1. Election News
Rick Santorum suspended campaign on Tuesday
Did not endorse Romney - has said Romney is an unworthy standard-bearer for the GOP
“We will continue to go out and fight and defeat President Barack Obama.”
“We were winning in a very different way. We were touching hearts.”
Over and over again we were told, ‘Forget it. You can’t win.’”
Santorum would have needed 80% or remaining delegates to win nomination before the national convention in Florida in August
Santorum’s delegates can support any candidate they wish (in most states) and Gingrich has already begun trying to appeal to them
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Gingrich says he will stay in the race to help the party build a solidly conservative platform
Said his lack of funds is no reason to get out of the race
7. Supreme court ruled Monday April 2 (5 to 4 vote) that officials may strip search anybody arrested for any offense before admitting them to jail even if there is no reason to suspect the presence of contraband
Justice Kennedy wrote majority opinion: courts are in no position to second guess the judgments of correctional officers who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations
Justic Breyer wrote opinion for dissenters: strip searches are “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy” and should be used only when there is good reason to do so
Potential examples cited by dissenting judges -> violating a leash law, driving without a license and failing to pay child support
This case arose from the arrest of Albert Florence in 2005 - he was passenger in his car, wife was driving and pulled over for speeding - records search found outstanding warrant based on an unpaid fine (information was wrong, the fine had been paid)
Florence was held for a week in two county jails and strip searched twice
3. Robert Bales - Army staff seargant accused of killing 16 Afghans
(We were not able to do a lot of research on this story so we apologize for that)
Nine of the people Bales killed were children
Happened early March 11 - has not been charged yet
This has endangered relations between Afghanistan and U.S. forces (the burning of Quarans by U.S. military personnel also put strain on these relations)
Confusion about whether Bales acted alone - one villager says multiple people broke into his house and shot several members of his family
2. Rick Santorum got trolled
Two men attended a Rick Santorum rally and in the middle of his speech, yelled “mic check” to make people look at them and then started making out - booed by the crowd and removed by security
Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford wouldn’t reveal whether or not they were gay, saying Santorum’s stand on gay rights was the important issue
1. Trayvon Martin updates
911 calls have been released - you can hear Trayvon screaming for help and then a gunshot and his screams stop
Father of Zimmerman wrote a letter to an Orlando newspaper - his son is not a racist, he is Hispanic and grew up in a multi-racial family, would never do something like this (Kate: well he did do it, so…)
Witnesses:
- Mary Cutcher believes the confrontation ended before they (Trayvon and Zimmerman) got to her back yard (which is where Trayvon was killed). She believes Zimmerman continued to chase Trayvon while he was trying to get home
- Austin McLendon was less than 20 yards from Trayvon when he was shot - his mother said police and some media have twisted his account to fit a self-defense theory
Many witnesses say police and investigators attempted to lead them in their questioning, or did not do a thorough job during the interviews (Cutcher says she contacted them several times before they interviewed her again)
Sheryl Brown (Austin’s mother) said the night of the shooting, one investigator told her flat out, it wasn’t self-defense and there was racial stereotyping going on
6. Election News
Game Change (movie) - changed nobody’s mind, but did have one disturbing point - columnist Frank Bruni said: “I’ve talked to a few seasoned political hands who maintain that no matter what you think of Palin, you should be disillusioned and alarmed by the breakdown of confidentiality among the campaign staff and consultants who had a responsibility to her and whom she had a right to trust.”
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Justice Department blocked Texas’s new law requiring a photo id to vote - said the rule would disproportionately suppress the turnout among eligible Hispanic voters
Under Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions that have a history of supressing minority voting must show that the change would not have disproportionate impact on minority voters
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Public Policy Poling released results of a survey done in Mississippi and Alabama over the weekend
Respondents were those who said they were likely to vote in the Republican primary
66% of Miss. respondents thing Obama is Muslim, 36% say they are unsure
45% of Ala. respondents thing Obama is Muslim, 41% say they are unsure
66% of Miss. and 60% of Ala. respondents say they don’t believe in evolution
51% of Miss. and 53% of Ala. respondents say they have a favorable opinion of Rush Limbaugh
Survey was done over the weekend while Limbaugh was facing widespread criticism for calling Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute
Survey also showed that Romney, Santorum and Gingrich are quite close in those two states - Ron Paul isn’t even close
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Mitt Romney turns 65 today and does not plan to enroll in Medicare which he has promised to reform if he is elected
95% of seniors choose to enroll in Medicare Part B which covers physician care - Part A covers hospital care, all seniors are automatically enrolled, but can choose not to use it
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Rick Santorum will be short on endorsements when he returns to his home state of Pennsylvania for April 24th primary
No major statewide Republican leader nor any of the five candidates campaigning to run against Bob Casey (D) for his old Senate seat have endorsed him
Republican strategist and former Santorum intern “All of these Republica officials basically sucked up to Rick Santorum when he was in power. Now that he’s out of power, he’s a liability, they don’t want anything to do with him.”
5. Christian Rock Band preaches hate to high school kids
(TW for anti-gay and anti-woman sentiments)
Dunkerton High School in Iowa invited Junkyard Prophet (a Christian rock band) to perform a few songs and preach a message against bullying, being violent and doing drugs - instead they preached their opinions on homosexuality, abortion and women
After the band performed, they separated the faculty from the students and the students into boys and girls
Talked to the boys about the band’s Ten Commandments and talked about musicians who had died of a drug overdose
Told the girls to save themselves for their husbands and to assume a submissive role in the household - leader forced the girls to chant a mantra about remaining pure - would not allow anyone to leave the room
Girls were told they’d have mud on their wedding dresses and anyone who was gay would die at 42 (unclear whether they discussed homosexuality with the boys)
The band is part of the “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International” Christian youth ministry founded by Bradlee Dean
Dean has advocated for imprisonment of LGBT people, said gay men molest an average of 117 children “before they get caught” and that Muslim nations who execute gays are more moral than American Christians
1. Joseph Kony and Invisible Children
Kony is not in Uganda anymore, Ugandan military drove LRA fighters from Northern Uganda in 2006. He is rumored to be in the Congo, South Sudan or Central African Republic.
Invisible Children raises mostly awareness - that is where most of their money goes to, not aid.
They support the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army which has been accused of looting, rape, running prostitution rings and infecting Congolese refugee girls with HIV.
Many attempts have been made to capture or kill Kony - all have failed and have resulted in brutal retaliation slaughter yet Invisible Children supports military intervention
Lots of outrage in Uganda over Invisible Children. Many Ugandans (including prominent journalists and bloggers) have expressed their mistrust and anger with Invisible Children’s work and tactics.
Not our job or place to go in and ‘fix’ everything - we should provide aid and support to those governments that ask it of us.
3. Syria
Syrian government attacking it’s people - state television says the government “cleaned up a bastion of foreign, Islamic terrorists” - showed video of seized drugs and munitions
People are attempting to flee but extreme cold and recent snowfall make it difficult
Diab [political science professor at University of Paris] - “Lebanese Army not allowing many Syrians to enter Lebanon”
Witnesses say several thousand people have fled into Lebanon in past 48 hours
Syrian forces appear to be concentrating attacks on regions along borders with Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon to prevent influx of arms
Aid workers have reached two Homs neighborhoods and are trying to enter Baba Amr but troops have blocked access to the district
