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	<title>If Bush Did It &#187; democratic</title>
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	<description>We would still be hearing about it!</description>
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		<title>A Specter of Violence is Haunting Our Democracy</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/a-specter-of-violence-is-haunting-our-democracy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/a-specter-of-violence-is-haunting-our-democracy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>arlenschumer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[america]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anarchists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democratic]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/a-specter-of-violence-is-haunting-our-democracy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[That's Michael Walsh, at New York Post , " Attack on civility: ‘Occupy’ alive in NY, DC " (via Glenn Reynolds ): A specter is haunting America — the specter of violence that challenges the notion of civil discourse and threatens our democracy. Embodied by the Occupy Wall Street rabble and its imitators, and shamefully abetted by far too many Democratic elected officials, what once masqueraded as “dissent” is now unmasked as partisan thuggery. I like how Walsh if riffing on the Communist Manifesto , which begins, "A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism." ]]></description>
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		<title>Analysis: Obama pitches middle while GOP eyes base 
    (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/analysis-obama-pitches-middle-while-gop-eyes-base-ap/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/analysis-obama-pitches-middle-while-gop-eyes-base-ap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:03:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>sckarsz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[barack obama]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/analysis-obama-pitches-middle-while-gop-eyes-base-ap/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ AP - The past week's dustup over contraception underscored President Barack Obama's early advantage in one important area: working to attract independent voters without alienating his Democratic base. His Republican rivals, meanwhile, are forced to keep emphasizing their conservative credentials to attract the right-leaning activists who dominate primaries and caucuses. ]]></description>
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		<title>Inequality: An Unavoidable Byproduct of Capitalism?</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/inequality-an-unavoidable-byproduct-of-capitalism/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/inequality-an-unavoidable-byproduct-of-capitalism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>arlenschumer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[america]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[social]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/12/inequality-an-unavoidable-byproduct-of-capitalism/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A CNN segment with Ali Velshi. Mostly of interest here are the comments by Harold Meyerson, who is introduced as a columnist at the Washington Post , but who is in fact a hard-line leftist and Vice-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (via Discover the Networks ). And from the DSA website, " Where We Stand: The Political Perspective of the Democratic Socialists of America ": Socialists have historically supported public ownership and control of the major economic institutions of society -- the large corporations -- in order to eliminate the injustice and inequality of a class-based society, and have depended on the the organization of a working class party to gain state power to achieve such ends. In the United States, socialists joined with others on the Left to build a broad-based, anti-corporate coalition, with the unions at the center, to address the needs of the majority by opposing the excesses of private enterprise. Many socialists have seen the Democratic Party, since at least the New Deal, as the key political arena in which to consolidate this coalition, because the Democratic Party held the allegiance of our natural allies. Through control of the government by the Democratic Party coalition, led by anti-corporate forces, a progressive program regulating the corporations, redistributing income, fostering economic growth and expanding social programs could be realized. With the end of the post-World War II economic boom and the rise of global economic competitors in East Asia and Europe in the 1970s came the demise of the brief majoritarian moment of this progressive coalition that promised--but did not deliver--economic and social justice for all. A vicious corporate assault on the trade union movement and a right-wing racist,populist appeal to downwardly mobile, disgruntled white blue-collar workers contributed to the disintegration of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the mildly redistributive welfare state liberalism of the 1960s, which accepted the corporate dominance of economic decision-making, can no longer be the programmatic basis for a majoritarian progressive politics. New Deal and Great Society liberalism depended upon redistribution at the margins of an ever-expanding economic pie. But today corporations no longer aspire to expand production and consumption by raising global living standards; rather, global capital engages in a race to increase profits by "downsizing" and lowering wages. With the collapse of the political economy of corporate liberalism came the atrophy of the very institutions upon which the progressive politics of the New Deal and Great Society had been constructed. No longer do the social bases for a majoritarian democratic politics -- strong trade unions, social movements and urban, Democratic political machines -- simply await mobilization by a proper electoral appeal. Rather, a next left must be built from the grassroots up. Given the globalization of economic power, such grassroots movements will increasingly focus upon building a countervailing power to that of the transnational corporations. A number of positive signs of this democratic and grassroots realignment have emerged. New labor leadership has pledged to organize a workforce increasingly constituted by women, people of color, and immigrant workers. Inner-city grassroots community organizations are placing reinvestment, job creation, and economic democracy at the heart of their organizing. The women's movement increasingly argues that only by restructuring work and child care can true gender equality be realized. And the fight for national health care -- a modest reform long provided by all other industrial democracies -- united a broad coalition of activists and constituencies. But such movements cannot be solely national in scope. Rather, today's social movements must be as global as the corporate power they confront; they must cooperate across national boundaries and promote interstate democratic regulation of transnational capital. If socialism cannot be achieved primarily from above, through a democratic government that owns, control and regulates the major corporations, then it must emerge from below, through a democratic transformation of the institutions of civil society, particularly those in the economic sphere -- in other words, a program for economic democracy . As inequalities of wealth and income increase and the wages and living standards of most are either stagnant or falling, social needs expand. Only a revitalized public sector can universally and democratically meet those needs. In other words, a socialist revolution. Freakin' Harold Meyerson, damned Marxist asshole. ]]></description>
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		<title>Romney tells conservatives he&#8217;s one of them 
    (Reuters)</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/11/romney-tells-conservatives-hes-one-of-them-reuters/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/11/romney-tells-conservatives-hes-one-of-them-reuters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:50:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>HansonLorna33</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[barack obama]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[servatives-on-friday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[then-defeat]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Reuters - Republican Mitt Romney urged conservatives on Friday to overcome their doubts about him and help him win the party's presidential nomination, then defeat Democratic President Barack Obama in November.]]></description>
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		<title>Obamacare Backer Bob Casey Sees What He&#8217;s Done</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamacare-backer-bob-casey-sees-what-hes-done/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamacare-backer-bob-casey-sees-what-hes-done/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:36:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ThresaFralin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[back-on-december]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bob casey]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamacare-backer-bob-casey-sees-what-hes-done/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Pennsylvania Democratic senator Bob Casey, back on December 7, 2009: I want to get health-care legislation passed. No one in the Senate has worked harder than I have to get this done, and we will get it done. Keep reading this post . . . ]]></description>
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		<title>Super PAC-men: Obama’s bundlers gone wild!</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/super-pac-men-obamas-bundlers-gone-wild/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/super-pac-men-obamas-bundlers-gone-wild/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:12:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>OgaldezParthemer601</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2012-campaign]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/super-pac-men-obamas-bundlers-gone-wild/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Super PAC-men: Obama&#8217;s bundlers gone wild! by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 The White House didn&#8217;t blow a dog whistle for deep-pocketed liberal donors on Monday. No, the administration whipped out a supersized vuvuzela. Blaring message: Let loose the campaign finance-bundling hounds of super PAC war! President Obama&#8217;s campaign manager, Jim Messina, who served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations before assuming 2012 re-election duties, announced the super PAC super-flip-flop in a mass e-mail to supporters and a blog post published on the left-wing Huffington Post website. In a related conference call to major campaign finance bundlers, Messina encouraged these high-dollar donors to start funding Priorities USA Action. That&#8217;s the Democratic super PAC founded by former White House staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney. Super PACs and campaigns are barred from coordinating with each other. Nevertheless, Messina said that &#8220;senior campaign officials as well as some White House and Cabinet officials will attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events.&#8221; Of course, they &#8220;won&#8217;t be soliciting contributions.&#8221; Wink-wink, nudge-nudge. This brazen about-face for Team Obama is a goldmine of campaign lies, contortions and epic hypocrisy. Let us count the ways. &#8211; A bundle of contradictions. &#8220;Bundling&#8221; is the rustling up of aggregate contributions from friends, business associates and employees, a practice to circumvent individual donation limits that Obama has long condemned. When he announced his presidential intentions in 2007, candidate Obama decried &#8220;the cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who&#8217;ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.&#8221; He indignantly singled out &#8220;the best bundlers&#8221; who get the &#8220;greatest access&#8221; to power. Last week, Obama acknowledged raising at least $74 million through his team of big-time bundlers who have been showered with access, tax dollars and plum patronage positions. This elite group of Hollywood celebrities (such as open-borders actress Eva Longoria), political cronies (such as Chicago bagman Louis &#8220;The Vacuum&#8221; Susman) and politically correct businessmen (such as bankrupt Solyndra investor George Kaiser) now totals a whopping 445 gold-card members. &#8211; The roar of the revolving door. In his Monday announcement, Messina bragged about how the White House has enacted &#8220;sweeping&#8221; reforms to &#8220;close the revolving door between government and lobbyists.&#8221; In truth, the administration has widened the carousel and removed the brakes. The Obama-cheerleading Fishwrap of Record (The New York Times) itself identified at least 15 bundlers &#8220;involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies.&#8221; Moreover, &#8220;at least 68 of 350 Obama bundlers for the 2012 election or their spouses have served in the administration in some capacity; at least 250 of the bundlers visited the White House, and another 30 have ties to companies that conduct business with federal agencies or hope to do so in the future,&#8221; according to a recent iWatch News report. Several first-time 2012 bundlers already have snagged administration posts: &#8211; Norma Lee Funger, of Potomac, Md., who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama, was appointed last month to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. &#8211; Glenn S. Gerstell, of Washington, D.C., who bundled the same amount, was appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Commission last fall. &#8211; Richard Binder, of Bethesda, Md., another $50,000 to $100,000 bundler, was appointed to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health last spring. And note: The most transparent administration ever still refuses to disclose recusal orders involving the nearly 100 lobbyists and ex-lobbyists on its payroll. &#8211; Super PAC super-hypocrisy. &#8220;Super PACs&#8221; are federal political action committees that only make independent expenditures in support of, or in opposition to, candidates. Their birth and growth were fueled indirectly by the Supreme Court&#8217;s Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruling in 2010. The decision overturned severe campaign finance restrictions that essentially criminalized certain forms of political speech. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it during oral arguments: &#8220;We don&#8217;t put our First Amendment rights in the hands of FEC bureaucrats.&#8221; Until this week, the Obama administration vehemently condemned the Citizens United decision and vowed to eschew super PACs. The entities are a &#8220;threat to our democracy,&#8221; Obama railed two years ago. The ruling would &#8220;open the floodgates for special interests,&#8221; he warned. And last July, Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt kept talking the anti-super PAC talk. &#8220;Neither the president nor his campaign staff or aides will fundraise for super PACs,&#8221; he asserted. Now? President Obama and his wife won&#8217;t fundraise for the democracy-undermining super PACs. But countless other Cabinet members and advisers, partying with Obama bundlers gone wild, will. In 2007, Obama lambasted rival Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for criticizing independent expenditures while raking in big PAC bucks: &#8220;So you can&#8217;t say yesterday you don&#8217;t believe in them, and today you have three quarters of a million dollars being spent on you. You can&#8217;t just talk the talk.&#8221; Obama 2012 campaign motto: Empty talk? Yes, we can! ]]></description>
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		<title>Obama&#8217;s Super PAC Hypocrisy</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamas-super-pac-hypocrisy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamas-super-pac-hypocrisy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>kohler</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[campaign]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obamas-super-pac-hypocrisy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From Mark McKinnon, at Daily Beast, " Obama’s Super PAC Hypocrisy: Giving Blessing to Priorities USA Action ," and from Sissy Willis, " How Obama learned to stop worrying and love the super PAC " (via Linkmaster Smith ). And at yesterday's New York Times , " Obama Yields in Marshaling of ‘Super PAC’ ": WASHINGTON — President Obama is signaling to wealthy Democratic donors that he wants them to start contributing to an outside group supporting his re-election, reversing a long-held position as he confronts a deep financial disadvantage on a vital front in the campaign. Aides said the president had signed off on a plan to dispatch cabinet officials, senior advisers at the White House and top campaign staff members to deliver speeches on behalf of Mr. Obama at fund-raising events for Priorities USA Action, the leading Democratic “super PAC,” whose fund-raising has been dwarfed by Republican groups. The new policy was presented to the campaign’s National Finance Committee in a call Monday evening and announced in an e-mail to supporters. “We’re not going to fight this fight with one hand tied behind our back,” Jim Messina, the manager of Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign, said in an interview. “With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules. Democrats can’t be unilaterally disarmed.” Neither the president, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., nor their wives will attend fund-raising events or solicit donations for the Democratic group. A handful of officials from the administration and the campaign will appear on behalf of Mr. Obama, aides said, but will not directly ask for money. Freakin' asshats. ]]></description>
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		<title>On Capitol Hill today: Union members testify against forced dues racket</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/on-capitol-hill-today-union-members-testify-against-forced-dues-racket/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/on-capitol-hill-today-union-members-testify-against-forced-dues-racket/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>HansonLorna33</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alabama]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/on-capitol-hill-today-union-members-testify-against-forced-dues-racket/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ &#8220;To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.&#8221; &#8211; Thomas Jefferson Longtime readers of my work know that I&#8217;ve been exposing the compulsory-union dues racket since my days as a columnist at the Seattle Times. Here&#8217;s my 1999 column on how public school teachers in Washington state challenged their union over their political dues power grab. Here are your rights as a union worker. Here is a backgrounder on the permissible use of forced dues. As I wrote on Labor Day in 2010, free speech not only means the freedom to voice your political views, but also the freedom from being forced to pay for someone else&#8217;s. U.S. Supreme Court precedent established by the D.C.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation guarantees the right to full financial disclosure from a union and a right to challenge the figures in court if they disagree. More and more rank-and-file union members have been speaking up against the confiscation of their dues for political purposes they oppose. Remember this Chicago SEIU member from 2010 ? Or this letter from a Wisconsin teacher last year? As events have unfolded in Wisconsin, I have been reflecting on my nearly 10 years in public education. My parents were both teachers and I greatly admired the work they did with their own students. I began with that same passion for teaching that they instilled in me, but am finding it more and more difficult to keep that flame alive. The hold that unions have over the public educational system is nothing short of toxic. Year after year, I have a lot of money taken out of my paychecks for union dues. What do I get for my money? I am bombarded with emails and flyers “urging” us to vote for candidates that coincidentally always have the letter (D) after them. I get to be lectured to by union reps about the evil Republican candidates are and why they know what is best for me. Now I am being hit with email after email “urging” me to stand with the teachers of Wisconsin. One teacher who is very tight with our union replied to our district making fun of Republicans directly. You might ask why I don’t forward this to human resources, but the repercussions would be brutal. The truth is that any teacher who does not hold down the talking points of the unions, DNC or Obama White House needs to keep quiet to keep their job. The vitriol I heard over the Bush years was deafening but acceptable and expected. I can hardly remember a week that went by where teachers, sometimes in front of students, were not making fun of Republicans. I’ve personally been the subject of much ridicule and scorn from fellow teachers and will continue to be as long as I am in public education. I believe in what I am doing in my own classroom by focusing on educating students, but as time goes by it is becoming more and more likely that I will leave education all together. Not because of students, but because of the unions and the teachers that support them. Frustrated in Minnesota Well, today on Capitol Hill, more brave union members are testifying about the Big Labor money machine forcibly fueled with their hard-earned money. You can watch the proceedings live at 10am at the House Oversight website . You can read the prepared testimony of Mr. Terry Bowman of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ms. Claire Waites of Daphne, Alabama and Ms. Sally Coomer of Duvall, Washington here . Chairman Darrell Issa&#8217;s opening statement: Every worker should have the choice to decide whether their money is taken from their paychecks and used to fund political activity. When this occurs, a worker should also have the right to know how their money is spent. Individual freedom and personal choice are cornerstones of our democratic government—they are also at the heart of union participation in America. Today’s hearing will examine the process by which union dues are collected and how transparent unions are about this process. The Committee’s focus is not an examination of the validity of unions or their right to exist, but rather an effort to ensure that the political activity of unions does not infringe the freedoms of workers. Because of recent court decisions and a systematic effort by the Obama Administration to reduce union transparency and reporting requirements, union workers do not currently know how much of the money from their paycheck dues is being funneled to SuperPACs or used for other political activity. The Administration has also drastically reduced the Department of Labor’s ability to effectively audit labor organizations. These actions will have far-reaching consequences. I welcome the union workers who have agreed to testify today and appreciate their willingness to speak their mind about what they see as unjust restrictions on their freedom of choice in our democracy. ]]></description>
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		<title>Obama heads to ballpark for Democratic retreat 
    (AP)</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obama-heads-to-ballpark-for-democratic-retreat-ap/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/08/obama-heads-to-ballpark-for-democratic-retreat-ap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:30:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>stuartbramhall</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[barack obama]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[AP - President Barack Obama takes part Wednesday in a Democratic Party event at Nationals Park.]]></description>
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		<title>Former Democrat Rep. Regrets Vote for Obamacare Due to Contraceptive Coverage</title>
		<link>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/07/former-democrat-rep-regrets-vote-for-obamacare-due-to-contraceptive-coverage/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/07/former-democrat-rep-regrets-vote-for-obamacare-due-to-contraceptive-coverage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:40:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>exitbillyh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[barack obama]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ifbushdidit.com/2012/02/07/former-democrat-rep-regrets-vote-for-obamacare-due-to-contraceptive-coverage/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ **Written by Doug Powers If she actually couldn&#8217;t see this coming, her family might want to make sure she never crosses the street unescorted: Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Catholic from Erie, Pennsylvania, cast a crucial vote in favor of Obamacare in 2010. She lost her seat that November in part because of her controversial support of Obamacare. But Dahlkemper said recently that she would have never voted for the health care bill had she known that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and the &#8220;week-after&#8221; pill &#8220;ella&#8221; that can induce early abortions. &#8220;I would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama Administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic Colleges and Universities to pay for contraception,” Dahlkemper said in a press release sent out by Democrats for Life in November. What part of Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s health care law proclamation didn&#8217;t Dahlkemper understand? **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe ]]></description>
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