Sunday, January 31, 2016

Iowa Poll: Men, Catholics Prefer Trump

A closer look at the GOP's Iowa Poll Results

By Jennifer Jacobs

(The Des Moines Register)

Horse race rank: No. 1

Support: 28 percent, up from 22 percent


Mainstream Republicans are helping carry the New York businessman into the lead.

Thirty-eight percent of likely GOP caucusgoers identify themselves as primarily mainstream, rather than tea party or evangelical conservative, and Trump does better than any other candidate with 34 percent of their support. Rubio is next at 21 percent. Cruz gets only 10 percent of these voters.

Trump also wins with voters who think the system is rigged against all but the very rich and powerful, with 39 percent of their support, followed by Cruz at 19 percent.

Men, Catholics, and first-time caucusgoers prefer Trump over others.

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Saturday, January 30, 2016

Statement from Secretary of State Paul Pate Regarding Misleading Mailer from Cruz for President Campaign

DES MOINES – “Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law. Accusing citizens of Iowa of a “voting violation” based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act. There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses.

Additionally, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office never “grades” voters. Nor does the Secretary of State maintain records related to Iowa Caucus participation. Caucuses are organized and directed by the state political parties, not the Secretary of State, nor local elections officials. Also, the Iowa Secretary of State does not “distribute” voter records. They are available for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code.” – Paul D. Pate, Iowa Secretary of State


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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio meets Pope Francis to talk about climate change


By Jodi Guglielmi / PEOPLE 

(EW.com) Leonardo DiCaprio has officially met the Pope.

The actor had a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday morning.
“Leo explained that he wanted to discuss a subject they both have very much at heart: protecting the environment and climate change,” a source tells PEOPLE.

DiCaprio, 41, arrived at the Vatican at 11:15 a.m. local time and was accompanied by his father, George DiCaprio, and Milutin Gatsby, global fundraising chair for the actor’s namesake charity, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

During the 15-minute meeting, the actor presented the pontiff with a check from his environmental philanthropy for him to use for charity works “close to your heart,” reports the Associated Press.
“Your Holiness, thank you for granting me this private audience with you,” DiCaprio said in Italian as he kissed the Pope’s ring before leaving, according to the Associated Press.

This meeting is the latest stop on the actor’s environmental advocacy tour. DiCaprio was recently honored for his philanthropic efforts at the Economic Forum in Davos, where he donated another $15 million to environmental projects.

He also announced new partnerships with different environmental groups that focus on conservation and sustainability around the world.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Ted Cruz on Birth Control: 'We Don’t Have a Rubber Shortage in America'


By Jessica Hopper @ ABC News

"Last I checked, we don’t have a rubber shortage in America. Look, when I was in college, we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila. So, yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it’s an utter made-up nonsense issue,” Cruz said at a campaign stop in Bettendorf, Iowa...

"Now, listen, I have been a conservative my entire life,” Cruz said. “I have never met anybody, any conservative, who wants to ban contraceptives. As I noted, Heidi and I, we have two little girls. I’m very glad we don’t have 17.”

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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Pope Leo X on Luther and Lutherans

"Moreover, because the preceding errors and many others are contained in the books or writings of Martin Luther, we likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the writings and sermons of the said Martin, whether in Latin or any other language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and rejected. We forbid each and every one of the faithful of either sex, in virtue of holy obedience and under the above penalties to be incurred automatically, to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them. They will incur these penalties if they presume to uphold them in any way, personally or through another or others, directly or indirectly, tacitly or explicitly, publicly or occultly, either in their own homes or in other public or private places..."

--Pope Leo X, Exsurge Domine


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Trump Campaign Statement on FOX News Debate

(New York, NY) January 26th, 2016 - As someone who wrote one of the best-selling business books of all time, The Art of the Deal, who has built an incredible company, including some of the most valuable and iconic assets in the world, and as someone who has a personal net worth of many billions of dollars, Mr. Trump knows a bad deal when he sees one. FOX News is making tens of millions of dollars on debates, and setting ratings records (the highest in history), where as in previous years they were low-rated afterthoughts.

Unlike the very stupid, highly incompetent people running our country into the ground, Mr. Trump knows when to walk away. Roger Ailes and FOX News think they can toy with him, but Mr. Trump doesn’t play games. There have already been six debates, and according to all online debate polls including Drudge, Slate, Time Magazine, and many others, Mr. Trump has won all of them, in particular the last one. Whereas he has always been a job creator and not a debater, he nevertheless truly enjoys the debating process - and it has been very good for him, both in polls and popularity.

He will not be participating in the FOX News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors, who have been treated so horribly by our all talk, no action politicians. Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again.

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Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. endorses Trump

By Robert Costa and Jenna Johnson

(The Washington Post) Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of the late televangelist, endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday, giving the Republican front-runner the blessing of one of the evangelical community’s biggest names just days before the Iowa caucuses.

In a statement, Falwell called Trump “a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again.”

Falwell’s move has long been expected since he has showered praise on the billionaire in recent weeks and developed a rapport with him. But the timing of the formal announcement is significant, coming as Trump and Ted Cruz compete intensely in Iowa for the support of social conservatives.

“It is truly an honor to receive Jerry’s endorsement. Not only is he a high-quality person, with a wonderful family, whom I have great respect for — I also consider him a very good friend and his support means so much to me,” Trump said in a statement.

Coming a week after evangelical favorite Sarah Palin endorsed Trump, Falwell represents the latest attempt by Trump to cut into Cruz’s deep support among born-again Christians nationwide and showcase his own popularity with prominent people of faith...


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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

What Palin's Trump Speech Says About the State of the Conservative Movement

By Rush Limbaugh

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: Man, are we loaded today.  I'll tell you right now, it's going to take all three hours and then some.  I'm gonna try to get it all in here in three hours.  Much of today is gonna build on points that I have been making the past two days, evolving, growing, adding evidence to it, all rooted around the question, who is and what is the conservative movement, and why is it apparently behaving so oddly?  I think I can explain this and much else to all of you as the program unfolds today before your very eyes and ears.  It will explain the massive support for Donald Trump that people can't figure out.  It will explain why there's abject hatred and panic over Trump in the Washington Republican and even conservative media establishment.

 

Trump picking Sarah Palin, or Palin deciding to endorse Trump just exacerbates it.  And, by the way, Sarah Palin is gonna help me make my points today, because I read the transcript for her speech that she made, and it's actually -- the speech that Palin made yesterday for Trump, I saw people pan it, say she looked like she lost her place, she was reading cue cards, she didn't seem to be all there.  I didn't see it, but I read the transcript of her speech, and I'm telling you it is -- well, I don't want to overdo it and say brilliant, but I'll tell you, she's got substantive, logical reasons for doing what she's doing.  And she explained it yesterday for anybody who really wanted to pay attention to listen to it.  So I'm gonna explain that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: These are just thoughts that I had that I'm sharing with you.  Don't attach any more to it.  I want to warn you, this may not be good for me to say, and I'm gonna try to make it so it's not necessary, but you may need a lot of nuance listening to me today.  Avoid knee jerks today if you can and hang in as I go through some of this stuff, because it's not complicated, but it is detailed.  And of course I, ladies and gentlemen, excel at making the complex understandable.

This actually isn't that complex.  It's just so strange.  I'm not trying to be cryptic.  I tell you, the last couple of days, remember the piece in National Review, David French, where he speculated that one of the problems going on with the Republican Party is they don't even know who their base is, that they have overestimated who their conservative base is.  They do not understands it and overestimate it.  In other words, the conservative base is not nearly as conservative as they think it is, nor is it conservative as they define it.

That's key.  The way the Republican establishment defines conservatism is not what it is.  To them it's hayseed hicks, pro-lifers running around in pickup trucks with shotguns in the back, bitter clingers.  You know, Obama's not just speaking for himself on that.  There are a lot of people in Washington in both parties who have that opinion of conservatives, and the Republicans might even look at their own base in that regard.  But the truth is that they've overestimated the conservative base and furthermore they are clueless in understanding what it is that motivates their own base, and, as such, they're incapable of understanding why Trump has any support.

Now, I'm gonna explain all that to you today, and more.  'Cause I have been researching it, delving deeply into it.  My own instincts in this from a year ago are being confirmed on a couple of things.  Snerdley tells me... I didn't... I haven't seen this, but why would I doubt Snerdley?  I mean, why would I think Snerdley would be wrong about this? Why would I think Snerdley would come to me with something wrong?

He's telling me that George Will... Is it a column today? (interruption) Well, you read it today.  I don't know when it was published, but apparently George Will is saying that if Trump wins, he's advocating third party. (interruption) That he will go third party? (interruption) Oh, it was an interview? (interruption)  It's not a column? (interruption)  All right.  All right. (interruption)  Oh.  If it's in your stack, I'll find it.  I've been swamped in here.

I haven't had a chance to go through it. Anyway, George Will is talking third party.  I can explain why that's happening, too, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I think, folks, the thing that's happening here, the awakening that's taking place, and I think it's a serious awakening that is taking place within the Republican Party and the so-called conservative movement.  When I talk about the conservative movement, to me I'm talking about Washington.  I'm not talking about you in the grassroots.  I'm talking about the establishment, conservative media, the brainiacs, the think tanks, the professors.  And it's not bad, don't misunderstand.  I'm just saying that there is a new understanding of who out in the country is actually conservative and who isn't.

I think what's actually being revealed here is that the Republican Party itself and even some of the conservative intelligentsia has misjudged and overestimated the conservatism of the base, negatively.  They have a negative connotation of conservatism.  They don't like it, obviously.  They think it's the pro-lifers, the social issues, that's what they think conservatives are, and that that's all they are.
And they're embarrassed of 'em, don't like going to the convention with 'em, and their wives nag 'em about it. And what's being discovered here by virtue of the Trump candidacy is that this misunderstanding is being exposed.  And it's now out in the open that the Republican conservative base is not monolithically conservative.  It has lots of components that have been lumped together as conservative maybe for the past 30 years.  And there are some people who think that this masquerade's over, is good that it's over, that the idea that conservatism is one type of thinking and one person and a monolithic thing, some people think it's a great idea to have this blown up.



I think the best way to explain it is that there are a lot of people in this country who are conservative.  There are a lot of those people that won't admit it, for whatever reason, don't want anybody to know it, for whatever reason or another, and therefore they live and vote and do things for the most part which are conservative, certainly not liberal.  But that's not the glue that unites them all.  If it were, if conservatism -- this is the big shock -- if conservatism were the glue, the belief and understanding of deep but commonly understood conservative principles, if that's what defined people as conservative and was the glue that made the conservative movement a big movement, then Trump would have no chance.

He literally would have no chance.  Because, whatever he is he's not and never has been known as a doctrinaire conservative.  But neither is John McCain.  Neither is 90% of the Republican Party, so it's not a criticism.  It's not an allegation.  The point is that if conservatism were this widely understood, deeply held belief system that united conservatives and united people as conservatives, then outsiders like Trump wouldn't stand a prayer of getting support from people.  Yet he is.  Therefore, it's safe to conclude that there are other things at play here that make people conservative.  And look, I'm gonna go back to it.

The thing that's in front of everybody's face and it's apparently so hard to believe, it's this united, virulent opposition to the left and the Democrat Party and Barack Obama.  And I, for the life of me, don't know what's so hard to understand about that.

Now, Sarah Palin and her speech.  There she is in Tulsa.  She's out making a campaign appearance.  I guess Trump's in Tulsa.  Oh, really?  I just was told, "She looks better today."  See?  These poor women in politics, like Hillary.  They can't get a break.  "She looks better today."  What, did she not look good yesterday?  What, you didn't like that cowboy jacket or whatever it was?  Why are they in Tulsa on the eve of the Hawkeye Cauci and the New Hampshire primary?  Why are they there?  The answer is easy.  The answer is easy.  I'm just asking it rhetorically.

Let's look at her endorsement speech.  I don't have the whole thing here, but I've got most of it.  It's not getting very much attention.  Her jacket is getting more attention than what she said.  I've seen people criticize her delivery, she lost her place, had to look at cue cards, Trump looked kind of out of place being not behind the podium.  That, by the way, I said this in the first hour.  I was surprised that Trump went the endorsement route.  I mean, I am not surprised that he would accept it, but Trump just doesn't look like Trump giving up the podium and standing aside, I don't care who it is for.  And endorsements are kind of the way it's done, right, in by-the-book politics, and Trump's not by-the-book politics.  But what is by-the-book politics is win at all costs.
 
 

So if you have to suck it up and say you support ethanol, and if you want to accept endorsements from somebody that's gonna undermine Cruz, I guess you'll do it.  But she, in her speech yesterday, she explained why conservatives are angry about what's happening to the country and why they are as angry at the Republican establishment as they are at the Democrats.  And she explained how a permanent political class has been created and corrupted by what's now known as the donor class.  And she made it plain that what she wants to do now is participate in a movement that holds every one of those people accountable for the damage they've done to the country, for the failures they continue to mount up and be.

"When asked why I would jump into a primary -- kind of stirring it up a little bit maybe -- and choose one over some friends who are running and I’ve endorsed a couple others in their races before they decided to run for president, I was told left and right, 'you are going to get so clobbered in the press. You are just going to get beat up, and chewed up, and spit out.' You know, I’m thinking, 'and?' You know, like you guys haven’t tried to do that every day since that night in ‘08, when I was on stage nominated for VP."

Her point is, and she got close to saying this in her own words but didn't.  But really what people are complaining about, you know, why would you do this.  What's the Republican Party ever really done for her?  I mean, besides nominate, McCain chose her.  But members of the Republican establishment did their best to destroy her, to impugn her reputation.  The people that were assigned to handle her were out leaking to the press how stupid she is and how it was so bad, that she's so stupid. These people couldn't vote for their own candidate, McCain, because if something happened to him and she became president, they couldn't live with themselves if they'd made that.

So they were gonna vote Democrat or not vote at all.  These were the people responsible for shepherding her through the campaign.  So she's got a legitimate question.  I've already been clobbered.  I've been clobbered by the people who are gonna clobber me today before.  "And, like you all, I’m still standing. So those of us who’ve kind of gone through the ringer as Mr. Trump has, makes me respect you even more. That you’re here, and you’re putting your efforts, you’re putting reputations, you’re putting relationships on the line to do the right thing for this country. Because you are ready to make America great again."

I think it's a salient point.  It wasn't just Sarah Palin who was smeared by the media and the rest of the Democrat Party, and even the Republican establishment.  It was her supporters, by extension, who were smeared and insulted.  And now the same suspects, same usual suspects, are trying to do the same thing all over again, this time to Trump and his supporters, but Trump is fighting back, where she couldn't because she was part of the organization trying to win.

 

So she couldn't fight back even though I'm sure she was tempted to.  I think this explains why so many Tea Party supporters and other conservatives are drawn to Trump even if he doesn't, you know, broadcast or display a bunch of conservative credentials.  I mean, people have a bond and a connection here to people who are laughed at, made fun of, criticized, ripped to shreds and so forth just because of what they believe and who they are.

She said, "Now, eight years ago, I warned that Obama's promised fundamental transformation of America. That is was going to take more from you, and leave America weaker on the world stage. And that we would soon be unrecognizable. Well, it's the one promise that Obama kept. But he didn't do it alone, and this is important to remember. Especially those of you, like me, a member of the GOP, this is what we have to remember, in this very contested, competitive, great primary race.
"Trump's candidacy, it has exposed not just that tragic ramifications of that betrayal of the transformation of our country, but too, he has exposed the complicity on both sides of the aisle that has enabled it, okay? Well, Trump, what he's been able to do -- which is really ticking people off, which I'm glad about. He's going rogue left and right, man. That's why he's doing so well. He's been able to tear the veil off this idea of the system, the way that the system really works. And please hear me on this.

"I want you guys to understand more and more how the system, the establishment, works, and has gotten us into the troubles that we are in in America." So she's doing... You don't think she has wanted to do this for years?  You don't think she's wanted to launch back at these people who tried to ruin her reputation and destroy her, and she wasn't able to because of the obvious requirements of party loyalty, loyalty to McCain and all that?  She said, "The permanent political class has been doing the bidding of their campaign donor class, and that's why you see that the borders are kept open for them, for their cheap labor that they want to come in.

"That's why they've been bloating budgets. It's for crony capitalists to be able suck off of them. It's why we see these lousy trade deals that gut our industry for special interests elsewhere. We need someone new, who has the power, and is in the position to bust up that establishment to make things great again. It's part of the problem. His candidacy -- which is a movement. It's a force; it's a strategy. It proves as long as the politicos get to keep their titles, and their perks, and their media ratings, they don't really care who wins elections," as long as they get to maintain what they've got now.

She's not wrong.

She's more right about that even she may know.

END TRANSCRIPT

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Thursday, January 14, 2016

BREAKING: Episcopal Church suspended from Anglican Communion

By

(RNS) The Anglican Communion voted to censure its American branch, the Episcopal Church, during a meeting in Canterbury, England, called to reflect on the future of the communion.

The vote Thursday (Jan. 14) to suspend the Episcopal Church from voting and decision-making for a period of three years was leaked a day ahead of a press conference that had been scheduled for Friday.

Details of the suspension were first reported by Anglican Ink, which said they came from a leaked communique. The vote passed by a two-thirds margin, according to the publication, which is based in Milford, Conn., and included prominent voices among African bishops who have loudly condemned the American church for its liberal stance on gays.

The dramatic demotion follows a string of Episcopal Church decisions stretching back to 2003, when it elected Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as a bishop of New Hampshire. That decision led dozens of U.S. churches to break away from the Episcopal Church and declare their allegiance to a series of rival groups, including the Anglican Church in North America.

In July, the Episcopal Church voted to allow its clergy to perform same-sex marriages, a move not taken by the majority of churches in the Anglican Communion.

“Given the seriousness of these matters we formally acknowledge this distance by requiring that for a period of three years The Episcopal Church no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies . . . ” a statement issued by the Anglican Communion reads. “They will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.”

“The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union,” the statement also notes. “The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching...” (continued)


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