Rick Santorum

Ethan A. Huff ~ SOPA Mutates Into Much Worse CISPA, the Latest Threat to Internet Free Speech

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Nation Of Change | April 22 2012

Just because SOPA and PIPA, the infamous internet “kill switch” bills, are largely dead does not mean the threat to internet free speech has become any less serious. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), also known as H.R. 3523, is the latest mutation of these internet censorship and spying bills to hit the U.S. Congress — and unless the American people speak up now to stop it, CISPA could lead to far worse repercussions for online free speech than SOPA or PIPA ever would have.

CNET, the popular technology news website that was among many others who spoke up against SOPA and PIPA earlier in the year, is also one of many now sounding the alarm about CISPA, which was authored by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). Though the bill’s promoters are marketing it as being nothing like SOPA or PIPA, CISPA is exactly like those bills, except worse.

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Ron Paul ~ Excessive Defense Spending Endangers U.S.

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Michael Tennant | The New American | February 22 2012

Three of the four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have spoken out against planned reductions in future defense spending. Both former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have urged President Barack Obama to prevent the sequestering of $600 billion from the defense budget over the next 10 years as required by last summer’s debt ceiling deal. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stated categorically that he “would absolutely not cut one penny out of military spending.”

One candidate, however, has repeatedly argued that defense spending must join domestic spending on the chopping block if the United States is to avoid bankruptcy. In fact, said Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the country would actually be safer if our government spent less on the military.

In his February 20 Texas Straight Talk, Paul remarked on the contradiction between conservatives’ alarm over “unprecedented spending” in Obama’s 2013 budget proposal and their simultaneous warnings that the President is seeking to gut the defense budget.

“I continue to be dismayed that in spite of our economic problems, most of those who call themselves fiscal conservatives refuse to consider any reductions in military spending,” Paul wrote.

Citing an article by Doug Bandow in the February issue of the American Conservative, Paul pointed out that “the President’s budget calls for an 18% increase versus the previously planned 20% increase.” For the mathematically challenged he patiently explained: “This is not a cut, yet Pentagon hawks continue to issue dire warnings that this ‘draconian’ decrease in proposed future spending will seriously threaten our national security.”

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It’s Official: Money Now Governs America

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Jim Hightower | Nation Of Change | February 15 2012

Barack ObamaThe rich are different from you and me, but the really, really, really rich are also different from the merely rich.

For example, the rich can buy caviar and Champagne, but the Triple-R Rich can buy entire presidential campaigns.

Take Sheldon Adelson, the moneybags who’s pumped $11 million so far into Newt Gingrich’s right-wing run. He has single-handedly kept Gingrich’s White House ambitions alive. Without this one guy’s money, The Newt would’ve been long gone. Thanks a lot, Sheldon.

But Adelson can easily afford to roll the dice on a far-out candidate. This global casino baron hauled in $3.3 million in pay last year. Not for a year — that’s what his hourly take was. In other words, his $11-million bet on Newt, which altered the Republican presidential race, was nothing — less than three-and-a-half hours of one of Sheldon’s workdays.

Even Rick Santorum, who’s so far to the right that his left brain has entirely atrophied from lack of use, is actually in the running for the GOP nomination. He insists that people are flocking to him because of the power of his ideas. Sure, Rick — and the power of Foster Friess’ money.

This little-known Wall Street multimillionaire has long been a partner in the Koch brothers’ plutocratic cabal and a steady funder of right-wing Christian politics. Friess modestly claims that God is “the chairman of my board.” I doubt that, but Friess definitely is Santorum’s guardian angel, having kept his campaign of wackiness afloat with untold infusions of cash. When Friess was told that Santorum’s recent caucus wins would prompt Mitt Romney’s Triple-R Richies to counterattack, he was thrilled. I think that “is so exciting,” he warbled.

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Jim Hightower ~ America’s Class Divide

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Nation Of Change | January 20 2012

John BridgelandWhat planet does presidential wannabe Rick Santorum live on? When it comes to grasping the situation of America’s hard-hit workaday majority, this sweater-vested ultra-right-winger is further out than Pluto.

In a recent debate, Santorum assailed a tax plan proposed by front-runner Mitt Romney. It wasn’t the plan’s details that caused Rick to stamp his tiny feet, but Romney’s expressed intent to help the “middle class.”

Tut-tut, chided the ideologically-pure Santorum, Republicans mustn’t use such language, for it creates an impression of class warfare. After all, he lectured: “There are no classes in America. We don’t put people in classes.”

Sure, Rick — today’s jobless economy, a national epidemic of union busting and wage knockdowns, absurd tax giveaways to the super-rich, the ongoing Wall Street bailout, inexcusable corporate subsides, rising poverty, the slashing of anti-poverty programs and a decade of falling incomes for the vast majority, while the elite 1 percent makes off with triple-digit increases in its wealth — there’s no class war happening. Just close your eyes, hum a happy tune … and live on Pluto.

Meanwhile, in the same week that Santorum spoke, the Pew Research Center released a new survey showing how far removed he is from regular people’s experience and concerns. Two-thirds of Americans see “strong conflicts” between the rich and poor in our country, a stark division between those few who have wealth, power and security, and the vast majority who don’t. The few do not have the same objectives as the many, and the survey found that this class separation — yes, class — is the No. 1 source of social tension in America today.

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