In addition to the moves mentioned in the headline Romney also promises to immediately start implementing "tax cuts and reforms that reward job creators, not punish them."

Because of course, the only way to solve a massive national debt problem is to CUT taxes. But don't kid yourselves people, the tax cuts Romney is talking about in this ad are meant to benefit his big business buddies, not Joe Schmo on main street.

And once again we see the blatant hypocrisy of the right wing. Romney pledges in this ad to "immediately" approve the Keystone pipeline on the first day of his Presidency. Can you imagine the uproar on the Right if Obama vowed to say "immediately" implement cap and trade on the first day of his Second Term?

The video currently stands at 307 likes and 115 dislikes, with both numbers likely to grow steadily over the next little while.

Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go, Norman Rousseau shot himself.

This is the story of what happens when an average couple is up against a giant, wealthy, powerful bank. Unfortunately the result is what the result always is when people are on their own against the wealthy and powerful: the bank ends up with all of their money, takes their house to sell and throws them out onto the street. In this case the bank is Wells Fargo.

The quick version of this terrible story is that Norman and Oriane Rousseau of Newbury Park, California were scammed into a predatory mortgage. But they made their payments anyway, always paying with a cashier's check in person at the same branch. Then one day the bank misapplied their payment and said they still owed the money. This started a long, nasty process that led to the bank evicting the Rousseaus from their home.

Here's the shocker: right at the start the Rousseaus came up with proof that the bank had received the payment and had cashed the check. But the bank continued to claim it had missed the payment, gave the Rousseaus the runaround, started applying fees, and used it as an excuse to foreclose on the house anyway.

The Rousseaus fought back, the bank dragged it out for so long and pulled so many tricks, getting its way every step of the process, until this last Sunday Norman Rousseau finally gave up and shot himself in despair – two days before the scheduled eviction, Tuesday, May 15.

Source

And the sickest thing about all of this is that NO ONE at Wells Fargo will see a day of prison time over this or even be held legally responsible for it.

This is the financial system that Republicans want us to believe is not only NOT broken, but needs LESS regulation as it is.

How many more Norman Rousseaus are out there? How many Americans are hopelessly fighting big banks to deal with mortgages that those same banks screwed them into the first place?

I STRONGLY recommend reading the full summary from the link. It reveals Wells Fargo deliberately inflated Rousseau's income on the paperwork to get him into a larger mortgage that they could levy more fees on.

This is the America some on the right love so dearly.

Amid the ongoing debate over President's support gay marriage and following of North Carolina's recent ban of it, Virginia's House of Delegates voted today to deny a judicial nomination to Tracy Thorne-Begland, who would have become the state's first openly gay judge. According to The New York Times' Sabrina Tavernise, Thorne-Begland received 33 "yes" votes to 31 "nays," in a vote held in the early hours on Tuesday morning, but needed a 51-vote majority of all the House delegates to be approved. All 31 nay votes came from Republicans, who claimed that Thorne-Begland's lifestyle and support for gays causes would make it impossible for him to be impartial.

Thorne-Begland was nominated for a spot on the General District Court of Richmond , where he spent the last 12 years working as a state prosecutor. His nomination was approved by House and Senate judicial committees, but opposition arose after some Republicans began to question his impartiality, particularly when it came to the issue of marriage equality. Thorne-Begland, who is not married, but lives with his partner and their two children, was honorably discharged from the Navy 20 years ago after he came out publicly on Nightline as a protest against "don't ask, don't tell."

Republican Delegate Robert Marshall (who is running for U.S. Senate) also accused him of pushing an "aggressive activist homosexual agenda." According to The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella , Marshall claims that Thorne-Begland "holds himself out as being married,' which makes his 'life a contradiction to the requirement of submission to the constitution.' According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch , a Christian conservative group also sent an email blast to supporters saying Thorne-Begland was unfit to serve because of his support for gay marriage, which is not legal in Virginia.

Despite heartfelt support from both Democrats and Republicans politicians, including Governor Bob McDonnell, the opposition against Thorne-Begland was too strong. His current boss, Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Herring, called the vote an "embarrassment" and said, 'It's hard to think about what happened in the General Assembly and not conclude that it's a form of bigotry."

Democrats in the State Senate also criticized their fellow lawmakers for not even allowing Thorne-Begland's nomination to come to a vote, with Sen. A. Donald McEachin saying, "This is not our finest hour" and Sen. Adam Ebbin, adding that the Senate "acceded to the homophobic behavior of the House." Thorne-Begland was the only one three dozen judicial candidates who was not approved on Tuesday.

Source: [Link: m.yahoo.com...]

It just amazes me that this kind of behavior is not only tolerated but encouraged by politicians and right wingers around the country.

Here's the full text of Mitt Romney's commencement speech at Liberty University (emphasis added by me).

For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning. The task set before you four years ago is now completed in full. To the class of 2012: Well done, and congratulations.

Some of you may have taken a little longer than four years to complete your studies. One graduate has said that he completed his degree in only two terms: Clinton's and Bush's.

In some ways, it is fitting that I share this distinction with Truett Cathy. The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A. Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting. So, Truett, thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved honor today.

There are some people here who are even more pleased than the graduates. Those would be the parents. Their years of prayers, devotion, and investment have added up to this joyful achievement. And with credit to Congressman Dick Armey: The American Dream is not owning your own home, it is getting your kids out of the home you own.

Lately, I've found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches. And let's just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have.

That's a theme for another day. But two observations. First, even though job opportunities are scarce in this economy, it is not for nothing that you have spent this time preparing. Jerry Falwell, Senior, long ago observed that 'You do not determine a man's greatness by his talent or wealth, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him.' America needs your skill and talent. If we take the right course, we will see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world, and that will open new doors of opportunity for those who are prepared as you are.

Of course, what the next four years might hold for me is yet to be determined. But I will say that things are looking up, and I take your kind hospitality today as a sign of good things to come.

I consider it a great life honor to address you today. Your generosity of spirit humbles me. The welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder.

In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark. For nearly five decades he shared that walk with his good wife Macel. It's wonderful to see her today. The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one. Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel who never feared an argument, and never hated an adversary. Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most, as a cheerful, confident champion for Christ.

I will always remember his cheerful good humor and selflessness. Several years ago, in my home, my wife and I were posing for a picture together with him. We wanted him to be in the center of the photo, but he insisted that Ann be in the middle, with he and I on the sides. He explained, by pointing to me and himself, 'You see, Christ died between two thieves.'

Maybe the most confident step Jerry ever took was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.

He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on earth. And so it is today.

He believed, even when the first graduating class consisted of 13 students, that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever-greater numbers. And here you are.

Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe. You know who you are. And you know Whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence, but it will be among the most prized qualities from your education here. Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning.

That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ. May that be your guide.

You enter a world with civilizations and economies that are far from equal. Harvard historian David Landes devoted his lifelong study to understanding why some civilizations rise, and why others falter. His conclusion: Culture makes all the difference. Not natural resources, not geography, but what people believe and value. Central to America's rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition, with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.

The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.

The power of these values is evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Senator Rick Santorum brought to my attention. For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2%. But, if those things are absent, 76% will be poor. Culture matters.

As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.

The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate. It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.

But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.

Religious freedom opens a door for Americans that is closed to too many others around the world. But whether we walk through that door, and what we do with our lives after we do, is up to us.

Someone once observed that the great drama of Christianity is not a crowd shot, following the movements of collectives or even nations. The drama is always personal, individual, unfolding in one's own life. We're not alone in sensing this. Men and women of every faith, and good people with none at all, sincerely strive to do right and lead a purpose-driven life.

And, in the way of lessons learned, by hitting the mark or by falling short, I can tell you this much for sure.

All that you have heard here at Liberty University – about trusting in God and in His purpose for each of us–makes for more than a good sermon. It makes for a good life. So many things compete for our attention and devotion. That doesn't stop as you get older. We are all prone, at various turns, to treat the trivial things as all-important, the all-important things as trivial, and little by little lose sight of the one thing that endures forever.

No person I have ever met, not even the most righteous or pure of heart, has gone without those times when faith recedes in the busy-ness of life. It's normal, and sometimes even the smallest glimpses of the Lord's work in our lives can reawaken our hearts. They bring us back to ourselves – and, better still, to something far greater than ourselves.

What we have, what we wish we had – ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed … investments won, investments lost … elections won, elections lost – these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us. And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life. Our relationship with our Maker, however, depends on none of this. It is entirely in our control, for He is always at the door, and knocks for us. Our worldly successes cannot be guaranteed, but our ability to achieve spiritual success is entirely up to us, thanks to the grace of God. The best advice I know is to give those worldly things your best but never your all, reserving the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.

Many a preacher has advised the same, but few as memorably as Martin Luther King, Jr. 'As a young man,' he said, 'with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.'

In this life, the commitments that come closest to forever are those of family.

My Dad, George Romney, was a CEO, a governor, and a member of the President's Cabinet. My wife Ann asked him once, 'What was your greatest accomplishment?' Without a moment's pause, he said, 'Raising our four kids.'

Ann and I feel the same way about our family. I have never once regretted missing a business opportunity so that I could be with my children and grandchildren. Among the things in life that can be put off, being there when it matters most isn't one of them.

As C.S. Lewis is said to have remarked, 'The home is the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose, and that is to support the ultimate career.'

Promotions often mark the high points in a career, and I hope I haven't seen my last. But sometimes the high points come in unexpected ways. I was asked to help rescue the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

I'm embarrassed now to recall that when this opportunity was first presented to me, I dismissed it out of hand. I was busy, I was doing well, and, by the way, my lack of athletic prowess did not make the Olympics a logical step. In fact, after I had accepted the position, my oldest son called me and said, 'Dad, I've spoken to the brothers. We saw the paper this morning. We want you to know there's not a circumstance we could have conceived of that would put you on the front page of the sports section.'

The Olympics were not a logical choice, but it was one of the best and most fulfilling choices of my life. Opportunities for you to serve in meaningful ways may come at inconvenient times, but that will make them all the more precious.

People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology. Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview. The best case for this is always the example of Christian men and women working and witnessing to carry God's love into every life – people like the late Chuck Colson.

Not long ago, Chuck recounted a story from his days just after leaving prison. He was assured by people of influence that, even with a prison record, a man with his connections and experience could still live very comfortably. They would make some calls, get Chuck situated, and set him up once again as an important man. His choice at that crossroads would make him, instead, a great man.

The call to service is one of the fundamental elements of our national character. It has motivated every great movement of conscience that this hopeful, fair-minded country of ours has ever seen. Sometimes, as Dr. Viktor Frankl observed in a book for the ages, it is not a matter of what we are asking of life, but rather what life is asking of us. How often the answer to our own troubles is to help others with theirs.

In all of these things – faith, family, work, and service –the choices we make as Americans are, in other places, not choices at all. For so many on this earth, life is filled with orders, not options, right down to where they live, the work they do, and how many children the state will permit them to have. All the more reason to be grateful, this and every day, that we live in America, where the talents God gave us may be used in freedom.

At this great Christian institution, you have all learned a thing or two about these gifts and the good purposes they can serve. They are yours to have and yours to share. Sometimes, your Liberty education will set you apart, and always it will help direct your path. And as you now leave, and make for new places near and far, I hope for each one of you that your path will be long and life will be kind.

The ideals that brought you here … the wisdom you gained here … and the friends you found here – may these blessings be with you always, wherever you go.

Thank you all, and God bless you.

Video of speech here

Certainly a good speech for his target audience but very striking in that he can't help but get political.

He just had to throw in the swipe at Obama, he had to throw in the reference to the President's recent support of gay marriage, he had to throw in a nod to the whole "Christian persecution" angle and he had to reiterate the disputed claim that America was intended to be a "Christian Nation".

Or did he?

Seems it would have been simple enough to craft an effective commencement speech that WASN'T political. Why did Romney decide to use such a speech as a subtle campaign event rather than a separate entity?

In any case, the content of the speech is very telling indeed.

An Arizona high school forfeited a shot at a state baseball championship on Thursday rather than compete against an opponent that had a 15-year-old girl on its team, an official from the rival school said.

Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in Phoenix had been due to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship.

But the team pulled out rather than face the Mesa squad, which fielded 15-year-old Paige Sultzbach at second base, Mesa Preparatory Academy headmaster Robert Wagner said.

"They wouldn't play the game as long as we had a girl on the team who was on the field. It violates their policy about boys playing against girls," Wagner told Reuters.

"It's just unfortunate that our kids who are excited about playing don't have the opportunity," he added.

Reuters was unable to reach Our Lady of Sorrows for comment. But Fox News reported an official at the school as saying it had no option but to forfeit the game.

"Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty," Fox reported the official as saying in a statement.

"Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls," it added.

Proper boundaries? What are they talking about? Are they afraid the girl might get hurt colliding with their catcher while trying to score or something?

I don't get it, I really don't. I don't see anything unbiblical about a sports team with a girl on it. God forbid women get the same rights as men.

I really hope this Catholic school realizes how stupid they look doing this and learns from it in the future.

Long a lightning rod for conservative criticism, the Girl Scouts of the USA are now facing their highest-level challenge yet: An official inquiry by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

At issue are concerns about program materials that some Catholics find offensive, as well as assertions that the Scouts associate with other groups espousing stances that conflict with church teaching. The Scouts, who have numerous parish-sponsored troops, deny many of the claims and defend their alliances.

The inquiry coincides with the Scouts' 100th anniversary celebrations and follows a chain of other controversies.

Earlier this year, legislators in Indiana and Alaska publicly called the Scouts into question, and the organization was berated in a series aired by a Catholic broadcast network.

Last year, the Scouts angered some conservatives by accepting into a Colorado troop a 7-year-old transgender child who was born a boy but was being raised as a girl.

Some of the concerns raised by Catholic critics are recycled complaints that have been denied by the Girl Scouts' head office repeatedly and categorically. It says it has no partnership with Planned Parenthood, and does not take positions on sexuality, birth control and abortion.

"It's been hard to get the message out there as to what is true when distortions get repeated over and over," said Gladys Padro-Soler, the Girl Scouts' director of inclusive membership strategies.

In other instances, the scouts have modified materials that drew complaints — for example, dropping some references to playwright Josefina Lopez because one of her plays, "Simply Maria," was viewed by critics as mocking the Catholic faith.

The new inquiry will be conducted by the bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. It will look into the Scouts' "possible problematic relationships with other organizations" and various "problematic" program materials, according to a letter sent by the committee chairman, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne, Ind., to his fellow bishops.

The bishops' conference provided a copy of the letter to The Associated Press, but otherwise declined comment.

Girl Scout leaders hope the bishops' apprehensions will be eased once they gather information. But there's frustration within the iconic youth organization — known for its inclusiveness and cookie sales — that it has become such an ideological target, with the girls sometimes caught in the political crossfire.

"I know we're a big part of the culture wars," said the Girl Scouts' spokeswoman, Michelle Tompkins. "People use our good name to advance their own agenda."

"For us, there's an overarching sadness to it," Tompkins added. "We're just trying to further girls' leadership."

Source

So not only is the Catholic Bishops group going after the Girl Scouts, they are doing so partly on the basis of information that has been REPEATEDLY debunked and shown to be inaccurate. But when has the religious right been concerned with silly little things like facts?

On top of that, the notion that a group of Catholic Bishops is presenting themselves as some kind of protectors of the children like this is disturbing to say the least, as well all know the Catholic church has a rather...unsettling record when it comes to safeguarding the safety of kids.

This is one battle the Catholic Bishops are going to lose...badly.

The Catholic Church is in serious need of help. Actions like this will only further damage their cause.

The Heartland Institute (which if you don't know is a right wing group supported and funded heavily by corporate and Republican interests) is putting up a series of billboards around Chicago.

The billboards feature the Unabomber, Charles Manson, Fidel Castro and Osama Bin Laden. Here's a photo of the Unabomber billboard:

A visit to the Billboard FAQ on the heartland site reveals some interesting (mis)information:

2. Why did Heartland choose to feature these people on its billboards?

Because what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the 'mainstream' media, and liberal politicians say about global warming. They are so similar, in fact, that a Web site has a quiz that asks if you can tell the difference between what Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, wrote in his 'Manifesto' and what Al Gore wrote in his book, Earth in the Balance.

The point is that believing in global warming is not 'mainstream,' smart, or sophisticated. In fact, it is just the opposite of those things. Still believing in man-made global warming – after all the scientific discoveries and revelations that point against this theory – is more than a little nutty. In fact, some really crazy people use it to justify immoral and frightening behavior.

Of course, not all global warming alarmists are murderers or tyrants. But the Climategate scandal and the more recent Fakegate scandal revealed that the leaders of the global warming movement are willing to break the law and the rules of ethics to shut down scientific debate and implement their left-wing agendas.

Scientific, political, and public support for the theory of man-made global warming is collapsing. Most scientists and 60 percent of the general public (in the U.S.) do not believe man-made global warming is a problem. (Keep reading for proof of these statements.) The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.

This group is decrying the use of so called mainstream, liberal propaganda about Global warming with a full on assault of conservative, right wing propaganda. Because really, who gives a shit about facts and data?

It gets better, check out the next item in the FAQ:

3. Why shouldn't I still believe in global warming?

Because the best available science says about two-thirds of the warming in the 1990s was due to natural causes, not human activities; the warming trend of the second half of the twentieth century century already has stopped and forecasts of future warming are unreliable; and the benefits of a moderate warming are likely to outweigh the costs. Global warming, in other words, is not a crisis. For a plain English introductory essay with lots of links to research that proves these points, see 'Global Warming: Not a Crisis.'

Most people who still believe in global warming do so because they trust the United Nations, the so-called mainstream media, and leading political figures to be telling them the truth about a complicated scientific issue. That trust has been betrayed.

The government agency created by the United Nations to find a link between human activities and global warming did exactly what it was created and paid to do! By ignoring natural causes of climate variation, it claims to have found evidence of a human impact and an urgent need for the UN to be given more money and more power to solve the problem. See Donna Laframboise's book, The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert, for an excellent recent commentary on just how unreliable the IPCC has become.

The mainstream media are 'in the tank' with environmental activists and big-government advocates, to the point that they deliberately and expressly censor dissenting views on climate. Even distinguished scientists who dissent from the global warming dogma, such as MIT's Richard Lindzen and the University of Virginia's S. Fred Singer, are regularly savaged and defamed by reporters for some of the largest-circulation newspapers in the country. See the Media Research Center's 2008 report, 'Global Warming Censored,' for a good account of media bias on this topic.

And nobody should believe politicians who say they want to raise taxes, give subsidies to their buddies, or regulate growing industries in the name of 'global warming.' Politicians aren't scientists, and they aren't motivated by the search for scientific truth. Mostly, they want to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, and regulate industry because doing so increases their power and chances for reelection. Two good recent books that make this point are Climate Coup by Patrick Michaels and Eco-Tyranny by Brian Sussman.

Of course the silent missing word in the last paragraph is DEMOCRATIC. It's DEMOCRATIC politicians that apparently want to redistribute wealth and regulate industry. Your friendly neighborhood Republicans would NEVER do that kind of stuff. Not ever.

You'd almost think Glenn Beck wrote this stuff. Notice there are no hard citations or sources listed for the claims against global warming, just vague "surveys", "sources" and "research".

Of course, they saved the best for last:

It's...CLIMATEGATE!!! The scandal that will not die. Like a comic book super hero continually resurrected from the grave, global warming deniers simply cannot let Climategate go...

5. Are you saying anyone who believes in global warming is a mass murderer, tyrant, or terrorist?

Of course not. But we are saying that the ethics of many advocates of global warming are very suspect. Consider two recent scandals that exposed the way they think:

Climategate was the leak of emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England in 2010 and 2011. The emails revealed a conspiracy to suppress debate, rig the peer review process to keep out of the leading academic journals any scientists skeptical of catastrophic man-caused global warming, hiding data, fudging research findings, and dodging Freedom of Information Act requests.

Fakegate was the theft in early 2012 of confidential corporate documents from The Heartland Institute by Dr. Peter Gleick, a leading climate scientist and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California. Gleick admitted on February 20 to using a false identity to steal the documents and then disseminating them – along with a fake memo purporting to be Heartland's 'climate strategy' – to sympathetic bloggers and journalists.

Megan McArdle wrote this about Fakegate in The Atlantic: 'Gleick has done enormous damage to his cause and his own reputation, and it's no good to say that people shouldn't be focusing on it. If his judgement is this bad, how is his judgement on matters of science? For that matter, what about the judgement of all the others in the movement who apparently see nothing worth dwelling on in his actions?'

Robert Tracinski wrote this at Real Clear Politics: 'The global warming alarmists are losing the argument, and the latest scandal–James Delingpole calls it Fakegate–shows just how desperate they have become.'

Poor judgement … believing the ends justify the means … desperation. Now do you see why we really shouldn't be surprised to learn that Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, Ted Kaczynski, and other famous criminals believe in global warming?

Of course these are the same scandals that have been debunked again and again...and again and again and again. But of course, we can't have pesky little things like facts get in the way of our argument, can we?

Fortunately, the odds of Heartland scoring much public support and sympathy for this campaign seem pretty low. The truth is though, they are doing this PRECISELY for the negative attention and publicity it will draw, because it's just more attention being given to their group and their cause.

Ultimately, we won't know for decades who is actually "right" when it comes to the global warming debate, but we do ourselves no favors by allowing misinformation and false notions to be accepted as truth on EITHER SIDE of the debate.

JC Penney has laid low in the month of April by airing two different commercials that portrayed them as remaining neutral in the cultural war. Even though JCP seemed to have changed their approach, their May catalog shows they are making a strong effort otherwise. On pages ten and eleven, under the title "Freedom of Expression," you'll find "Wendi and her partner Maggie and daughters" and again "Wendi, daughters Raven and Clover, and partner Maggie" in text. In the picture both women are wearing wedding bands.

Families who once supported JCP and hold open store credit cards or are on their mailing list received the May catalog yesterday. Today, customers are able to view the May catalog online on the JC Penney website under May books. (Click on image for larger view)

OMM has so many issues to cover we had no choice but to move on earlier in the year but have decided to revisit this issue and speak out again. It is obvious that JCP would rather take sides than remain neutral. JCP will hear from the other side so they need to hear from us as well.

Last time OMM contacted JC Penney store managers, we were brushed off. Some even experienced in person the store manager saying "Thank you" and walking off while their customer and our concerned members were in mid-sentence. OMM has been told that JCP corporate office told store managers to say "Thank you" and then walk away. If they want our business, then we will not be ignored!

The store managers are the ones who can communicate to corporate for their customers. Managers will not want to be in the middle so when we politely express our concern to them, they should realize that they are the ones taking all the complaints and corporate is not having to answer for the decisions they are making. Managers will pass along customers' frustrations, and their own, to corporate because they will likely get tired of their game. Managers will also have to answer to corporate for the loss in sales from traditional families, so we will give them the proof they need to back this up when we tell them we will no longer be able to shop with them until they take a neutral stand.

TAKE ACTION

Since the corporate office doesn't consider your call important, please call, or visit, your local store manager. Local managers are more likely to listen to your concerns and pass them along to the corporate office.

Please be kind when you ask them to tell corporate that they should remain neutral in the cultural war. What was the purpose in stating on page eleven that Wendi and Maggie are partners?

Source

Right, because the store manager at the local JC Penney is totally concerned what these people think about the lesbians in the catalog.

Didn't you know every single JC Penney Manager has a secret phone line to the marketing department in their office?

It's one thing to oppose this particular marketing strategy, it's another to direct your supporters to go after (most likely) over worked and under paid store managers about simply because corporate has apparently decided to ignore you.

A local atheist group says a theater is discriminating against them — not for what's on the big screen — but what's not being played before the movie starts.

Zachary Moore says he is deeply disappointed by the Angelika Movie Theater in Plano's Legacy Shops.

Moore says, 'we should be treated fairly. This is America in the 21st Century.'

He says the theater signed a six month contract with the atheist group, DFW Coalition of Reason, to advertise a billboard on the big screen before the movies begin.

It is part of their spring campaign called 'Our Families Are Great Without Religion.'

But one day before the ads were supposed to begin, Moore says the theater pulled the plug.

Moore says he was told, 'there were Christians in the community that were upset that atheists were able to advertise in the movie theaters and the business decided to cancel our contract simply on the basis of our religious beliefs.'

This week, an attorney with the American Humanist Association sent this letter to the manager here claiming the theater is violating Title II of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The letter says the law '…prohibits a business establishment such as a theater from discriminating on the basis of religious views (such as atheism)…' and that '…as a place of public accommodation, the theater cannot lawfully refuse to do business with the Coalition on this discriminatory basis.'

Moore says, 'it's my understanding they allow churches to advertise there, and if they allow churches to advertise there, they should allow our organization to advertise there.'

Stewart Thomas is an attorney in Dallas. He says, 'it's a very interesting case.'

Thomas questions whether the movie theater is really violating the law.

He says, 'it seems to me the public accommodation is to attend the theater and watch the movie everyone has the right to watch the movie. I'm not sure the theater has to sell to anyone that wants to buy advertising.'

So what does the Angelika have to say? A manager referred us to corporate headquarters. But after two days of trying, we still have not received a response.

Zachary Moore still hopes to get their message across. 'if the community at large was so accepting of atheists, we wouldn't need to advertise,' he says.

His group's attorney is giving the theater until Tuesday to respond to his letter.

If not, the attorney says he may file a lawsuit against them

If they allow churches to advertise they should allow atheist groups.

Why do Christians who get easily offended insist on being allowed to offend others under the guise of religious freedom?

Source: [Link: dfw.cbslocal.com...]