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As the week draws to a close, here are some quick reads for a leisurely lunch:
* Breaking news: Komen Foundation reverses course, will restore funding for Planned Parenthood. More on this later.
* A new poll from PPP confirms the impression that Romney is heading for a big win in Nevada tomorrow—perhaps even a majority. Danger sign for Newt: his approval ratings are in the tank there.
* Adelson ain’t alone: Sushannah Walshe has a profile of the Wyoming billionaire who’s provided about half of the money for Rick Santorum’s Super-PAC.
* Times’ Edward Wyatt reports SEC is going easy on big banks in fraud investigations.
* Retired Supreme Sandra Day O’Conner quips about GOP presidential candidates at Alfalfa Club dinner: “[O]ne is a practicing polygamist, and he’s not even the Mormon.”
* Paul Starobin reports at TNR that Elizabeth Warren is routing Scott Brown among female voters, which may provide some lessons for Obama campaign.
Back to regular blogging shortly.
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TCinLA on February 03, 2012 12:16 PM:
Komen Foundation reverses course, will restore funding for Planned Parenthood.
From what SWMBO, a pro-choice feminist since the days of the Friends of Jane (pre-Roe) and her sister, a professor who has been a long-time supporter of Komen, have said about this, I think the Komen Foundation is about to discover that a reputation that takes years to build can be lost in days. There are all kinds of people who are paying attention to "the person behind the curtain" and that is not going to be good news for the Komen Foundation.
mmm on February 03, 2012 12:17 PM:
It's a good thing that Planned parenthood is a health facility, because after all this drama I'd be having a heart attack. So much for the "safety nets" being subsidized by private organizations... the rug could be pulled out from under you in a nanosecond.
CJ on February 03, 2012 12:38 PM:
Paul Starobin reports at TNR that Elizabeth Warren is routing Scott Brown among female voters, which may provide some lessons for Obama campaign.
What lessons Ed? Please expand on that.
SadOldVet on February 03, 2012 12:41 PM:
Leaving aside the b.s. explanations that Massachusetts is a 'liberal' state, Elizabeth Warren is showing the value of a progressive democrat running as a progressive democrat and not as a repuke-lite!
Nevada is a caucus state with a significant percentage of Mormons. The Mormons will turn out in mass & 90+% of them will vote for Mittens. Declaring some kind of victory for Mitt is bogus - the deck is stacked!
Ed - I have read and reread and reread several more times your "No Time for Warmongering" blog. Now no matter what you think about Iran's nuclear program-a tolerable nuisance, or a Sign of the End Times-it's pretty clear this is an unusually sensitive moment in U.S.-Israeli relations. You are doing the corporately owned media slight-of-hand - referring to Iran's nuclear program and presenting the implication that it is a nuke weapons program. The CIA, IAEA, and SecDef Panetta are on the record that Iran does not have a nuke weapons program! Are you also so f*cking afraid to be called anti-semite that you will not tell the truth and risk the ire of AIPAC and the Likud Party?
T2 on February 03, 2012 12:44 PM:
The KOMEN folks really stepped into it. Their frantic spin yesterday followed by a complete reversal today indicates an organization that is 1)politically motivated, 2) not smart, 3) maybe not as "women centric" as they'd want their donors to know.
#3 will probably linger the longest. I know I'd sure cancel my donation from now on. Cut out the GOP guided Komen and send the check straight to Planned Parenthood.
CJ on February 03, 2012 12:45 PM:
The CIA, IAEA, and SecDef Panetta are on the record that Iran does not have a nuke weapons program!
SadOldVet,
I did not know. I'm going to research this for my own edification.
bdop4 on February 03, 2012 12:47 PM:
"Komen reverses course . . ."
Too late, damage done. All that brand development gone in a matter of days. Sucks to be you.
If we're going to have a federal investigation, let's investigate them and other national "charities" that spend more on their brand than their stated mission.
Kathryn on February 03, 2012 12:56 PM:
Rachel had an amazing (not in a good way) tape of a Santorum town hall. Several questioners, including a young child, ask about the affordability of medicines and cancer treatment. Santorum was dismissive of their concerns and voiced great support for the price of these medical necessities. He stood strong for the right of charging whatever these companies saw appropriate with no understanding or care of the burden on folks without the means or insurance. He came across as heartless and totally insensitive to the needs of those less wealthy than he, probably because he is. He mocked people as having enough money for iPads and such but not for medicine. The private market does no wrong in Santorum's world, one would think having a severely ill child would give him a slightly different outlook, one would be wrong.
stinger on February 03, 2012 12:57 PM:
@mmm: That's the plan. Get most govt money going to "faith-based" private orgs, infiltrate your stealth executives into the rest, and voila! Buh-bye safety net. Poor people and women who want to control their own bodies oughtta move to one of them commie countries anyway. God knows, our next prez doesn't care about them.
Captcha agrees: versh sepulchre
Hedda Peraz on February 03, 2012 1:02 PM:
The Top 5 Killers of Women: Heart Disease with 365,000 Stroke with 100,000 Lung Cancer with 68,000 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with 64,000 , and Breast Cancer with 42,000.
But I never had a bunch of drunks say, "Show us your lungs!"
Allan Snyder on February 03, 2012 1:34 PM:
Uh, check on what the Komen people actually said-it's not a reversal it's just more spin and damage control.
And what about their new position against stem cell research?
Forget it, they've aligned themselves with the right, give to PP and and anyone involved in stem cell research.
Go to SGK if you wanna waste money on pink merchandise from a rightwing political organization.
sick-n-effn-tired. on February 03, 2012 1:45 PM:
@bdop4 Exactly I want their fiances, executive salaries , everything under the microscope.
Another resting home for ousted GOP politicos masquerading as nonprofit.
markg8 on February 03, 2012 2:29 PM:
Wrong link on Sandra Day O"Conner ed.
MichMan on February 03, 2012 2:41 PM:
Apparently Komen is just kidding (lying) - they're not restoring Planned Parenthood's funding: http://www.americablog.com/2012/02/komen-caves-kinda-but-still-refuses-to.html
PEA on February 03, 2012 3:20 PM:
The good thing in this Komen doo doo is that more people are now more aware of what's really going on: ie. how much politics influences what they do while telling us otherwise, how many of their top people are on the far right, and how much they pay them while passing only 20% or less through to real services/research.
I will never give them another dime and instead am sending my donations directly to PP and those who do rigorous health research (e.g. great research universities the far right is strangling too). In fact, just sent in a donation today to PP when I heard that Komen got a lot of new donations from the far right after their initial decision.
What I find so despicable about the far right is their utter contempt for others and total lack of tolerance or compassion (e.g. Santorum) and their ends-justify-any-means intent to send everyone else to the garbage dump. Now the Koch bros and ALEC are having a special invitation-only meeting this weekend on a little FL island (no public, no media) to plot how to further destroy public education. (See Truthout) Any chance we could surround the island and keep them there permanently? Seems like too good a chance to pass up.)
psychobroad on February 03, 2012 4:28 PM:
Ed, if you look at the press release, Komen did not in fact restore funding. The money already allocated was never due to be touched. The did NOT commit to any further Planned Parenthood funding.
schtick on February 03, 2012 5:24 PM:
PEA;
The difference between the "new" donations Komen received and the ones they "lost" is that the "new" donations are a one-time shot from the anti-abortion zealots. The donations they "lost" are from people that get donations from their runs every year and/or just plain donate every year.
Myself, if a product had the "cure" or "pink" on it I would buy it instead of one without, but from now on, I'm making an effort not to buy anything supporting Komen. They are frauds in my book, like all the tealiban people.
exlibra on February 03, 2012 5:48 PM:
The difference between the "new" donations Komen received and the ones they "lost" is that the "new" donations are a one-time shot from the anti-abortion zealots. The donations they "lost" are from people that get donations from their runs every year and/or just plain donate every year. --schtick, @5:24PM
I hope you're right but I'm worried that you might not be. I've read about so many studies which said that it's the fright wing which tends to persistently donate more to charities (mostly to churches, but, still...), while, with the lefties, it tends to be all "straw fire" -- burns brightly but not for very long.
Over the past 48-72hrs, PP has made up for all the loss of the Khomeini funds but what's gonna happen next year? And the year after that? You can't make any plans, if you're dependent on the whimsy of popular outrage, which tends to wax and wane.
I've always been sending a few bucks to PP and never to Khomeini (they just didn't happen to cross my charitable giving horizon, for some reason), so my own behaviour won't affect either of the two. But what about others? They may remember they're pissed off with Komen for a year or two; will they remember why for even that long?
schtick on February 03, 2012 6:26 PM:
exlibra;
Khomeini...how fitting. I'll have to remember that one!
The regular donors are doing some research on them and finding they aren't donating as much to research as they thought. In their research they are finding other cancer organizations to donate to if not PP. I have a feeling those will stay away. The fly by nites will always be fly by nites.
Myself, I donate locally to the heart run every year, most of it stays local, my local humane society where I get my pets, etc., etc., Many people here do that, but there are many on the "cure" bandwagon, too. I'm not sure what they think about this because it seems where I am, not much is being said except the regular anti-abortion shit.
I know a lot of people that have gone to PP to get help and they seem to be silent. It's their business to let others know they have gone there for whatever reason, but I imagine they don't want to go through all the bull that will be thrown their way. We'll have to wait see what the actual fallout is, I guess.