadership earned over $1 billion in investment income for taxpayers and successfully expanded the state’s college savings plan.  At the same time, his office has returned an average of 10% of his budget back to the Treasury each year.

Richard Mourdock out on the campaign trail. Image Credit: NBC's Kelly O'Donnell

Richard Mourdock also became known nation-wide for leading the legal fight to challenge the Obama Administration’s illegal bailout and takeover of Chrysler. Richard took this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Indiana pensioners. Further, his conservative message of constitutionally limited government was heard by over one million people in attendance during the Glenn Beck promoted 9-12 March on Washington in 2009.

So what has current Senator Dick Lugar done to gain the positive attention of the Tea Party activists throughout Indiana? Well, he spent his last full day on the stump defending earmarks, touting that he won over a pair of voters who saw him as the “least worst of the two” and pinning his hopes on the unlikely scenario that Democrats and independents will turn out in higher-than-expected numbers to hand him a victory.

 Mourdock was endorsed by Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, and Lugar had the backing of the party establishment, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Six-term Senator Dick Lugar throwing darts out on the stump. Image Credit: NBC's Kelly O'Donnell

To be honest, we at MAXINE believe, no human should be allowed to hold any office, elected, or otherwise, past the age of 70 years old. Senator Dick Lugar is 80 years old and was hoping to be able to occupy the office for another six years!

Lugar, known as one of the more centrist members of the Senate, was befriended by Barack Obama during his time in the Senate. Obama touted the friendship during his 2008 campaign for president, angering some of Lugar’s constituents.

The Senate’s longest-serving Republican, Lugar also suffered a blow earlier this year when a panel in Indiana ruled that he was ineligible to vote in his former home district because he no longer lived there.

I guess we will just have to say,  Dick Lugar's political career, tonight, has been put on ice.

The real trick now that the Tea Party has brought down one of the centrist stalwarts of the Senate, long seen as a Republican not holding strongly to fiscal and constitutional matters, can they carry this momentum forward to the general election against Democrat political party Rep. Joe Donnelly, a three-term congressman from the South Bend area, this fall. The matchup is a preferred outcome for Democrats, who view Lugar’s ouster as an opportunity to pick up a longtime Republican seat. 

This contest will show if the Tea Party is dormant or if the protest movement has just moved from demonstrating in front of City Halls to electing Conservative answer based, solutions-oriented representatives to bring America back to its citizens and not the political class who have given us all a 16 Trillion dollar debt.

Public OpinionPoll Results

** Article first published as In Indiana, Sen. Dick Lugar's Political Career Put On Ice At Age 80 on Technorati **

New Obama “Forward” Slogan Has Deeper Ties Than To Just MSNBC's Lean Forward

Obama's re-election team unveiled its new motto in a video released Monday morning. The seven-minute video begins by recalling the grim state of the nation's economy when Obama took office, then ticks through what the campaign says are the president's accomplishments, both on the economy and other issues. Image Credit: DNC/Obama 2012 Campaign  

New Obama “Forward” Slogan Has Deeper Ties Than To Just MSNBC's Lean Forward
 

Twitter is a blast some days because most people do not have the time or the background to find information contained in the link references shared there.

Take, for example, the link referenced to an article in The Washington Times, Inside Politics section.

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE – RT @CStevenTucker: New Obama “Forward” slogan has long ties to Marxism & Socialism. And??? bit.ly/Jmb2DM #tcot #tlot #teaparty #hhrs

If one follows the link, one finds this article that just had to be shared in total – enjoy being informed on “FORWARD”!

This excerpted and edited from The Washington Times -

New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism
By Victor Morton – April 30, 2012, 06:56PM

The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.
Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).
Vladimir Lenin founded the publication “Vpered” (the Russian word for “forward”) in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as “Forward, Soviet” (though also and more literally as “Stride, Soviet”).

Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama’s history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.
[Reference Here]


In this country, this is all very interesting especially when one considers that Media Matters (a George Soros funded progressive viewpoint internet communications group), which has admitted to writing the headline news for MSNBC news segment anchors in co-ordination with the Obama Administration, amounts to the only thing FORWARD about this White House and its campaign to retain control for another four years.

So, we at MAXINE believe, it is time for all of us to LEAN FORWARD and end Carter's Second Term of failures come November 2012 and vote for … Mitt Romney so we can really take our country forward to the successes that made America great from the very beginning.

If We, At MAXINE, Wanted A Free And Constitutional America To Fail ...

A central understanding of why nations fail has found that political institutions and the behavior of ruling elites largely determine the economic success or failure of the countries they operate in. If most Americans have experienced virtually no economic gains for decades, perhaps we should cast our gaze on the Constitutional and political factors in/or out of effect throughout our own society. Image Credit: investorcentric

If We, At MAXINE, Wanted A Free And Constitutional America To Fail ...

Today on the Rush Limbaugh radio program, Rush mentioned and played a few snippets of a video produced and posted by FreeMarketAmerica.org. The presentation gave light to the how and why America appears to be going backward and failing on the goals and opportunity that had once been hallmarks to a free and Constitutional America.

Ryan Houck, the Executive Director of FreeMarketAmerica.org, a project of Americans for Limited Government, produced this opinion presentation which was inspired by Paul Harvey’s “If I were the Devil” published in 1964 and 1996.

Paul Harvey was a cultural and news story commentator that became one of the first to reach millions of people with his presentations. He used the medium of radio in the form of a 15 minute syndicated show that generally aired around noon and The Paul Harvey Show helped to stitch part of the fabric of a true American culture or insight on a way to think or view the world around us.

This excerpted and edited from TruthOrFiction.Com -

“If I were the Devil”
By Paul Harvey

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man's effort, instead of God's blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership;

I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent machines to make it  convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that life of animals are valued more than human beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them;

I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the minds of every family member for my agenda;

I would attack then family, the backbone of any nation. I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movies screens, and I would call it art;

I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agendas as politically correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, the Bible is for the naive;

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional;

I GUESS I WOULD LEAVE THINGS PRETTY MUCH THE WAY THEY ARE!
[Reference Here]

So how does this approach to understanding give us insights on how American life has changed under a Barack Obama presidency and have us understand the power of progressive thought as it is applied to our every day lives?

This excerpted and edited from NetRightDaily.Com -

If I wanted America to fail (video)
By Ryan Houck

If I wanted America to fail …

To follow, not lead; to suffer, not prosper; to despair, not dream — I’d start with energy.

I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap, abundant energy.  Of course, I couldn’t take it by force. So, I’d make Americans feel guilty for using the energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their businesses, and powers their economy.

I’d make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy would seem cheap.

I would empower unelected bureaucrats to all-but-outlaw America’s most abundant sources of energy.  And after banning its use in America, I’d make it illegal for American companies to ship it overseas.

If I wanted America to fail …

I’d use our schools to teach one generation of Americans that our factories and our cars will cause a new Ice Age, and I’d muster a straight face so I could teach the next generation that they’re causing Global Warming.

And when it’s cold out, I’d call it Climate Change instead.

I’d imply that America’s cities and factories could run on wind power and wishes.  I’d teach children how to ignore the hypocrisy of condemning logging, mining and farming — while having roofs over their heads, heat in their homes and food on their tables.

I would never teach children that the free market is the only force in human history to uplift the poor, establish the middle class and create lasting prosperity. Instead, I’d demonize prosperity itself, so that they will not miss what they will never have.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would create countless new regulations and seldom cancel old ones. They would be so complicated that only bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists could understand them.  That way small businesses with big ideas wouldn’t stand a chance — and I would never have to worry about another Thomas Edison, Henry Ford or Steve Jobs.

I would ridicule as “Flat Earthers” those who urge us to lower energy costs by increasing supply. And when the evangelists of commonsense try to remind people about the law of supply and demand, I’d enlist a sympathetic media to drown them out.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would empower unaccountable bureaucracies seated in a distant capitol to bully Americans out of their dreams and their property rights.  I’d send federal agents to raid guitar factories for using the wrong kind of wood; I’d force homeowners to tear down the homes they built on their own land.

I’d make it almost impossible for farmers to farm, miners to mine, loggers to log, and builders to build.  And because I don’t believe in free markets, I’d invent false ones.  I’d devise fictitious products — like carbon credits — and trade them in imaginary markets.  I’d convince people that this would create jobs and be good for the economy.

If I wanted America to fail …

For every concern, I’d invent a crisis; and for every crisis, I’d invent the cause. Like shutting down entire industries and killing tens of thousands of jobs in the name of saving spotted owls.  When everyone learned the stunning irony that the owls were victims of their larger cousins — and not people — it would already be decades too late.

If I wanted America to fail …

I’d make it easier to stop commerce than start it — easier to kill jobs than create them — more fashionable to resent success than to seek it.  When industries seek to create jobs, I’d file lawsuits to stop them.  And then I’d make taxpayers pay for my lawyers.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would transform the environmental agenda from a document of conservation to an economic suicide pact.  I would concede entire industries to our economic rivals by imposing regulations that cost trillions.

I would celebrate those who preach environmental austerity in public while indulging a lavish lifestyle in private.  I’d convince Americans that Europe has it right, and America has it wrong.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would prey on the goodness and decency of ordinary Americans.  I would only need to convince them … that all of this is for the greater good.

If I wanted America to fail, I suppose I wouldn’t change a thing.
[Reference Here]

If we, at MAXINE, wanted a free and Constitutional America to fail ... we wouldn't change a thing either - Vote Obama 2012! ... click link :) and donate now.


** Article first published as "If We Wanted A Free And Constitutional America To Fail ..." at Technorati **

Establishment Media Guide To "White Hispanic"

In Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC and Philadelphia, demonstrators supported Martin's family by wearing hoodies like the one Martin was wearing when he was shot. The Civil Rights Heritage Center in the Natatorium is asking people to do the same thing here [in South Bend Indiana] by hosting the Million Hoodie March. Image Credit: IU South Bend Civil Rights Center website

Establishment Media Guide To "White Hispanic"

Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot last month in the town of Sanford, Florida by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, who has claimed self defense and has not been charged.

The Trayvon Martin death at the apparent hands of a neighborhood watch individual named George Zimmerman has become a most troubling episode in American media culture. It reveals what happens when facts are over-run, unimportant, and only selected deaths of young black men are important when it seems to rise to the level of political exploitation by the forces that support a liberal, divide and control mentality. Under this view, in order to keep government front and center in the minds of all Americans, American unity must be broken down and marginalized so that we may never recognize each others value as an individual ... but only value a single person to their value toward the advancement of a single group in the eyes of, and favorable treatment by, governmental powers and laws, alive or dead.

To this end, the New York Times decided to describe George Zimmerman as a "White Hispanic", a term that on its face has hardly ever been used to describe a person's ethnic heritage. Rush Limbaugh's staff performed a nexis/lexis search of New York Times articles that may have used the term before and could only find three previous references of this nature in the paper's publishing history ... very telling on how this establishment media outlet wishes to promote the liberal, divide and control mentality.

In order to educate the establishment media on skin color and bring a little American-natured levity to an ugly situation that involves race and color, conservative Hispanic blogger and cartoonist, el SOOPer @SooperMexican, posted this graphic to help guide some to proper conclusions for their articles.

This excerpted and edited from Soopermexican.com -

The Sooper Guide to “White Hispanic” Skin Color for the Gringo Media!
Date: 3/26/2012

It’s amazing the lengths of race-baiting that the Leftist Liberal News Media Industrial Complex will go to in order to re-elect their savior, Obama. They’re going so far as to call a Hispanic man “White Hispanic” in order to incite a race war! How tolerant and inclusive of them.

Well, I thought I’d help them out and give them this easy to understand guide to classifying Hispanic skin colors!

Enjoy gringos - Full Size Image HERE!


[Reference Here]

Other points that were made while reading 140 character (or less) "Tweets" from Twitter ranged from:

"Why is it that the ONLY photo of Trayvon Martin is of a 13 yr. old boy and not the 17 yr. old grown male? Jus' askin' #tcot #tlot #p2"

to

"If Zimmerman is White and Obama is Black, race must be pat-ri-lo-cal only."



** Article first published as Establishment Media Guide To "White Hispanic" on Technorati **

Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist

1956 Zenith AM-FM radio, model Y724. The Y724 differs from the Y723 in that it has a handle, metal tuning graph and a tone control on the left. The radio has great sound on it's built in antennas for AM and FM reception. Image Credit: blogabillyboogie

Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist

Rush Limbaugh has been getting a lot of attention lately, but the attention he has been getting from his envious detractors and critics play this card over the top.

Rush is the first to point out that he was wrong to utilize the tactics normally used by the left when he decided to point the absurd proposition that taxpayers should basically pay for non-health supports when he used the absurd tactic of name calling toward a person who was hand-picked by the Democrat Political Party and placed in a press conference to complain about the policies of a College she had freely chosen to attend.

For 25 years, Rush's most entertaining moments happen when he takes absurdity to point out the absurd, for example, last week he said that "Democrats love to pour gas on a fire, which is absurd ... have you seen the price of gas lately?"

That, right there, that's funny!

Rush deftly points out the chaos the Democrat Political Party, led by President Barack Obama and the Senate's Harry Reid, has created with their waste of taxpayer money "Green Economy" fiasco which has led to a 100% increase in gas prices at the pump, costing Americans a decrease in their economic freedom and ability to get jobs.

The issue here with Rush Limbaugh and the left's effort to bring him down is more about silencing an effective voice to the opposition of political "control freaks" who own our media, educational systems, and (currently) the bureaucracy of Government through the Executive branch and the control of the Senate.

To this end, columnist David Frum posits that the entrance of former Arkansas Governor, 2008 Presidential candidate nominee contestant, and FOX News, once a week, weekend program host to the same national radio syndication timeslot just may topple and silence this hallmark of daily conservative thought.

Huckabee, who hasn't even launched his radio program yet, the man who gave us all John McCain as the Republican nominee for President in 2008 and thereby, President Barack Obama and a 60 vote majority in the Senate, is going to unseat and silence Rush Limbaugh? ... now THAT, right there, that's absurd!

This excerpted and edited from The Daily Beast -

Mike Huckabee Brings on Rush Limbaugh's Decline
Huckabee’s about to take the mike. Can he push Limbaugh off the talk-radio throne?
by David Frum Mar 12, 2012 1:00 AM EDT

Over 25 years in radio, Rush Limbaugh’s dominance of the AM dial has become a fact of American life.

Until, maybe, now.

Yes, Limbaugh’s tirade against law student Sandra Fluke has been a problem, inspiring more than 30 advertisers to flee his radio program in the past two weeks. But on April 2, Limbaugh will face a more-serious challenge. That’s when the new Mike Huckabee show launches on 100 stations in Limbaugh’s very own noon-to-3 time slot.

Huckabee’s competition threatens Limbaugh not only because Huckabee has already proven himself an attractive and popular TV broadcaster, but also because Huckabee is arriving on the scene at a time when Limbaugh’s business model is crashing around him.

To understand the power of Huckabee’s challenge to Limbaugh, you have to understand the strange economics of talk radio. Most talk-radio programs offer radio stations this deal: we’ll give you three hours of content for free. (Some programs—cough, Glenn, cough, Beck—actually pay radio stations to accept their content.) Those three hours will include 54 minutes of ad time. That ad time is split between the radio station and the show: each gets 27 minutes to sell.

In this world, Limbaugh is unique. He actually charges radio stations for his content: up to $1 million a year in a major market. Plus, he charges the highest ad rates in the business. Those two revenue streams—multiplied by more radio outlets than anybody else in the industry has—have made Limbaugh a very rich man. But those revenue streams always depended on Limbaugh upholding his end of the bargain: delivering the audiences. And on that count, Limbaugh has been notably failing.

As The Daily Beast’s John Avlon reported last week, the audience for right-wing talk has been shrinking since 2009. In some urban markets, Limbaugh’s audience has dropped by as much as half over the past three years. Limbaugh and other right-wing talkers have responded to this economic squeeze by a strategy familiar to Republican politicians: they have played to the base.

But even more than the total size of the audience, radio advertisers care about a measure called TSL: time spent listening. The people who listen longest are of course the most ideologically intense.
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The difference this time is that Limbaugh’s advertisers and his stations had already begun to feel ripped off. To quote my station-manager friend again: “I don’t mind paying for content. But I do mind paying for trouble.” So advertisers revolted against the TSL strategy, with Sears, JCPenney, and many other sponsors dropping the show. Many of the local advertisers who buy their ads from the local stations rather than from the syndicators have been ordering that their purchased minutes be placed on some less-controversial program.

Limbaugh, it’s true, remains a big talk-radio star. He’s seen trouble before and rarely apologized for it. He could assume that even if Sears had departed forever, core talk-radio advertisers—LegalZoom, Stamps.com, Sleep Number beds—must sooner or later return to the No. 1 show in talk radio.

However, Limbaugh’s calculation that his core advertisers must return always rested on the assumption that there was nowhere else to go. Suddenly, in the worst month of Limbaugh’s career, somewhere else has appeared: a lower-priced alternative, with big audience reach and a host an advertiser can trust never, ever to abuse a student as a “slut” and “prostitute.”

The new Huckabee show’s slogan is “more conversation; less confrontation.” “I don’t want it to be a show that every day, every hour, pushes everyone’s buttons to raise their blood pressure,” Huckabee says. “I figure the cost of high blood pressure is enough already.”

Huckabee’s politics are emphatically conservative of course, both on social and economic issues. Yet his politics differ in important ways from those of the Limbaugh-influenced Republican electorate. “I don’t see a pathway for a person of my point of view getting through the land mine of the Republican primary. If that were to change in four years, if the Republicans were to get more serious about governing, not just campaigning—if we focused on what we were for and not just what we were against—then I might be a viable candidate.”

The less-strident Huckabee approach arises both from his experience as a long-serving governor in a Democratic-leaning state and from Huckabee’s famously genial temperament. “I have to believe that there are people who are highly opinionated but who actually find it informative and engaging to find out what the other side is thinking,” he says. “And not through a shouting match, but through an adult-level, civil conversation.”
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Huckabee explains his appeal as driven by his choice of topic. “I want to do a show that has politics. But I don’t want a 100 percent political show.” It’s also a matter of tone and style. Limbaugh’s lascivious “joke” about wishing to see a Sandra Fluke sex tape was only the latest in a career of demeaning and prurient remarks. Only a few days beforehand, Huckabee was sitting down with Meryl Streep for a warm and easy talk before a studio audience.

Rush Limbaugh won’t vanish from the radio of course. But the overpriced Limbaugh program is highly vulnerable to economic shocks. “If just one station in a top-20 market replaces Limbaugh with Huckabee, it’ll be an earthquake,” remarks a veteran of the radio business.

And you can already hear the first tremors.
[Reference Here]

David Frum and his "establishment media" friends have it all wishfully wrong - Huckabee will end up a lot like a Geraldo Rivera (UN-listenable), in that, he will pose to be an alternative in the arena of Conservative talk radio, but to be frank, these folks care for opinion that has red meat on the bone, where Huckabee has already admitted to a path of failure through its slogan “more conversation; less confrontation.”

Prediction: Huckabee's milktoast Moderate political policy approach will, by default, increase Rush Limbaugh's (strong Conservative analysis approach) TSL: time spent listening.


** Article first published as Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist on Technorati **

Of Pink Slime & Buckyballs; The World Outside Your Door

McDonald's has issued a statement that they will no longer use "pink slime" as an ingredient in their hamburgers. Image Credit: McDonald's Corporation

Of Pink Slime & Buckyballs; The World Outside Your Door

The scariest things happen when one opens the lid of their laptop and logs on to Twitter ... one doesn't even have to venture out into the world to be confronted by attacks to ones understanding of safety and healthy standards.

Fundamentally the properties of materials can be changed by nanotechnology. We humans can arrange molecules in a way that they do not normally occur in nature. The material strength, electronic and optical properties of materials can all be altered using nanotechnology.

First off, the tale of the use of a bonding food agent and filler known as "Pink Slime" went viral this week all over the internet. This "Tweet" seen from cultural and political radio talk show host, Tammy Bruce.

Tammy Bruce @HeyTammyBruce
Gah! 70% of U.S. ground beef contains ‘pink slime’ goo.gl/IoY2o

Pink Slime - J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, defended the practice as a way to safely use what otherwise would be wasted. “BLBT (Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings) is a sustainable product because it recovers lean meat that would otherwise be wasted,” he said in a statement. Image Credit: BPI via ABC News

This excerpted and edited from The Raw Story -

Whistleblowers: 70 percent of U.S. ground beef contains ‘pink slime’
By Stephen C. Webster - Thursday, March 8, 2012 12:35 EST

Let’s hope you didn’t eat a hamburger before clicking on this story.

A former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist has come forward with a startling tale of how a substance known as “pink slime” has been embedded in about 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S. — a topic ABC News investigated for a segment Wednesday night.

“Pink slime” is largely made up of connective tissue that used to be reserved only for dog foods. It was not classified as “meat” because it was largely seen as unfit for human consumption. It also contains ammonia, which is used to kill off bacteria so people who eat it do not get sick.

But in the early 90s, former undersecretary of agriculture Joann Smith decided that it was meat, allowing it to enter the human food chain. When she left her post in 1993, she immediately took a job with Beef Products, Inc. on their board of directors.

The meat industry now refers to it as “lean finely textured beef,” but in a government memo USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein coined the term “pink slime,” which now appears to have stuck. Zirnstein and fellow former USDA scientist Carl Custer told ABC News that it has become so prolific, “pink slime” can now be found in approximately 70 percent of U.S. ground beef.

“Pink slime” was in the news last month after several major fast food chains announced they would no longer use it as filler in their hamburgers. Despite those restaurants’ plans, the U.S. government has continued to purchase “pink slime” for use in school lunches, according to a report out this week by the News Corp.-run iPad newspaper The Daily.
[Reference Here]

Danielle @danzerotti, a self-described "happily married mother of 4, tweeted "Another reason my 4 kids should be glad that I take the time to prepare their lunches at home every day. As much as I complain."

"Pink slime" is bits of meat and muscle salvaged from slaughterhouse floors that are treated with a pink chemical to kill any dangerous pathogens. According to an earlier report by msnbc.com, the unappetizing pink goo is widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavening agent in bread and cake products. It's regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department (and has been allowed for human consumption since a favorable ruling by the USDA during the Clinton Administration), which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe." Nevertheless, McDonald's, have said they are pulling the infamous "pink slime" from their hamburgers.

We do not know how many large hamburger serving food restaurant chains (McDonald's being the largest) are still using the lesser expensive slime" filler infavor of profit motive but we do know this truth tweeted in response to Tammy Bruce @HeyTammyBruce referenced earlier in this posting.

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE
@HeyTammyBruce IN-N-OUT raises, processes, and grinds all of their own beef in a dedicated channel. This is a corporate hallmark.

Or as IN-N-OUT loves to say in its tagline ... "Freshness You Can Taste".

The other very disturbing item to flash across the twitter feed of communications on TweetDeck was this item having to do with radiation and "Buckyballs" used in medical procedures primarily to address the onslaught of Cancer.

Alexander Higgins‏ @kr3at
Highest Radiation Levels Since Fukushima Disaster Recorded in Los Angeles, CA bit.ly/zOySIW

This excerpted and edited from Alexander Higgins Blog -

Highest Radiation Levels Since Fukushima Disaster Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
Posted by Alexander Higgins - March 9, 2012 at 11:36 pm

A March 6th test of a HEPA filter recorded radiation levels 668% or 6.68 times the normal background radiation levels. This test took place 43 days after initial tests and shows a 130% increase since January 22nd.

“The California Highway Patrol considers anything over three times background, 300% of background above, a trigger level to a hazardous materials situation,” reported the EnviroReporter.

Considering that it is now documented FACT that the NRC and other US agencies worked to cover up the dangers posed to the United States from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, these independent radiation tests are absolutely paramount to get out to the American people.
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The March 6 test of the combined dust came in at a sizzling 668% of background or 6.68 times normal. Since the last testing period, the radiation detected has risen another 130% indicating a continued upward trend.

That radiation is rising in Los Angeles comes as no surprise considering the enormous amount of radioactive ‘buckeyball’ filled with 60 uranium uranyls apiece that has been being produced at the stricken complex for almost a year. A just-released U.C. Davis report describing the phenomena is also examined in Beta Watch.

We now posits that this radiation ahead of the main swell through repeated aeration resultant of choppy Pacific water in storms, is picked up and moved on the winds as sea spray and mist moving ahead of the current. No other explanation is so compelling than this mechanism of increased mobility of this radiation most likely in the form of buckyballs that may, as the U.C. Davis report suggests, the same nanoparticle model that could cage in mobile spheres plutonium-239, strontium-90, cesium-137 and the deadly host of other radionuclides from Fukushima that have poisoned the Pacific for nearly a year.
[Reference Here]

Buckyballs - Visitors' shadows manipulate and reshape projected images of "Buckyballs." "Buckyball," or a buckminsterfullerene molecule, is a closed cage-structure molecule with a carbon network. "Buckyball" was named for R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (1895-1983), a scientist, philosopher and inventor, best known for creating the geodesic dome. Image Credit: © 2003 Museum Associates/Los Angeles County Museum

Unless one has had the medical procedure used to combat Cancer, one may not be familiar with the definition of Buckyball as excerpted and edited from PopSci.com:

Chemotherapy is notorious for the toll it takes on the entire body. It kills cancer cells, sure, but it kills a lot of healthy cells, too. But soon a new advance in carbon chemistry may replace the shotgun blast of chemo with a radiation sniper shot.

Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University have devised a technique for placing radioactive molecules inside the soccer-ball-shaped molecules known as buckyballs. Thanks to new advances in cancer targeting, the buckyballs might be able to deliver the radioactive particles to specific cancer cells. This method would provide a targeted chemotherapy that would avoid the painful and prolonged side effects caused by today's full-body radiation treatments.

To make the buckyballs, the scientists zapped carbon rods with plasma until the the rods were reduced to ash. The scientists then took the ash and passed it through a radioactive solution. After purification, the resultant mixture contains radioactive buckyballs, and will dissolve in a biofluid.
[Reference Here]

For we, at MAXINE, all of this leads to lessons learned early in life through experiences learned in building block organizations like the Boy Scouts of America - ie: Leave a campsite cleaner than as one found it ... or as the requirements for a Backpacking Merit Badge list - Describe the importance of using Leave No Trace principles while backpacking, and at least five ways you can lessen the crew's impact on the environment.



** Article first published as Of Pink Slime & Buckyballs; The World Outside Your Door on Technorati **

Sunday Morning Tweet | ReTweets Review - Rush, Breitbart, & Etc.

Andrew Breitbart (1969 - 2012) - who has described himself in the past as “Matt Drudge’s bitch”- is the proprietor of the websites Breitbart.com, BigHollywood.com, BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, and BigPeace.com ... sports a Snuggie for Derek Hunter. Image Credit: Derek Hunter, TownHall (2011)

Sunday Morning Tweet | ReTweets Review - Rush, Breitbart, & Etc.

It is funny what one can get into during a Sunday morning when they are involved in New Media and are interested in Culture, Politics, and what other folks are thinking about the current trend topics of the day.

Take, for example, the copy of these Tweets and ReTweets taken from a column in a "TweetDeck" array, over the course of an hour or so, found at The EDJE's Twitter account (yes, that is "MAXINE's account).

The subjects range from Rush Limbaugh's recent flap that originated when he tried to make an outrageous point from an outrageous press conference put on by Nancy Pelosi that featured a 30 year-old co-ed, Sandra Fluke, who read from a statement she (Fluke) wrote about how the taxpayers should pay for her birth control and contraception drugs because her sexual activity was such that it costs her over $3,000. To the reaction to the death of Conservative politics warrior, Andrew Breitbart and how we all might have to fill this void with our collective voice. To the actions of the, as Sarah Palin loves to coin it, Permanent Political Class (RINO's to others).

Read and enjoy ... follow the links provided and, of course, follow those you feel a connection with:

START

Opinionated @ColorMeRed

No matter how brief a man's life, he can impact and alter the future leaving his imprint on the face of the earth forever.#Breitbart

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

Proud Conservative @ConservativeGal

So we're suppose to pay for birth control 4 students going to schools we can't afford to send r own kids to? #tcot#teaparty #conservatives

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

The_Q @The_Q_is3m

Carbonite pulls ads from Rush to “contribute to a more civilized public discourse.” But keep Ed Schulz (called Laura Ingraham slut!) #tcot

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

John Difool @MCHblazer5m

@jtLOL @AndrewBreitbart. The left hated Andrew Breitbart because he used their absolute moral authority as his favorite toilet paper.

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE6m

“@free_US_Citizen: Gov. Jindal Gives Amazing Republican Energy Policy Speech island-adv.com/?p=74124” #tcot#tlot #p2 #nrcc #mitt #newt #santo

Ric @prismsinc10m

WOW MT @soylentbeige Mitt Romney consulted Population Control Eugenics Czar John Holdren wp.me/ptUz8-32y#tcot #RickSantorum #teaparty

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

iWithNewtG @cantwaittillnov10m

This Election experience has changed my life. Media Types that I once trusted ... Now I Do Not ! #withNewt #GA #MI #AK#OH #MA #WA #TX

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE25m

From Gut Punch by Derek Huntertownhall.com/columnists/der… - Who will replace Andrew Breitbart? No one, and everyone #tcot #tlot #p2 #nrcc #drudge

'Jim' 'Treacher' @jtLOL38m

A Gut Punch-The Loss of Andrew Breitbart - Derek Huntertownhall.com/columnists/der…

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE39m

“@WhineNot: Newt slapdown of David Gregory's question on trying to get him to diss Rush Limbaugh! Beauuuuuutiful!!!#MTP #SuperTuesday”

Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer53m

Someone should do a Kickstarter to buy things for Sandra Fluke she doesn't feel like buying herself.

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

This is a result of dance rehearsal ... or really just not knowing what your doing. :-) | Caption & Image Credit: Katharine McPhee via twitpic (2012)

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

@katharinemcphee - Looks like you were mugged in an alley by midgets or being kneecapped by a blindman! Good work.#smash #tv #dancing

in reply to @katharinemcphee - Reaction to photo re-posted HERE

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

@Politisite They are part of the fourth and third estate!

in reply to @Politisite

Politisite @Politisite1h

@EricBoehlert oh look for the last few weeks obama approval has been down to 43%... Forgot to mention that?

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

in reply to @EricBoehlert

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

@iowahawkblog - Also, isn't actually having sex a choice as opposed to an ailment? Isn't having babies the same through consequence? #rush

David Burge @iowahawkblog1h

Birth control is a foreseeable, regular expense. What idiot wants it covered by insurance? It's like having corn flakes insurance.

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

@prismsinc @EricCantor - DITTO!

in reply to @prismsinc

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

“@ShannonBream: BREAKING: Rep Eric Cantor has just endorsed Mitt Romney”#politicalclass #newt #tcot #tlot #p2 #vp#hhrs #tkrs

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

@MMFlint @jtLOL - No bigger prostitute than you working from exaggerated circumstances to make the distorted opinion films you make #rush

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE1h

“@kirstenpowers10: Hey @edshow you forgot to mention slutwalk. Also why don't u talk about the time you called me a "bimbo"?” #rush

David Limbaugh @DavidLimbaugh1h

i have to say it: Those of you who are saying Rush sold out don't have the courage in your entire universe that he has in his little finger.

Retweeted by @TheEDJE

ENDS

So, it is on to "Super Tuesday" and whoever ends up being the Republican Political Party's nominee for the potential 45th President of the United States ... do not loose sight, VOTE for them! Then when they assume office, ride them HARD as we all did when Bush 43 tried to place on the Supreme Court, Harriet Ellan Miers or soften on the issue of Immigration!

Santorum's Super Tuesday 3 State Caucus Surge - Now What?

Santorum is going for the higher ground than Romney, avoiding the "jobs, jobs, jobs" mantra and talking about rights and big government. Here's a thought: how much of Santorum's good showing, and Romney's dismal performance, is related to the improving economic picture? Image Credit: Jeff Roberson | AP

Santorum's Super Tuesday 3 State Caucus Surge - Now What?

Going into the evening, most informed pundits and political communications resources believed that Rick Santorum, the only other candidate outside of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to win a state Republican Political Party nominee primary for President, had a strong chance to win in Missouri, a weak chance in Minnesota but was still way down by about 10% to Mitt Romney in Colorado.

This morning finds Rick Santorum with three momentum building caucus victories. The strong showing in Missouri had Santorum with nearly a 30% points spread at 55.2% to Romney’s 25.3% — The weak prediction in progressive Minnesota had Santorum at a 18% point advantage with 45% against Ron Paul’s 27.1% … leaving Romney and Gingrich to battle it out for third best — and the predicted loss by 10% points ended up with a 15% points swing to have Santorum win at 40.3% of the vote to Romney’s 34.9% showing … pretty weak for a “front-runner”!

What this leaves is a situation where Santorum and Gingrich possibly asking Romney to leave the race just as others have asked in previous victories in other state GOP primaries by Romney and Gingrich of Rick Santorum. The Republican ruling class elite are really in a pickle now, they have to ask themselves if they really wish to kick Conservative values aside just to maintain power, or will they step aside for the good of the party?

Honestly, the Haley Barbour’s, Karl Rove’s, any one of the Bush family (yes, this includes Jeb), the Boehner’s, the McConnell’s, and even the Anne Coulter’s of the Republican world must be having the feeling of their heads exploding!

Geez, even Donald Trump crawled out from under his desk at Trump Tower to lambast Rick Santorum after he, Santorum, and Gingrich were the only Republican candidates to commit to, the eventually cancelled, showcase TRUMP debate. The last thing Republican Party voters need to calculate on is … what if Donald Trump enters into the race as a third party candidate. If he does enter, everyone knows that he will hand Barack Obama a four year lame-duck rule of this country, killing off everyone’s freedoms through increased bureaucracy once and for all!

The Republican Political Party is a reflection of America, in that, it holds to the majority of what Americans believe in. Time after time, polls show that America is a Center-Right politically oriented and directed country and if the Republican ruling class elite wish to keep the power they currently have, they will have the eventual Republican nominee speak and teach to the values that allow everyone to keep their God-given rights recognized through the U.S. Constitution, the Bill-Of-Rights, and the re-establishment of the Rule-Of-Law.

Barack Obama campaigned on transparency, a reduction in spending over what was experienced during the 43ird Presidency of George W. Bush, of being a unite-er and negotiator of common ground between both political parties, and many other tenants found by being politically center to center-right even though he had no record of accomplishment to back these claims up.

So, now what?

It is time, unlike what the Republican ruling class elite believes and placed in play against Barack Obama in 2008 with John McCain … to campaign to the center to center-left, to have a Republican nominee for President campaign against the most progressively-left Presidency in the nation’s over 235 year history on solid Conservative political principles so that the cherished Independent registered voters (about 20%) become clearly educated on what is, and is not Conservative, and to emphasize self-reliance and a much smaller spending and services Government are chief among them.

… that’s the Now What?!

- Article first published as Santorum's Super Tuesday 3 State Caucus Surge - Now What? on Technorati -

Romney And The Uphill Slog Of Transaction With Tea Party Trust

The pressure is on the rest of the Republican presidential field to knock Mitt Romney down a peg after the former Massachusetts governor sailed to victory in the Nevada caucuses following his big Florida win earlier in the week. Romney won Nevada by a decisive double-digit margin. The field charges next into a quartet of contests that will either fuel or check Romney’s momentum. Caption & Image Credit: FOXNews.com

Romney And The Uphill Slog Of Transaction With Tea Party Trust

Mitt Romney wins big in Neveda - Romney 48% | Gingrich 23%. It says a lot about a man that due to his embrace of Mormon religious beliefs doesn't gamble, smoke, or drink to win by such a large double-digit margin in a state that made its name for a lax attitude for vices ... he deserves a serious look.

Mitt Romney claims he is a (big c) Conservative but has trouble proving it. When ever he opens his mouth shows he has a disconnect when it comes to firing people or the poor. We know what he meant to say but the method of articulation leaves a lot to be desired.

If one looks at the way Government has honorable business people follow the law, they actually believe the Government has adequate "safety net" program solutions to help the poor and if they need fixing, fix them. Afterall, businessmen provide jobs at every level of the scale and if someone wants a job ... they are available, even at a minimum wage.

This is one area a career businessman can be blind to the fact that minimum wage, which is legislated and has to be followed, may cloud the thinking on a Conservative level. It is hard to see the equation that a minimum wage creates dependency on a very deep level that can not be broken.

Mandated minimum wage, it could be argued, eliminated basic apprenticeship and building block skills through which young businesses learn how to treat entry level workers, and young entry level workers learn how to treat a businesses they work for.

Another issue that has voters uncomfortable with Romney is his ability to become a Chameleon in the face of what he feels is the path of least resistance to win. It is this quality, that if recognized to be the core political survival instinct of Mitt Romney, might be the path that Tea Party principled voters could embrace a Romney Republican party nomination for President of the United States.

This excerpted and edited from Townhall -

The Case For Romney
By: Jonah Goldberg - Townhall - Feb. 3, 2012

Years ago a friend told me a story from her days living in South America. The movie "Wayne's World" had come out, and she went to see it. She spoke English, but it was interesting to read the Spanish subtitles.

For instance, early in the film, Wayne says: "Shyeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt!"

The Spanish subtitles read: "Yes, when judgment day comes."

Needless to say, something was lost in translation.

This, in a nutshell, is Mitt Romney's biggest problem.
----
Romney doesn't speak the language naturally.
----
He speaks conservatism as a second language, and his mastery of the basic grammar of politics is often spotty as well.
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Many conservatives argue that Romney's stiffness is a superficial objection, and that he's a solid conservative who can appeal to moderates and independents. Other conservatives think Romney's lack of fluency is a real problem, not because it proves he's faking his conservatism but because it would put him at a severe disadvantage in the general election in the same way authentic but stiff liberals like Gore and John Kerry suffered from their inability to comfortably interface with carbon-based life.

And others simply think Romney's a big faker.

It's this last group of anti-Romney holdouts I'd like to address.
----
The Tea Party arose in no small part out of a delayed allergic reaction to the rhetorical and, to a lesser extent, policy problems of George W. Bush's presidency and the deep resentment that came with having to vote for John McCain in 2008. These disappointments were visited upon the conservative base by something the naysayers (often problematically) call "the Republican establishment."
----
With the raised expectations from the Tea Party's earlier successes, conservatives are extremely reluctant to settle or compromise simply on the say-so of the establishment. For good reasons and bad, Romney seems like a compromise. And no matter how begrudgingly a conservative comes to accept the reality of Romney's nomination, the diehards immediately proclaim any support for Romney to be proof of membership in the establishment. In fact, it seems like the best definition of a Republican establishment member these days is simply someone who has made peace with his disappointment prematurely.
----
It is better to have a president who owes you than to have one who claims to own you.

A President Romney would be on a very short leash. A President Gingrich would probably chew through his leash in the first 10 minutes of his presidency and wander off into trouble. If elected, Romney must follow through for conservatives and honor his vows to repeal ObamaCare, implement Rep. Paul Ryan's agenda, and stay true to his pro-life commitments.

Moreover, Romney is not a man of vision. He is a man of duty and purpose. He was told to "fix" health care in ways Massachusetts would like. He was told to fix the 2002 Olympics. He was told to create Bain Capital. He did it all. The man does his assignments.

In this light, voting for Romney isn't a betrayal, it's a transaction. No, that's not very exciting or reassuring for those who'd sooner see monkeys fly out their nethers than compromise again. But such a bargain may just be necessary before judgment day comes.
[Reference Here]

Before the Tea Party became the Tea Party, it was Tea Party principles that had George W. Bush withdraw Harriet Meyers name from being considered for the supreme court ... and GWB was never accused of having Chameleon political instincts.

Duty and purpose combined with Chameleon political instincts of Mitt Romney means that Mitt Romney could be turned through a dedicated focus put up from a Center-Right country. One might say that trust will not be earned or given, but ... applied.

After his decisive win in the GOP Nevada caucuses, if one were to count themselves as being convinced demand the best from Mitt Romney in his support of the Bill-Of-Rights, Rule-Of-Law, and an adherence to the Constitution of the United States.


- Article first seen as Romney And The Uphill Slog Of Transaction With Tea Party Trust at Technorati -

Susan B. Komen Flap: Corporate Responsibility In The Face Of Fanaticism

Ford created its Warriors in Pink campaign to, according to the company, “recognize the strength and courage it takes to deal with the everyday challenges of fighting breast cancer 365 days a year.” Caption & Image Credit: Ford Motor Company via lotpro.com

Susan G. Komen Flap: Corporate Responsibility In The Face Of Fanaticism

Tuesday of this week, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the country’s largest breast cancer fund raising organization announced the withdrawal of donation financial support for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion services organization.

Planned Parenthood affiliates received about $680,000 per year from the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Of the four million women who got breast exams through those clinics in the last five years, 70,000 were provided through the Foundation. Please note that Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions over the last 365 days at a charge of about $500.00 per procedure … and operates from a $1,000,000,000.00 budget.

Immediately after the announcement Tuesday, the abortion rights group launched a program to make up for that lost funding. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had received $650,000 in donations, $250,000 of which came from oil tycoon Lee Fikes and his wife. Eric Ferrero, vice president for communications, said there’s been an “outpouring of support” from across the country.

Meanwhile, the Susan G. Komen Foundation — the Web site of which was hacked briefly late Wednesday — is under fire despite attempts to deflate the situation.

Multiple board members of the country’s largest breast cancer organization have resigned in the wake of the controversy. Dr. Kathy Plesser, a radiologist who sits on the New York chapter’s board, told the Huffington Post she was “disturbed” by the foundation’s decision. The executive director of the Los Angeles chapter also announced her resignation today, saying that her talents and skills no longer “fit their model.” And the foundation’s chief public health official, Mollie Williams, also reportedly resigned over the decision, though she has yet to confirm it.

Leaders of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation argue that their move was not political, but was spurred by a new criterion that bars them from giving money to organizations that are under investigation.

To be consistent, the Foundation should have stated that it was withdrawing support for Planned Parenthood because the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is an organization that works for curing cancer to extend one's life.

The very beginning of life is even more important unless one wishes to make the assumption that if a female baby is not born, there is one less potential case of breast cancer to actually cure.

Ford Motor Company posted a statement of support to the fact the company would continue to donate charitable contributions to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and its outreach funding efforts.

This excerpted and edited from Facebook -

Ford Motor Company
Thank you for your sharing your thoughts. While we can’t speculate or comment on the motives behind Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision, we do understand the emotional reaction it has caused. Rather than focus on the politics, we prefer to keep the focus on the need for women to get screened for and educated about breast cancer.
· · Share · 10 hours ago ·

Edmund Jenks
American corporate courage in the face of fanaticism ... twice.

Going it alone when the Government tried to seduce the business enterprise into a Government and Union take-over in decision-making through the offer of the public's money, and now standing behind a partner's courageous decision to withdraw financial support where the agendas of the two efforts seemed conflicted in the support of living a life.

Bravo!

When the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure announced on Tuesday that it was revoking its grant to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings, officials cited a new internal policy that makes any organization under official investigation ineligible for grant money. Image Credit: SGK Foundation

UPDATE:Komen Kaves!

This excerpted and edited from The Atlantic -

Susan G. Komen Reverses Course, Will Allow Planned Parenthood Funding
By Jeffrey Goldberg - Feb 3 2012, 11:41 AM ET 2

Facing a revolt among donors and supporters, Susan G. Komen For the Cure has just announced it has reversed its decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

One day, public relations scholars -- if such a species exists -- will make this week's events at the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation a case study in what not to do in a controversy.

Here is the Komen statement:

We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives.

The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and its outreach funding efforts will now continue to donate money to an organization that has as its primary function is to stop life before it starts ... no female life, no breast cancer - DONE!those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics - anyone's politics.

[Reference Here]

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and its outreach funding efforts will now continue to donate money to an organization that has as its primary money making function - is to stop life before it starts ... no female life, no breast cancer - DONE!

As for Ford Motor Company, their corporate image remains intact because the company never did cave in on fanatic pressure from any quarter - Federal Government or those who have little regard for the precious gift of life.