Miss Piggy Attacks Fox News

Late last year, Fox Business personality Eric Bolling accused The Muppets of being communists, because the villain in their family-friendly holiday movie was an oil tycoon. Well, The Muppets are finally returning fire. In London to promote the film's international release, Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog responded to Bolling's accusation. Kermit answered the question politically, saying that The Muppets are not in fact anti-oil, while Piggy let loose some harsh words: "It... read more>>

Since the video in the article has been deleted I posted it here:

CurrentTV Takes Out Full Page New York Times Ad

There's a full page ad for CurrentTV on B5 of the Business section of today's New York Times. It's what's missing that interesting. While the ad features pictures of hosts Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm, there's no image of Keith Olbermann, whose show "Countdown" is the network's longest-running -- since June -- and most-watched live talk show since the network reinvented itself last year. Olbermann's name, however, is at the top of...
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Senate kills measure to stop President Obama from raising debt limit

The Senate on Thursday killed a measure to stop the president from adding another $1.2 trillion to the total.

After just over two hours of debate, the Senate voted 44-52 to block a motion to disapprove the debt-limit increase, which the House passed overwhelmingly last week. Four Senate Republicans missed the vote.
The $1.2 trillion debt increase is expected to cover the nation’s borrowing requirements until after the November election.
Read the story here.

Florida Could Give Each Candidate Fits

HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:

Florida is a complicated state for any one candidate to traverse. And in the wake of Saturday night's results, it appeared each was going to try his hand.

There is the traditionally southern political culture up north and the more northern-like political culture down south. There are cities and suburbs, the business communities, the computer technology community, and the space industry communities. There are numerous media markets and the influential I-4 corridor. And while it will be a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in it, there is a wide swath of minorities who will be involved.

Whereas in South Carolina, the Jewish vote accounted for zero percent of Republican primary voters, according to exit poll data, that number will be considerably higher in Florida. And while the issue of immigration was cited by just three percent of South Carolinians as the one they viewed as most important, Floridians will view the matter differently. The Florida primary will be the first to take place in a state with a significant percentage of Hispanic voters.

The vote will occur a week from Tuesday, but the fireworks should start immediately. On Monday night all four candidates are confirmed to appear at a debate sponsored by NBC,National Journal and the Tampa Bay Times.

Click here to read more.

REPUBLICANS DOMINATING SUNDAY MORNING TELEVISION

In Roll Call tonight: "Republicans appear to have owned the news cycle in 2011. If you were watching the major Sunday morning talk shows last year, your odds of seeing a Republican Member of Congress in the guest chair were far greater than seeing a Democratic Member of Congress. GOP lawmakers appeared on the Sunday shows nearly twice as often as Democratic lawmakers in 2011, a dominance far greater than the prior two years, according to a Roll Call database of Members' television appearances. Roll Call's 'Face Time' feature has for many years tracked appearances of Members of Congress on five major Sunday talk shows: Face the Nation on CBS; NBC's Meet the Press; ABC's This Week; CNN's State of the Union; and Fox News Sunday."

Barack Obama Will Take Questions From YouTube, "Hangout" On Google+

President Barack Obama will answer questions from the public on Jan. 30 during a Google+ Hangout, YouTube announced yesterday. Read more

 

Rep. Giffords to step down from Congress

 

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) is stepping down from Congress to focus full-time on her recovery, her office announced Sunday.
"I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week," Giffords announced in a video message posted on her website. "I am getting better."
Giffords's announcement comes a year after the Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona where six people died and thirteen, including Giffords, were injured.
Read the story here.

More People applied For Food Stamps Under George Bush

Newt Gingrich claims that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” He’s wrong. More were added under Bush than under Obama, according to the most recent figures.

But Gingrich goes too far to say Obama has put more on the rolls than other presidents. We asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition service for month-by-month figures going back to January 2001. And they show that under President George W. Bush the number of recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million. Nothing before comes close to that.

And under Obama, the increase so far has been 14.2 million. To be exact, the program has so far grown by 444,574 fewer recipients during Obama’s time in office than during Bush’s.

It’s possible that when the figures for January 2012 are available they will show that the gain under Obama has matched or exceeded the gain under Bush. But not if the short-term trend continues. The number getting food stamps declined by 43,528 in October. And the economy has improved since then.

Obama’s Responsibility

Gingrich often cites the number of persons on food stamps to support his view that the U.S. is becoming an “entitlement society,” increasingly dependent on government aid. And he has a point. One out of seven Americans is currently getting food stamps.

But Gingrich strains the facts when he accuses Obama of being responsible. The rise started long before Obama took office, and accelerated as the nation was plunging into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

The economic downturn began in December 2007. In the 12 months before Obama was sworn in, 4.4 million were added to the rolls, triple the 1.4 million added in 2007.

To be sure, Obama is responsible for some portion of the increase since then. The stimulus bill he signed in 2009 increased benefit levels, making the program more attractive. A family of four saw an increase of $80 per month, for example. That increase remains in effect and is not set to expire until late next year, according to USDA spokeswoman Jean Daniel.

The stimulus also made more people eligible. Able-bodied jobless adults without dependents could get benefits for longer than three months. That special easing of eligibility also expired on Sept. 30, 2010. Spokeswoman Daniel told us that 46 states have been able to continue the longer benefit period under special waivers granted because of high unemployment. Previously, able-bodied adults without dependents could collect food stamps for only three months out of any three-year period.

Otherwise, current eligibility standards are unchanged from what they were before Obama took office, USDA officials say. Generally, those with incomes at or below 130 percent of the official poverty level, and savings of $2,000 or less, may receive aid. The income level is currently just over $29,000 a year for a family of four.

That leaves the economic downturn that began in 2007 — and the agonizingly slow recovery that followed — as the principal factors making more Americans eligible for food stamps. Officials say that another factor is that Americans today are less reluctant to accept aid than before.

Of those whose income was low enough to qualify, only 54 percent actually signed up in 2002, but that rose steadily to 72 percent by fiscal 2009, the latest USDA figures show (See Table 2).

USDA researchers said the jump in the participation rate happened because of actions by state governments. In a report released in August 2011, the Office of Research and Analysis said:

USDA: States have increased outreach to low-income households, implemented program simplifications, and streamlined application processes to make it easier for eligible individuals to apply for and receive SNAP [food stamp] benefits. Most States also have reduced the amount of information that recipients must report during their certification period to maintain their eligibility and benefit levels, making it easier for low-income households to participate.

Another reason may be that “food stamps” no longer exist as paper coupons. Instead, beneficiaries now receive plastic debit cards, known as “Electronic Benefit Transfer” or EBT cards, which look pretty much like an ordinary credit card when used in a supermarket checkout line.

EBT cards have been used in all states since 2004, according to the USDA website. The change to plastic cards was done both to reduce the possibility of fraud, and also to reduce the stigmafelt by beneficiaries, and may account for some of the increase in participation.

In fact, the program is no longer officially called the “food stamp” program. Since 2008, it has been the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP for short.

Who Gets Food Stamps?

The most recent Department of Agriculture report on the general characteristics of the SNAP program’s beneficiaries says that in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010:

• 47 percent of beneficiaries were children under age 18.
• 8 percent were age 60 or older.
• 41 percent lived in a household with earnings from a job — the so-called “working poor.”
• The average household received a monthly benefit of $287.
• 36 percent were white (non-Hispanic), 22 percent were African American (non-Hispanic) and 10 percent were Hispanic (Table A.21).

We don’t argue that the program is either too large (as Gingrich does) or too small. It has certainly reached a historically high level, and may or may not grow even larger in the months to come. But the plain fact is that the growth started long before Obama took office, and participation grew more under Bush.

Kevin Concannon, the USDA’s undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, told theWall Street Journal: “I realize Mr. Gingrich is a historian, but I’m not sure he’d get very high marks on that paper.”

– Brooks Jackson

Footnote: There was an earlier easing of eligibility standards buried in a 2008 farm bill that Congress enacted over Bush’s veto. Obama voiced support for the measure while campaigning, but was not present for either the Senate vote to pass the bill or the vote to override.

Both votes enjoyed strong bipartisan majorities. Only 12 Republicans and two Democrats voted to sustain Bush’s veto, for example. Bush didn’t mention the food stamp provisions when he vetoed the bill, but instead cited what he called excessive subsidies to farmers.

Message From Common Cause: Only People Are People

It was two years ago today that the Supreme Court issued its disastrous Citizens Uniteddecision, ruling that corporations have the same rights as people and can spend as much as they want to influence our elections.

But you and I know that corporations aren't people -- only people are people. Only people can hold hands. Only people can drive cars. Only people can vote.

And only people can take back our democracy from the grip of the wealthy corporations and special interests.

Will you be one of those people?

Please make a gift today to help us reverse Citizens United and work for a constitutional amendment.

You might have seen the video that came out this week with Robert Reich announcing the launch of Amend2012 and explaining why we need a constitutional amendment. (If you missed it, it's worth the 2 minutes and 12 seconds.)

He shows how Citizens United gave rise to the SuperPACs and free rein to corporations that are flooding our political system with corrupting cash, and drowning out the voices of ordinary people.

And even though it seems like our politics are more broken than ever, we can fix it if we work together.

Please join the movement to reverse Citizens United by making a gift today!

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,



Bob Edgar
and the rest of the team at Common Cause

P.S. Want to know even more about Amend2012 and what Common Cause is fighting for?Check out this clip from Countdown on Current TV.

Obama sings Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’

If President Barack Obama ever quits his day job, he could have a bright future as a soul singer.

The president opened his speech at Harlem’s Apollo Theater Thursday night by channeling Al Green’s 1971 classic tune, Let’s Stay Together.

“To know that the Rev. Al Green was here,” Obama said, pausing.

Cantor: Republicans Should 'Coalesce Around' A Candidate ASAP

“With the issues that need to be decided by this election, I think it behooves us all as a country to have sort of the choice laid out as early as possible so we can begin in earnest a discussion about the issues,“ Cantor said  during a speech in Baltimore today.

The remarks come on the day that Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Cantor’s home state of Virginia, threw his support behind Mitt Romney. Cantor has yet to endorse a candidate in the race.

READ MORE....

Obama responds to the Koch Brothers Billions of Dollars attacks

President  Obama’s re-election campaign is releasing its first 2012 broadcast advertisement as his team seeks to counter attacks and get a jump on Republicans while they battle over selecting their nominee to challenge him.

The ad, called “Unprecedented,” highlights Obama’s record on clean energy and responds to  “secretive oil billionaires” making inaccurate charges against him. It began running Thursday in Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a campaign official.

Supreme Court rejects Texas redistricting map



The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Texas court to take a renewed look at the redistricting maps drawn by the state legislature, saying the court had gone too far in enacting its own plan.


Read the story here.

Dems Finely waking up to PIPA internet killer

Reid postpones Senate vote on Internet piracy bill 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has postponed Tuesday's scheduled vote on a controversial online piracy bill "in light of recent events," he announced Friday.

“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved," Reid said in a statement. "Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices."
Reid said he is "optimistic" the Senate can reach a compromise on the anti-piracy legislation, known as the Protect IP Act, in the coming weeks.
Read the story here.

Romney Lost in Iowa and Rick Perry Is Dropping Out

How is it, that. Romney knew days before that he did not win? 

"The narrative for a long time has been that Mitt Romney was 2-0," Spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN on Thursday. "And if these results are true and Rick is ahead by 34 votes, then that's not the narrative anymore. There have been two states, two different victors."

Rick Perry is dropping out of the GOP race and Rick Santorum looks like he actually won Iowa - not Mitt Romney.

Perry's exit from the race, which he intends to announce during an 11 a.m. ET press conference at a hotel in North Charleston, S.C., gives his rivals a golden opportunity - particularly Newt Gingrich, who has been enjoying something of a mini-surge in the South Carolina in recent days and who Perry plans to endorse.
South Carolina seems to want to have it both ways: On the one side is South Carolina's role as "King maker." Republicans here take pride in the fact that since 1980 every candidate who has won the primary here has gone on to win the nomination. Their mantra is, "We pick presidents."

Mitt Romney Polling at 35 Percent Approval for General Election

Mitt Romney may be on the verge of securing the nomination, but his campaign is still struggling with a pretty basic problem as it looks towards the general election: people just don’t like him very much.

Romney’s never been the kind of candidate to draw legions of screaming fans, but new polling over the last week show a troubling trend for him — his personal favorability numbers are taking a hit. On Tuesday Public Policy Polling (D) showed Romney with a favorability split well into the negative, with 35 percent of general election voters seeing him positively and 53 unfavorably. On Wednesday, the Pew Research center released similar numbers: a 33 - 47 split nationally.

While Republican voters are starting to come around to his candidacy, the rest of the country doesn’t seem too pleased with what they see. Romney’s lost six points on favorability among independent voters since Pew’s last poll in November, leading to a 13 point gap on the metric, 33 - 45. The TPM Poll Average of Romney’s national favorability now shows a 5.8 deficit, and his unfavorability has risen ten points during the last two and half months in our numbers.

Jerry Springer on Fox News: 'Every single morning you guys are slamming Obama'

 TV host Jerry Springer wore out his welcome a few minutes into his segment on Fox News this morning. Springer was part of a political panel on "Fox & Friends" discussing, among other things, this week's controversial Newsweek cover. An essay by Andrew Sullivan asks "Why are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" Springer, who said he's politically to the left of Obama, used the discussion to make a point about his... 

read more....

Obama administration will reject Keystone pipeline

The Obama administration will reject the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday afternoon, according to a source closely following the issue.

The State Department is expected to make an announcement at 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. While the administration is expected to reject TransCanada Corp.’s permit application, it will allow the company to reapply, according to the source.
Read the story here.

Mitt Romney's predatory style of capitalism doesn't feel presidential

Will Bain become Romney's bane?

With Florida's Republican primary just weeks away, frontrunner Mitt Romney's taking plenty of heat from competing GOP candidates and others over acquiring a personal fortune while at Bain, a private equity firm he co-founded.

The flap's not just about his reaping hundreds of millions of dollars — extreme sums many might find offensive — derived from Bain's mercenary corporate formula. By buying fatigued businesses (usually with borrowed money), stripping away their costs (including cutting jobs) and repackaging them for future sale, Bain has hit the leveraged buyout lottery for many years.

But while Bain profits, some of the anointed companies end up in bankruptcy.

Bain naysayers argue that's neither capitalism nor a tradition of building jobs for the future.

Column here.

Gingrich: Obama the food stamp president

Gingrich criticized Obama for the growth in food stamps, calling him "the best food stamp president in American history." He later said that "the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any  president in American history." POLITIFACT.ORG has rated that Half True because the number was headed upward before Obama became president. 


Obviously, the rise in food stamps is a direct consequence of the serious recession that began in December 2007 -- more than a year before Obama took office. It’s hard to determine how much blame Obama deserves compared to his predecessor, President George W. Bush, but the experts we spoke to, conservative and liberal, agree that Obama inherited a serious economic situation.

Obama Leads in South Carolina and Florida

UPDATE- 01-21-12 10AM EST.

PPP is out with its final numbers going into tomorrow's South Carolina primary. It's 37% Gingrich, 28% Romney, 16% Santorum, 14% Paul. That's polling of 1540 voters over the last three days. In the calls they made tonight, Newt was up 40% to 26% over Romney. One night, especially a Friday night, is not much to go on. But it's in line with the trend since Monday which has shown Gingrich rocketing into the lead.

Anything can happen. Polls can be wrong. But polls seldom give us such clear guidance on what to expect.

Read More →

UPDATE -01-19-12 10:00 AM EST.

Since Santorum officially won Iowa, and with a Gingrich victory increasingly likely in South Carolina, what is the Romney camp to do with a 1 in 3 record in these early primaries? And if this is the beginning of the march toward a brokered convention, how long till we start to see either Romney or Gingrich flirt heavily with the Ron Paul faction of their party? Finally, what about the evangelical base that has thrown its support behind Santorum? Can establishment Republicans get them to swallow a Gingrich candidacy?

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/morning-mix-newts-surge-and-romneys-fizzle.html#ixzz1jzzdk3zP

PPP: Gingrich Jumps To Six Point Lead In SC

New numbers from Public Policy Polling (D) show former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with a six point lead in a survey conducted over the last two days, after an impressive debate performance on Monday night. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is second with 29 percent after leading the state for the last ten days, and has fallen to second in our TPM Poll Average.

PPP will continue polling on Friday, which will provide some insight on how South Carolina GOP voters saw the final debate in the state on Thursday night.

***********************************

 There were hints and drabs of information yesterday suggesting that Gingrich was making a big move in South Carolina. And now three new polls this morning confirm it................................

 InsiderAdvantage snap poll conducted Wednesday showed Gingrich actually leading by three over Romney, 32 – 29, so the numbers are definitely tightening as the candidates cross the finish line.Our TPM Poll Average now shows Romney’s lead a little over one percent after starting the week with a more than ten point advantage.

*******************************************************************************************

New polls of South Carolina and Florida hint that the GOP’s chances of taking the White House are evaporating as Barack Obama leads both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in each state.

The biggest surprise is in the new NBC/Marist poll of South Carolina, where Obama’s approval rating is a not too upside down for a reliable red state 44%/48%. The big shock is that President Obama has small leads over both Newt Gingrich (46%-42%), and Mitt Romney (45%-42%). Both of Obama’s narrow leads are outside the poll’s 2.1% margin of error. A new Winthrop poll has also found that President Obama is more popular than Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The Winthrop Poll gives Obama nearly identical to NBC 44.8% approval rating, and only 34.6% approve of Gov. Haley.

Gingrich is absolutely destroying Romney in South Carolina among likely primary voters 42%-23%. Newt Gingrich leads Mitt Romney 51%-20% among tea partiers. Romney’s biggest problem in the state is that Republicans are more interested in a candidate who shares their values (29%), and is close to them on the issues (26%) than one that can beat Obama (20%). By a margin of 61%-53% Republicans found Gingrich more acceptable than Romney, and 44% of Republicans believed that Romney was acceptable with reservations or not acceptable at all. Only 26% of likely primary voters considered Romney a conservative.

In Florida, Obama has seen his approval rating jump five points since October. It is within the margin of error, but more voters now approve of Obama than disapprove (46%-45%). Obama now leads Romney by seven points, (48%-41%), and Gingrich by 12 points in the Sunshine State, (51%-39%). Newt Gingrich is blowing out Romney in Florida for the same reasons that he is trouncing him in South Carolina. Florida Republicans said that it was more important to them that a candidate shared their values (26%) and is close to them on the issues (28%) than can beat Obama (23%).

Gingrich also holds a commanding lead over Romney among tea partiers, (57%-22%). Among likely GOP primary voters, 58% found Mitt Romney to be an acceptable candidate, but 28% felt that he was acceptable with reservations 10% felt that he was not acceptable at all. Sixty five percent of likely GOP primary voters found Newt Gingrich acceptable. Only 20% felt that he was acceptable with reservations and 11% believed that he was not acceptable.

Within the Republican Party what is happening is a repeat of the 2010 election. GOP primary voters in South Carolina and Florida are more concerned with shared values and positions than they are with electability. Mitt Romney’s entire campaign is built around the theme of being able to defeat Obama, but Republican voters would rather lose with someone who they feel shares their values than potentially win with Mitt Romney. The difference between Gingrich and Romney is that Newt knows how to woo the base. In two separate presidential campaigns, Romney has not been able to ease doubts about his conservative cred. It is a pretty safe bet that those doubts are never going to go away.

Obama’s popularity is improving even in places like South Carolina because of his focus on creating jobs and the economy. While the Republican nomination has turned into an ideological spitting contest over who can cut the most taxes and be the most extreme conservative, Obama has been talking about the economy and creating jobs every single day for months now.

The jobs message is powerful, and Republicans have turned the issue over to Obama by promising to create jobs by following the same failed policies of George W. Bush. In a bad economy, a platform of tax cuts for the rich and more trickle down is not what voters want to hear. They want the government to do something, and Obama is the only candidate who has offered any real solutions.

It would be a miracle if Obama won South Carolina, but the combination of bad candidates and even worse message has made President Obama the favorite as we head into 2012. As long as Obama keeps hammering the jobs message and the economy keeps improving his polling and approval ratings will go up, and Republicans will see their dream of making Barack Obama a one term president shattered.

Winning Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, has now posted its 28-minute video attacking Mitt Romney’s business and jobs record, “King of Bain.”

Pro-Newt Super-PAC Officially Launches Video Feature Attacking Romney And Bain

Winning Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, has now posted its 28-minute video attacking Mitt Romney’s business and jobs record, “King of Bain.”

To watch the video, click here.

The Bain Of Mitt Romney's Existence

Of all the bizarre aspects of the Republican presidential race—and they have been gloriously plentiful—nothing has been odder than the kid-glove treatment accorded the likeliest nominee. While every other pretender, from Donald Trump to Rick Santorum, has had his record and rhetoric parsed and pilloried, Mitt Romney has sailed through months (heck, years) of campaigning and oodles of debates without so much as a nick or scratch. Until now. Sunday’s New Hampshire debate featured memorable smackdowns by Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich. But far more ominous for the former Massachusetts governor is the sudden dam-burst of criticism of the central rationale for his campaign: Romney’s job-creating business experience at Bain Capital, which the candidate argues makes him uniquely qualified to be America’s recession-era CEO. Among the revelations,The Wall Street Journal reported today on the high rate of bankruptcies and closures among the companies Bain invested in during Romney’s tenure. Ezra Klein dug into Romney’s job-creation claim at Saturday night’s debate—more than 100,000 net jobs—and found it “untrue.”

And while Romney maintains a wide lead in New Hampshire polls and a smaller edge in South Carolina, his opponents are—very belatedly—howling about Bain’s takeover tactics. The attacks will soon ramp up when the Gingrich campaign airs “When Mitt Romney Came to Town,” a 27-minute ad, in South Carolina; the trailer calls Romney a “corporate raider.” While Romney’s previous placid march to the nomination might not be halted, we’re surely—finally—glimpsing a preview of what a general-election campaign will produce.






source 

CORPORATIONS ARE JOB CREMATORS

CORPORATIONS AREN'T JOB CREATORS

After largely ignoring Mitt Romney during Saturday's debate in New Hampshire, the Republican candidates have started attacking the frontrunner where it hurts most: his economic résumé. A new 28-minute television advertisement focusing on Romney's time at Bain Capital has the most potential to hurt the candidate given that the former governor touts his experience there as indicative of his ability to fix the U.S. economy. Newt Gingrich-supporting Super PAC "Winning Our Future" produced the film. The advertisement strikes back at Romney's $3.7 million-worth of negative, anti-Gingrich advertising in Iowa, which effectively ruined the former speaker's end-of-the-year momentum.

A report today from The Wall Street Journal lends even more ammunition to Gingrich's last-minute attacks on Romney's credentials: 22 percent of the companies Bain invested in while Romney was in charge filed for bankruptcy less than eight years later, and eight percent more lost all the money Bain invested. Of the ten companies reaping the most profit for Bain, four ended up in bankruptcy court. The attacks may be too late to stop Mitt Romney from winning the nomination, but they will severely weaken him in a general-election race.
 

TWO Expresses Revulsion Over Extremist Anti-Gay Positions Expressed By GOP Candidates at Debate

 Truth Wins Out expressed its revulsion over the unrestrained anti-gay bigotry expressed by Republican candidates in tonight's ABC News debate. The contenders bent over backwards to slap loving gay couples in their faces and hid behind phony religious liberty arguments to mask their anti-gay animus, says TWO.

"We are completely disgusted by virtually the entire GOP field which panders to prejudice and bows to anti-gay bigotry," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "The unabashed extremism witnessed in this debate is a disgrace and an embarrassment to both the Republican Party and to this nation."

The most outrageous view expressed this evening came from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum who said that he would support a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying, as well as breaking up gay couples who are already legally married. "If the Constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman, then marriage is between a man and a woman," Santorum said. "Those who are not men and women and are married would not be married."

"I think the radical idea of destroying families and invalidating their marriages is so preposterous that it will cost Rick Santorum any chance of ever becoming President of the United States," said TWO's Besen, who married his partner of five years, Jamie Brundage, last month in Burlington, Vermont. "Santorum is just too extreme and the cruel position he took on this issue will lead to the unraveling of his campaign."

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum defended their anti-gay positions by falsely claiming that marriage equality conflicted with religious liberty. Perry actually claimed that allowing LGBT couples to marry is a "a war against religion."

"The red meat may work to some degree in the primaries," said TWO's Besen, "But homophobia will haunt the eventual nominee in the general election."

The most laughable moment of the evening came when Newt Gingrich expressed his opposition to marriage equality and invoked "the sacrament of marriage." He did so with a straight face as his third wife, Callista, sat in the audience and applauded.