RandySF
RandySF's JournalWill Michigan absentee ballots be the ace in Santorum's sleeve?
Michigan has an open primary run by the Secretary of State. It also has a good sized population of voters over 65 who are on the permanent absentee list. A week and a half out from Election day, a lot of them are being filled out and sent back in while Ricky Santorum is on top. Could this be the ace that puts him over the top?
While bishops wage war on contraception, 48 Detroit area churches are set to close their doors.
Late last fall, Vigneron said the church realignments could result in as many as 48 of about 270 parishes being closed within the next five years. But that number is likely to drop based on Vigneron rejecting some closure recommendations made to him by an Archdiocesan Pastoral Council in November.
For example, Vigneron spared from the chopping block the eastside Detroit parishes of Nativity, Good Shepherd, St. Augustine/St. Monica and St. Charles Borromeo. The rejected recommendation for those parishes was to merge them, close them and build one new environmentally-friendly church for the E. Jefferson corridor.
The archdiocese says that 35 percent of parishes in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park are having problems paying their bills; as well as 20 percent in the suburbs.
Moreover, the archdiocese says it will have about 100 fewer priests in 10 years available to work at parishes. The archdiocese ordains roughly four priests a year. It has about 290 priests now working in parishes, and their average age is 57.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120218/NEWS05/120218024/Metro-Detroit-Catholics-learn-fate-their-parishes?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
MA-SEN: Scott Brown's own pollster disputes Suffolk University poll.
The issue on the Suffolk survey is similar to a criticism leveled earlier this month by Mitt Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse about a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey. Newhouse argued that just before measuring the Barack Obama-Romney sentiment, the pollsters asked a series of questions that "introduced specific negative information about Governor Romney." These included a set of questions about three candidates -- Romney, Newt Gingrich and President Obama -- as well as several more specific items about Romney. These included a question about whether, given his "work as a corporate investor ... Mitt Romney did more to create jobs or more to cut jobs," and a question asking whether Romney "is or is not paying his fair share of taxes" having "paid about a 14% federal tax rate on income of about 22 million dollars last year."
Asked to comment by the The Huffington Post, Newhouse -- who is also the pollster for Scott Brown -- said that the criticisms he leveled against the ABC/Washington Post poll would "absolutely" apply to the Suffolk poll, "though not to the same degree" as the ABC/Post poll.
David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told The Huffington Post that he doubts the questions he asked just before the Brown-Warren vote question "will have an order effect, per the [academic] literature," which he regards as "inconclusive." He also noted that responses to the two questions asked just before the vote "broke fairly close," adding "it's not like [these] questions broke 70-30 or something like that."
Peleologos also pointed to the accuracy of their past polling, particularly the survey released just five days before the January 2010 special election, one of the first to show Scott Brown leading Democrat Martha Coakley. Although "mindful of what some of the other polls have shown," he expressed confidence that the Senate race has been "trending to Brown" who has "been doing a lot of radio."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/17/massachusetts-senate-race-poll_n_1285549.html?ref=@pollster
Report: Federal funding, not Mitt Romney, saved the 2002 Olympics.
But Romney doesn't mention the commitments the government had already made to cover costs associated with the games — or elaborate on his role in persuading congressional appropriators and critics to give the games more money.
In the 2004 book he wrote about the games, called "Turnaround," Romney outlined how he revamped the Salt Lake Olympic Committee's lobbying operations in Washington. He directed plans to hire experienced transportation lobbyists — even highlighting how he poached one from another group that was trying to win earmarks for non-Olympic projects in Utah.
He met Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, then the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. And he wooed Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who along with Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan had inquired about wasteful Olympic spending, resulting in a critical federal audit.
In one instance, Romney highlights how he made arrangements for different states to send experienced bus drivers to Utah to help transport people. Romney helped arrange to have them paid union wages, he wrote in the book, and he persuaded the federal government to pick up the tab.
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/mitt_romney_says_he_turned_aro.html
Santorum: Obama wants prenatal testing because he looks down on those with disabilities.
Rebecca Kaplan @Rebecca_CBSNJ Close
Santo just suggested that Obama looks down on those with disabilities-says thats why healthcare law requires prenatal testing in insurance.
http://twitter.com/#!/nationaljournal
Babeu Stepping Down From Role With Romney Campaign
Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu, facing explosive allegations of a relationship with a male Mexican immigrant, is stepping down from his role as Arizona co-chair of the Mitt Romney for President campaign.
Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul gave TPM the following statement:
Sheriff Babeu has stepped down from his volunteer position with the campaign so he can focus on the allegations against him. We support his decision.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/babeu-stepping-down-from-role-with-romney-campaign
Nate Silver projects huge turnout in Washington County, Maine.
The 135 attendees at that Hancock ME caucus cover towns with about 8500 population. Would project to 500+ in Washington Co.
https://twitter.com/#!/fivethirtyeight
NH Republican links the pill to prostate cancer.
UPDATE: State Rep. Jeanine Notter said her question of State Rep. Andrew Manuse during a house hearing on Thursday was directed to him because she believed he shares similar views as her when it comes to putting chemicals in their bodies.
Notter asked Manuse if he was interested to know birth control pills may have recently been linked to prostate cancer.
Notter, a Republican representative from Merrimack, broached the question during a public hearing on House Resolution 29, which urges the United States Department of Health and Human Services to rescind a ruling requiring Catholic organizations provide insurance coverage for birth control.
Notter said she read about the study in Dr. David Brownstein's Natural Way to Health Newsletter and because she thought Manuse, a Republican from Derry, agrees with her that we put too many chemicals in our bodies, she thought he might be interested in that study.
http://merrimack.patch.com/articles/merrimack-rep-claims-the-pill-has-been-linked-to-prostate-cancer
MI: Wayne County Executive's future uncertain.
Those closest to the county executive say he absolutely has no plans to resign from the position even though Wayne County commissioners this week said he needs to.
If only a fraction of what the FBI is charging one of Ficano's top appointees, CIO Tahir Kazmi, with is true, it is nothing short of breathtaking.
Kazmi is accused of shaking down county contractors for about $90,000 to be spent on luxury trips. According to the FBI, Kazmi told a contractor to sign over 49 percent of his business to Kazmi's brother-in-law. This apparently happened right under Ficano's nose.
"If these allegations are true, it is outrageous," Ficano said. "And we should hold these two individuals accountable if the allegations are true."
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Wayne-County-Executive-Ficano-s-future-is-uncertain/-/1719418/8802784/-/11bgrocz/-/index.html
MD State Senate expected to pass marriage equality next week.
The measure now goes to the Senate, which passed a similar bill last year and is expected do so again. The chamber will likely take up the measure next week.
Should the bill pass in both chambers, activists on both sides believe it would be petitioned to referendum in November. If voters approve the measure, the earliest a gay couple would be able to wed is January 2013, when the law would go into effect.
The victory is significant for O'Malley, who threw the weight of his office behind the measure after a similar bill fell a few votes short in the House last year. The governor had been working the halls of the House office building at all hours to persuade wavering delegates.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-same-sex-alert-20120217,0,2535292.story
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