Mother's fury after Facebook BANS her

for posting pictures of her baby son who lived for just eight hours after being born with rare birth defect

By Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED: 16:57 EST, 18 May 2012 | UPDATED: 23:27 EST, 19 May 2012
A furious mother is demanding answers from Facebook as to why they took down photographs she posted on the site of her son, who was born with a rare birth defect, and then later banned her from the site altogether.
Grayson James Walker, from Memphis, Tennessee, was born on February 15, 2012 with Anencephaly, a rare neural tube birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
His parents Heather and Patrick Walker knew 16 weeks into the pregnancy their son would not live very long due to his birth defect.
Scroll down for video

Precious moments: Heather and Patrick Walker say goodbye to their newborn son Grayson who only lived for eight hours after being born with a rare defect

Love and care: Patrick and his two other children cradle Grayson before he passes away

Faith: Heather and Patrick knew at 16 weeks their son would not live long but they decided to have him anyway so they and their other two children could share some precious moments with him

'They of course gave us the option to terminate,' said Heather. But they chose to carry their baby full term and turned to God for strength.
'My husband and I, we started prayer and we knew that God knew since the beginning of time that he had us for this,' she said.
The couple were fully prepared to have to say goodbye to him on the same day they welcomed him into the world.
So, with the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children and what most parents around the world do.

Magic moments: With the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children 

Memories: The family wanted to remember baby Grayson's brief time in the world and had a photographer come and capture the first and last moments of his life

Family: Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son

He only lived for eight hours but the Walkers wanted to capture his short life so his memory could live on forever.
Heather explained to Fox News that she uploaded the pictures on to her Facebook page so she could share them with family and friends.

WHAT IS ANENCEPHALY?

Anencephaly is a  disorder that results from a neural tube defect that occurs when the head end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th day of pregnancy, resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp.
The remaining brain tissue is often exposed — not covered by bone or skin. Most babies with this genetic disorder do not survive birth, however there have been notable exceptions.

In most of the pictures, baby Grayson is wearing a hat. But in some, he was not.
Heather explained: 'Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content. They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I'm not allowed to share a picture of God's beautiful creation.'
After repeatedly putting the removed picture on her profile, her account was temporarily disabled.
According to Facebook's community standards page, there are nine types of content that may be deemed offensive and removed: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam
Heather said she has no idea which category the picture of her child without the hat falls under but has now launched a protest  - posting the picture several times and getting her friends and family to contact Facebook.
Patrick Walker said of his son: 'You know, my son lived almost eight hours, and he's already done in eight hours what I could never do in a hundred lifetimes, and that's awesome.'
As of today, Heather's Facebook page is active again and the picture of Grayson which was deemed 'graphic' has not been removed.
A spokesman for Facebook denied that Heather was ever banned from the site, and said in a statement: 'On rare occasions, a photo reported to us may be too graphic too be permitted on the site. In these cases, the person who posted the photo is contacted, and the photos are removed.
'We strive to fit the needs of a diverse community while respecting everyone's interest in sharing content that is important to them.
'It is important to note that any photos that are removed – whether inappropriately or in accordance with our policies – are only done so after being brought to our attention by other Facebook users who report them as violations, and when such reports are subsequently reviewed by Facebook.'

Read more:There is another video in the first article that is different from the one above.

• Facebook bans mother for posting photos of baby with birth defect      May 18, 2012
• Slideshow of pictures that are part of the ones removed from Facebook 
• Faith helps Mid-South family prepare for newborn's 8 hours of life        Feb 18, 2012

Comments

God bless you sweet baby. You are with the angels now. You have a wonderful family, Grayson. You have all touched our hearts with your beauty and there is nothing offensive about you.

- jan, Pittsburgh, USA, 20/5/2012 04:22

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RIP, Grayson, you have blessed many people in your short time here. We look forward to seeing you whole, again! :) Blessings to your mom and dad too, for thier courage in allowing you to be born and bless others. And kudos to them for posting your story on FB. I am glad FB got the message and reinstated this story and pics. There is NOTHING to be ashamed of or grossed out about. I hope this story teaches others the value of life, however brief it might be...

- cathiwim, knoxville , 20/5/2012 03:47

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Facebook founder and CEO are avid democrats who believe it is their god given right to censor whatever they feel is offensive. Get used to it.

- Ellie, Raleigh NC USA, 20/5/2012 02:33

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Aww this is so sad, I watched a video of the mum talking to an American news channel and saw the photo Facebook removed. The photo is heart wrenching, shocking and sad but I really can not get my head around why they deleted it. The mother is dealing with this with dignity. May baby Grayson RIP x

- Sheila, London, 20/5/2012 01:36

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Sorry, but I find it selfish of these parents to bring this poor child into the world just to suffer for a few days and then die. Not to mention that they had no compunction about traumatizing their other 2 kids. What a sick ploy to get attention. This is not right.

- Esme, Fair Hill, Maryland, USA, 20/5/2012 01:14

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i was on the parent's side, until i saw the pics they removed (link at bottom of article). i understand he is their baby boy and they love him and want to celebrate his short life just like they celebrated their other childrens' lives. but the pics i saw could easily offend. he was not just deformed, the poor little mite had some of his brain exposed x i've seen babies with this condition before but never so graphic and it made my heart skip a beat as it does look graphic. i would imagine that is why the baby is wearing a hat in most pics...even the parents felt the need to 'censor' it a little! i'm afraid to say if that picture had suddenly popped up on my wall, without being prepared for it, it would have made me jump. that's NOT because he had a deformity...but because it was quite graphic :( i just hope this family can remember him as the little baby he was and not use his memory for media attention. x raise awareness...that's great. but pics so graphic should be warned first x

- alison, Northants, 20/5/2012 01:14

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Heart breakin what a strong amazing family ,a very brave lady im sure these two could move mountains if they chose to my heart goes out to you u r inspiring x

- OBe be , Oxford oxon,, 20/5/2012 01:03

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As Obama attacks, Romney defends his record at Bain

May 16, 2012 7:34 PM

By

Leigh Ann Caldwell

Topics

Campaign 2012

(CBS News) Responding to attacks by the Obama campaign about his work at the helm of Bain Capital, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney defended his record in an interview today, saying he "was no longer" at the company when it closed a steel factory.

"That's hardly something that was done on my watch," Romney said on Wednesday in an interview with the conservative website Hot Air. "They said, 'Oh, gosh, Gov. Romney at Bain Capital closed down a steel factory.' But the problem, of course, is that the steel factory closed down two years after I left Bain Capital. I was no longer there."

The Obama campaign launched an aggressive attack earlier this week on Romney's leadership of the private equity firm, using a two-minute advertisement profiling a steelworker with GST Steel whose job and pension were cut. The company was acquired by Bain in 1993 and filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

The Obama campaign on Wednesday expanded their effort to characterize Romney as an executive concerned about the bottom line and not American jobs. In a conference call with reporters, two workers - Cindy Hewitt, former Dade Behring employee and Randy Johnson, a former employee at SCM Office Supplies - told their story of losing jobs after a Bain acquisition.

"He fired me, he fired my coworkers," said Randy Johnson, who worked at SCM Office Supplies when it was acquired by Bain-owned Ampad in 1994. Johnson also appeared at a campaign event with Vice President Joe Biden in Ohio on Wednesday.

Romney often points to his business experience as proof that he understands that the private sector fuels job creation, not government.

"And of course they don't mention a couple of other things. One is that we were able to help create over 100,000 jobs," Romney told Hot Air Host Ed Morrissey on Wednesday. His campaign pointed to his website that says that Bain helped to create 120,000 jobs while he lead the private equity firm.

However, a Washington Post fact check gave the claim "three Pinocchios," saying that it "does not pass the laugh test" because the focus of Bain was to make companies profitable for investors, not to create jobs. In addition, The Washington Post notes that it is "unclear" that Romney had a direct role in creating jobs at Bain-invested companies.

Despite claims by both campaigns, the battle over Bain continues. Romney on Wednesday also charged the president with profiting from the industry he is attacking: "Oh, and by the way, he has no problem going out and doing fundraisers with Bain Capital and private equity people."

However, President Obama is walking a fine line. His campaign's attacks on Bain might impact his support of the industry. According BuzzFeed, one of his campaign's bundlers, who has raised more than $100,000 for the president, is disheartened by the president's "vilification" of private equity.

Deputy Campaign Director Stephanie Cutter insists that the campaign is not attacking the private equity industry, but Romney's "values" as a "buyout specialist."

"No one is questing the private equity industry," Cutter told reporters on Wednesday, but they are questioning "Romney economics" of "creating wealth for investors."

All the Racket on Ricketts

The campaign to "strip and flip" America for profit.

MITT'S HITS! Music for the 1% by Mitt Romney and Gordon Gekko

---

---

On the Money Trail

Posted by Romney-Gekko Staff on May 17, 2012

In light of recent attacks on our friend and patron, conservative billionaire Joe Ricketts, the Romney-Gekko campaign is calling on our friend and supporters to move whatever money you don’t have secreted away in the Cayman Islands or Swiss bank accounts over to his new SuperPAC.

Ricketts deserves our support not only because he is among the fellow filthy rich, and we’ve all got to stick together, but because he is a living example of what can be: sponsoring a racially-polarizing campaign that could tear a divided nation even further apart is the kind of “we’ll stop at nothing” approach Gordon Gekko and Mitt Romney personify.

We are also proud of his attempt to show, as the liberal rag the New York Times put it, “how a single individual can create his own movement and spend unlimited sums to have major influence on a presidential election.”

Of course it was only a piddling $10 million so it’s not like he was all in or anything. And he did sort of wimp out in the end and pretend he didn’t have anything to do with it after selling of his TD Ameritrade stock for the exact amount of the proposed ad buy. We still say:  You go Joe! America needs rich guys in the White House.

Why the Cherokee story is a problem for Warren

The story only says that Harvard Law School had played up Warren’s minority status in the 1990s to demonstrate its commitment to diversity.  Nothing mentioned that she got into school using affirmative action.  If she did not use affirmative action, the point is mute. Brown has nothing to use. And the idea that Warren used it in Association of American Law Schools directory,  to meet 'others' like her, we all do that to be certain point. To establish ourselves, to make friends, to meet other native Americans, to me no harm no foul. Brown being a Republican, wants to use it to discredit her.  Hopefully, all blue collar democrats, will see right through it.  What she is trying to do with the health care bill, I do not know if that will wash.  Yes he voted against the bill, but he is not the only congressperson taking advantage of keeping his daughter on his insurance plan. Shall we make a list and make them public. Stick to what is important to the state of Massachusetts.  There is way too much negativity in our elections, and way too much time used for elections.

 

The specter of affirmative action plays into the caricature that her opponents are trying to create

BY STEVE KORNACKI

]Elizabeth Warren (Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

It is not necessarily, as one Boston columnist put it this week, the beginning of the end for Elizabeth Warren. But the revelation that she used to claim minority status based on a very distant Cherokee relative from more than a century ago and the way she handled it caused some immediate fallout for her – and could contribute to a more serious, longer-term problem.

Warren’s short-term problem is obvious: She lost the week. A few days ago, her campaign thought it had a signature example of hypocrisy by her Senate opponent, Scott Brown, who voted against the healthcare reform law but who now carries his 23-year-old daughter on his insurance plan – something made possible by the law.

But instead of exploiting that bit of news, Warren and her campaign spent the week in a defensive crouch. The Cherokee story was first reported last Friday, when a Boston Herald story noted that Harvard Law School had played up Warren’s minority status in the 1990s to demonstrate its commitment to diversity. Warren told the paper she had no memory of Harvard doing so and said, “You’re trying to raise something from 15 years ago.”

Presumably, she hoped the matter would blow over quickly, but it then came to light that Warren had listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory from 1986 to 1995, giving the story new momentum. Warren, an Oklahoma native who had never mentioned her Cherokee ancestry as a Senate candidate, responded that she had done so to meet “people like me.” She also recalled listening to an aunt remark that her grandfather had “high cheekbones like all of the Indians.”

In addition to muffling the Brown/healthcare issue, the episode makes Warren seem less than forthcoming. In the best case scenario for her, it will prove to be an isolated incident and will be largely forgotten by the fall. The threat to Warren, though, is that it will make a lasting impression on the blue-collar swing voters who loom as the race’s key constituency.

Brown used his regular-guy-with-a-truck image to make significant inroads with this crowd in his 2010 special election upset, winning a bunch of small and midsize cities that traditionally vote Democratic. The promise of Warren’s candidacy is that her own biography — a self-made woman from humble roots — and her unusual ability to communicate progressive economic ideas in charismatic and digestible sound bites will keep just enough blue-collar voters in the Democratic fold to win.

To head her off, Brown habitually refers to his opponent as “Professor Warren,” part of his effort to maximize the cultural distance between her and him – and between her and working-class voters. The danger of the Cherokee story is that it plays into the image of Warren that Brown is trying to create. The fact that she’s 1/32 Native American and only made mention of it as an up-and-coming academic raises the specter of affirmative action, a wedge issue that Republicans have used for decades to turn blue-collar voters against Democrats.

Warren’s hopes of unseating Brown depend on making the traditionally Democratic voters who like and identify with him comfortable with her as a personality. This week’s developments could complicate that.

Obama’s broken immigration promise

ICE said it would target dangerous immigrants, but it's actually deporting a higher percentage of non-criminals

A man in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, stands next to the border fence as two U.S. law enforcement officers look on from the U.S. side of the fence.(Credit: AP/Raymundo Ruiz)

THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2012 05:15 PM EDT

BY JEFFERSON MORLEY

The Obama administration claims that it is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants while focusing on those with criminal records. But new data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows that the number of deportation orders has declined dramatically since last summer and non-criminals comprise a growing percentage of those expelled from the country.

That wasn’t supposed to happen under a policy of “prosecutorial discretion” announced by ICE director John Morton last June. The goal of the policy, announced with much fanfare in the Spanish language media, was to spare “longtime lawful residents” from deportation and to focus on criminals.

Since then, the adminstration has deported many fewer non-criminal aliens. But non-criminals remain the vast majority of those deported. And those with no criminal record now actually comprise a slightly larger percentage of those forced to leave the country than they did before Morton’s announcement.

In the three months before the policy was announced last summer ICE filed for deportation proceedings against 61,192 people of whom 15 percent had criminal records. In the first three months of 2012, ICE sought 37,659 deportations orders, 14 percent of which involved people with criminal records.

“The agency continues to be headed in the opposite direction of its stated goals,” said Susan Long, co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which collected the data from ICE via a Freedom of Information Act request.

The goal of prosecutorial discretion, Long said in a conference call with reporters, “was to target and bring before the court those with more serious criminal history. As yet we’re not seeing any change. They have not turned the ship around.”

The administration implemented prosecutorial discretion in response to complaints that young people with no criminal records continue to face deportation. But the new data will come as no surprise to student groups such as United We Dream, National Immigrant Youth Alliance and DreamActivist, which continue to highlight the cases of law-abiding young people facing deportation.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., has championed the case of a South Carolina man, Gabino Sánchez, a married father of two, who was arrested for driving without a license last year and now faces deportation.

“Gabino Sánchez has lived and worked and raised a family here for more than a decade and it is not in anyone’s interest to have him deported,” Rep. Gutierrez told Fox News Latino on Tuesday after a deportation hearing in North Carolina.  ”I do not understand why ICE has not followed President Obama’s guidelines and decided to move on from this case to go after someone else, someone who is a threat to his community or a serious criminal.”

In response to the TRAC findings, Gutierrez  said, “The president should make sure the Department of Homeland Security is actually following its own rules and he should proclaim proudly and loudly that he will not deport another DREAMer or anyone else who fits the prosecutorial discretion criteria.”

• 
  Regan D.
• FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012 11:06 AM EDT

We've come to a point in our country where disincentive, procedures and standards of illegal immigration are irrelevant. It's as if our borders, culture and expectations of immigrants is something to apologize for. It's NOT a civil right to cheat, fraud and ignore this country's NECESSARY means to identify and account for what KIND of immigrant is here and how many. We are, a country of limited resources, jobs and infrastructure.

Citizens and legal immigrants are demoralized when confronted with illegal immigrants demanding their cheating be forgiven and forgotten and the reward for entry be the same.

It is so wrong, immoral and without merit the way our government allows millions of people to be here without accountability, and when they break MORE laws, illegal immigrants demand MORE accommodation for it!

Such as in the case of our sanctuary city laws, and now the car impound laws are all being modified to the point of non enforcement.

Resentment of illegal immigrants is VALID, because illegal immigrants are already being offensive with this behavior.

All manner of document, identity and social services fraud in part is bankrupting many sectors of this country.

Illegal immigrants have been found in sensitive areas of gov't offices and other jobs.

WTF?!

9/11 and other tragedies could have been averted or solved, were illegal immigrants held accountable for their actions, deported and KEPT out of this country.

It's been TREASONOUS how Presidents since Carter and MORE since Reagan's amnesty, have allowed illegal immigrants to not only flood saturated job markets and the social safety net meant for citizens, but illegal immigrants demand college educations be paid for by a public already cash and tax strapped.

AMERICAN and LEGAL immigrant children have DREAMS of college too.

Illegal immigrants are literally wiping their feet on our faces and demanding we accord them what is RIGHTFULLY that of legal immigrants.

I don't care if the parents acted illegally to have their children take advantage of our nation's schools and hospitals.

If I'd cheated to get my child into a prestigious place most people want and must compete for and I gamed the system instead, the PARENTS can't be allowed to know they can do that, and STILL be treated the same as someone legally here.

And there are so many bullshit canards about deportation and family separation.

The children of foreign students, tourists and visitors, and uninvited guests are NOT citizens. They NEVER applied to be here permanently so therefore don't have that status and shouldn't demand the privileges of it.

Further, immigrants leave behind family all the time. Including spouses and children. And they establish another one in America, in order, of course to have an citizen baby.

Illegal immigrants are perfectly free to take their children with them to their country of origin. Those children aren't chained to the US.

And anyone who thinks they are, give credence to the term "anchor baby" don't they?

Oh boo hoo, this illegal immigrant was caught driving without a license. My heart weeps.

There have been over twenty hit and run accidents over the last few months just in MY neighborhood of N. Hollywood, CA alone. In which there were fatalities.

It may or many not have been an illegal immigrant. It's most likely someone who was driving without a license.

The fact is WE DON'T KNOW because illegal immigrants are off the grid.

ANYONE, not just illegal immigrants who drive without a license, insurance and registration are ALL subject to some kind of punishment.

Illegal immigrant crying unfair offend.

At a point when a person living in this country thinks they shouldn't be held accountable for what ALL citizens are punished for, it's not a matter of civil or human rights.

It's a matter of people who refuse to abide by ANY laws set forth for respectful visitors AND citizens and it signals people who don't want to be either.

Know the difference.

Citizens United Foes John McCain, Sheldon Whitehouse Take Argument To Supreme Court

Mike Sacks mike.sacks@huffingtonpost.com

Posted: 05/18/2012 2:41 pm Updated: 05/18/2012 3:22 pm

WASHINGTON -- In an all-out broadside against the current state of campaign finance, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) submitted a brief on Friday morning urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand Montana's century-old ban on corporate money in political campaigns despite the court's Citizens United ruling two years ago declaring unconstitutional a similar federal law sponsored by McCain.
They also took aim at the influence of super PACs, pointing to the Republican-leaning Crossroads GPS, the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action and the Tea Party's FreedomWorks.
In late December, the Montana Supreme Court had upheld the state's Corrupt Practices Act, which says that a "corporation may not make ... an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political party that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party." The court found, by a 5-2 vote, that Montana's history of political corruption at the hands of corporate interests -- namely its Gilded Age-era "Copper Kings" -- justified the ban, which was passed by referendum in 1912 by voters who had lost faith in the state's political process.
The plaintiffs in the current lawsuit are led by American Tradition Partnership, a conservative interest group dedicated to fighting "the radical environmentalist agenda." They have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state decision, arguing that it conflicts with the Citizens United ruling's declaration that corporations' independent political expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption and therefore are fully protected speech under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Montana decision in February and requested formal briefing to give the case a fuller airing.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for herself and Justice Stephen Breyer, issued a statement accompanying that February order welcoming this sequel to Citizens United. "Montana's experience, and experience elsewhere since this Court's decision in Citizens United ... make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,'" Ginsburg wrote. A full Supreme Court hearing "will give the court an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates' allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway."
In its formal petition to the Supreme Court, American Tradition Partnership dismissed Montana's fact-bound decision and Ginsburg's nod to the country's post-Citizens United experience.
"The facts are irrelevant," the petition argued. "The core holding of Citizens United ... is that the independence of independent expenditures means that they pose no cognizable quid-pro-quo-corruption risk and no other cognizable governmental interest justifies banning corporate independent expenditures."
McCain and Whitehouse strongly disagree in their brief. Siding with Montana and agreeing with Ginsburg and Breyer, the senators ask the Supreme Court "to confirm that Congress and state legislators may, upon an appropriate record demonstrating the potential for corruption or perceived corruption created by independent expenditures, enact legislation in response to that real and significant threat." McCain, a notable supporter of Mitt Romney in the Republican primary race, has not been shy during this campaign season about emphasizing the differences between himself and the presumptive GOP nominee on Citizens United and super PACs.
Represented by former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, now in private practice and a professor at Georgetown Law, the senators suggest that the justices simply deny American Tradition Partnership's petition, which would leave the Montana Supreme Court's decision upholding the state law in place. If they grant the petition, the senators urge the justices to conduct full briefing and oral argument -- rather than issue a summary reversal -- to "confirm lawmakers' continuing authority to respond when the evidence shows 'that a problem exists,'" to quote from Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in Citizens United.
"And a problem does exist," the brief continues. "Evidence from the 2010 and 2012 electoral cycles has demonstrated that so-
called independent expenditures create a strong potential for corruption and the perception thereof. The news confirms, daily, that existing campaign finance rules purporting to provide for 'independence' and 'disclosure' in fact provide neither. Regulatory filings show that much of the funding for independent expenditures comes from shell companies, pass-through entities, and non-profit organizations that conceal the true source of the individuals and companies supporting them."
The justices may soon have an opportunity to speak specifically to that last consideration. In a separate case, a federal appeals court on Monday refused to block an April decision by a district court judge closing the loophole that had allowed certain nonprofits, such as Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, to spend unlimited sums without disclosing their donors.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime foe of campaign finance restrictions, submitted a brief in late April supporting American Tradition Partnership and contesting the claim that unlimited corporate money has played any outsized role since Citizens United. "A review of FEC records for independent expenditure-only committees -- i.e. the so-called Super PACs -- supporting the eight leading Republican Presidential candidates has evidenced minimal corporate involvement in the 2012 election cycle," he wrote.
McCain and Whitehouse's argument takes aim at the broader message of Citizens United, as interpreted by American Tradition Partnership and the Montana Supreme Court's dissenters -- that unlimited independent expenditures, whether from a corporation or an individual, have no corrupting effect on politicians and the political system. It "cannot be so," they argue, that this is a blanket ruling of law impervious to facts showing otherwise. As evidence, the senators cite candidate-specific super PACs that have staff and consultants closely connected to the campaigns (a footnote mentions that the main pro-Obama super PAC is run by the president's former deputy press secretary while the leading pro-Romney super PAC was founded by the general counsel of Romney's 2008 presidential campaign) as well as "coordinated" fundraising and advertising activities. The senators argue that such groups engage in "identity-laundering" thanks to deficient disclosure rules.
In the end, the senators say, the appearance of corruption is in the eyes of the people, not the justices, and polls find opposition to Citizens United and diminished faith in the electoral process. Although "[p]oll results should not direct Court decisions ... these results show that the Court’s assessment of perceived corruption was at odds with the perception held by most Americans," the brief states.
Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock's brief opposing American Tradition Partnership's petition is expected to be filed by the end of Friday. The justices will likely discuss whether to take the case in a private conference later this summer.

Sorry, Charlie

Bubba won’t endorse Rangel

By CARL CAMPANILE

Last Updated: 5:33 AM, May 18, 2012

Posted: 2:32 AM, May 18, 2012

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sorry_charlie_5l2guX2q0UH0nAGYjS74yH#ixzz1vNkioUC3

Bill Clinton is abandoning his old ally Charles Rangel, who is fighting for his political life as he seeks re-election to a 22nd term, The Post has learned.
Harlem Rep. Rangel won’t be getting an endorsement from the former president, who will sit out the primary, a Clinton source said.
Clinton strongly backed Rangel’s re-election in 2010 when the incumbent was under fire for House ethics-rules violations that later led to a congressional censure.
Clinton even personally taped a message that was phoned in to voters on behalf of Rangel, who has been a loyal Clinton backer for decades.

AP

SPLITSVILLE: Charles Rangel will have to do without old pal Bill Clinton’s backing this time.

AP

Bill Clinton

Rangel, in turn, vehemently defended Clinton during the ex-president’s impeachment proceedings, and led the charge to launch Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political career, helping her get elected to the US Senate from New York.
Rangel also supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president over Barack Obama, who didn’t endorse Rangel last time and is staying neutral in this year’s primary.
But the Clinton source said the former president has a personal conflict this time around. One of Rangel’s rivals, Clyde Williams, was a top aide at the Clinton Foundation and worked in the Clinton administration.
“He is grateful for Clyde’s work with the foundation. Because he has personal relationships with several of the candidates in the race, he doesn’t feel it’s appropriate to weigh in on the race,” a Clinton official said.
Rangel could always resurrect some of Clinton’s testimonials.
“He is a unique public servant whose leadership was critical to many of my administration’s successes,” Clinton said in a plug for Rangel’s 2006 autobiography.
Meanwhile, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carríon yesterday endorsed another Rangel opponent, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat. Carríon, who is considering a run for mayor and has praised Rangel’s tenure, said it’s time for a change.
Additional reporting by David Seifman
ccampanile@nypost.com

Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

A Brief History of Mitt Romney’s Record of Putting Profits Ahead of People as CEO of Bain Capital

Mitt Romney eliminated thousands of jobs in his tenure at Bain Capital.

What is Bain Capital? Co-founded by Mitt Romney in 1984, Bain Capital is a classic “strip and flip” shop — a private equity firm that made its money buying businesses and sucking profit out of them by any means possible that often resulted in a stack of pink slips for everyday Americans. As the New York Post reported, during his 15 years as head of Bain, Romney “made fortunes by bankrupting five profitable businesses that ended up firing thousands of workers.”
Here’s how it often went down. Romney’s Bain would buy a company and increase its short-term earnings through firing workers and shuttering plants in order to borrow enormous amounts of money. The borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends, however, those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts. When they couldn’t, that meant plant closures, more layoffs, bankruptcies, and in many cases, the end of the business. Yet these bankruptcies still meant huge profits for Bain’s investors. Furthermore, Bain continued to collect management fees even as companies failed.
Michael Rumbin, a vice president for technology management at Dade told the Los Angeles Times, “My experience at Dade during those Bain Capital years was that it was strictly an investment, not to create jobs.” Rumbin also spoke with Bloomberg in July:

Dade borrowed so much money to make that payment that when sales declined and interest rates rose the company struggled to pay its creditors. Standard & Poor’s downgraded its outlook for Dade Behring to negative from stable. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
“They leveraged this thing to the hilt and got out when they could,” Rumbin said. “We were left holding the bag.”

According to the Boston Globe in 2008: “Romney had chances to fight to save jobs, but didn’t. His ultimate responsibility was to make money for Bain’s investors, former partners said.”
One former official who worked on the labor contracts of the Bain-created company GS Industries told the Los Angeles Times that Bain “bled the company.”

“Bain was demanding certain financial performance with no understanding of what the problems were on the ground,” said David Foster, a former steelworkers union official who negotiated labor contracts with GSI management from 1994 until the bankruptcy. He said Bain “bled the company,” withdrawing cash for dividends and management fees even as circumstances in the steel industry deteriorated.
“If I were looking for effective management of a project, a company or a country, this is exactly the kind of management I would not want to have,” Foster said of Bain. “Bain partners think the profits they made are a sign of their brilliance. It’s not brilliance. It’s lurking around the corner and mugging somebody.”

A recent report from the Los Angeles Times notes Romney’s colleagues admit they were not in the business of creating jobs.

Bain managers said their mission was clear. “I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation,” said Marc B. Walpow, a former managing partner at Bain who worked closely with Romney for nine years before forming his own firm. “The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.”

And make money he did — Mitt loads of it. For an eight year period starting in 1987, Romney’s Bain invested 22 percent of the money it raised in five businesses that ended up filing for bankruptcy and walked away with a $578 million in profit. Judging by the photos at the time, finding places to stuff all those profits became something of a joke among the Bain cohorts. Such a display of greed and excess that would make Gordon Gekko — the fictional cut-throat corporate raider in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street — blush. Romney left Bain with a staggering $4 billion in assets.
It’s no wonder Wall Street lobbyists are lining up to throw campaign money Romney’s way today, by far more than any other presidential candidate. Mitt Romney is the poster child for the greed of Wall Street and excess of the 1%. A guy who made hundreds of millions putting profits ahead of peoples’ jobs is exactly the kind of guy Wall Street would love running things in Washington. Mitt Romney would let the Gekkos of the world go back to same greedy and reckless behavior that wiped out trillions in savings and cost millions of Americans their jobs.


Here’s a few examples of “stripping and flipping” companies — sucking cash out of businesses, laying off workers, and eventually hitting bankruptcy all while making investors like Mitt Romney even richer.

Read more about Ampad from the 2008 report in the Boston Globe. [PDF]
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow picked up on unaired 1994 campaign ads citing Romney’s record at Bain Capital. In one ad, it cites a Boston Globe report that a company under Romney’s watch collected a $10 million bailout while Bain Capital profited $4 million. Another ad included personal testimonies from former workers who were laid off by Romney’s private equity firm. Watch:
Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert discussed Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital in a segment called, “The Word.” Watch:


Sources
Boston Globe, January 2008: “As Bain slashed jobs, Romney stayed to side”
New York Post, January 2011: “Romney’s past is more a working class zero”
Political Correction, June 2011: “As CEO, Romney Profited While Thousands Of Workers Were Laid Off And Five Of His Companies Went Bankrupt”
Bloomberg, July 2011: “Romney as Job Creator Clashes with Bain Record of Job Cuts”
Politico, July 2011: “The Bain of Mitt Romney’s campaign”
New York Times, November 2011: “After a Romney Deal, Profits then Layoffs”
Los Angeles Times, December 2011: “A closer look at Mitt Romney’s jobs record”

Politico: Opinion and Analysis

These are additional articles to read.

• Setting fiscal facts straight

  By: SEN. JON KYL, SEN. ROB PORTMAN and SEN. PAT TOOMEY | 5/16/12 11:48 PM EDT
  Opinion: Three GOP senators respond to assertions in an opinion piece by Sen. Patty Murray.
  
  

• Congrats, grad, you're unemployed

  By: KARIN AGNESS | 5/16/12 10:00 PM EDT
  Opinion: Graduates facing a bleak job market and an uncertain future should start asking why.
  
  

• Don't stall transportation innovation

  By: ED RENDELL | 5/16/12 9:41 PM EDT
  Opinion: Our transportation network has not kept pace with our exponential growth.
  
  

• Confronting looming 'tax-mageddon'

  By: SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON | 5/16/12 9:41 PM EDT
  Opinion: There's been a conspicuous lack of urgency from the president and congressional Democrats.
  
  

• For U.S. leadership, less is more

  By: IAN BREMMER | 5/16/12 9:38 PM EDT
  Opinion: It is time for the United States to take a subglobal approach to global problems.
  
  

• All-in-one stop for small business

  By: SEN. KAY HAGAN | 5/16/12 9:52 AM EDT
  Opinion: Far too often, small businesses are impeded by paperwork and bureaucratic red tape.
  
  

• GOP: Real party of U.S. women

  By: 14 HOUSE GOP WOMEN | 5/15/12 10:16 PM EDT
  Opinion: Republican women like us would never join a party that didn’t believe in women’s rights.
  
  

• In budget debate, 'past is prologue'

  By: SEN. PATTY MURRAY | 5/15/12 9:28 PM EDT
  Opinion: House Republicans are pretending the debt-limit crisis they brought about never happened.
  
  

• U.S. must power up grid overhaul

  By: JAMES J. HOECKER | 5/15/12 9:27 PM EDT
  Opinion: Support for investment in foundational infrastructure may be the best leadership measure.
  
  

• Why Romney should tap Jindal

  By: GROVER G. NORQUIST and PATRICK GLEASON | 5/15/12 9:27 PM EDT
  Opinion: The governor has implemented the sort of bold reforms that are needed at the federal level.
  
  

• Facts show Dems are job creators

  By: JENNIFER GRANHOLM | 5/15/12 9:24 PM EDT
  Opinion: “In God we trust,” one often repeated maxim says, “all others bring data.”
  
  

• Will women determine 2012 race?

  By: PAUL GOLDMAN and MARK J. ROZELL | 5/14/12 9:19 PM EDT
  Opinion: Women may finally redefine presidential politics 92 years after getting the right to vote.
  
  

• The 'Bradley effect' and Obama

  By: L. DOUGLAS WILDER | 5/14/12 9:19 PM EDT
  Opinion: The president's team should tread carefully when looking at where he stands in the polls.
  
  

• JPMorgan: Suffering as it should

  By: MICHAEL FARR | 5/14/12 6:47 PM EDT
  Opinion: Banks have always pushed the envelope.
  
  

• The right lessons of JPMorgan fiasco

  By: JONATHAN MACEY | 5/14/12 2:59 PM EDT
  Opinion: As attractive as the Volcker rule may look, it has two fatal flaws.
  
  

• Can the FBI understand intelligence?

  By: AMB. HENRY A. CRUMPTON | 5/13/12 10:00 PM EDT
  Opinion: The challenge has proved difficult for the world's leading law-enforcement agency.
  
  

• Follow Chicago's example

  By: RAHM EMANUEL | 5/13/12 9:09 PM EDT
  Opinion: The bold plans are a blueprint for nation.
  
  

• Too little is spent on transportation

  By: REP. PETER DEFAZIO | 5/13/12 9:08 PM EDT
  Opinion: Invest in the backbone of our economy to move our goods and people more efficiently.
  
  

• Long-term funding needs to hit the road, Jack

  By: JANET KAVINOKY - U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | 5/13/12 9:08 PM EDT
  Opinion: Draconian cuts to the budget are dangerous for transit systems in need of significant upgrade.
  
  

• Fix our roads to help the economy

  By: REP. BILL SHUSTER | 5/13/12 9:07 PM EDT
  Opinion: Spending taxpayer dollars wisely is vital.

The Boldface Names on the Witness List for Gupta’s Trial

May 17, 2012, 12:42 pm

By PETER LATTMAN

Scott Eells/Bloomberg News

The trial of Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director, is scheduled to start on Monday.

The potential witness list has been released for the insider trading trial of Rajat K. Gupta, the former director for Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, and as expected, it is chock full of boldfaced names.

Possible witnesses who could be called to testify — or whose names may come up during the trial — include Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman; Gary D. Cohn, the bank’s president; A.G. Lafley, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble; and Kenneth I. Chenault, the chief executive of American Express.

The trial of Mr. Gupta, the former global head of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, is scheduled to start on Monday. He is charged with leaking boardroom secrets to his friend and business associate Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted last year and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Goldman is expected to be on center stage during the trial. The government says Mr. Gupta told Mr. Rajaratnam confidential details about Goldman Sachs before announcements were made public, including news of Warren E. Buffett‘s $5 billion investment in the bank at the depths of the financial crisis.

Byron Trott, the former Goldman banker who oversaw the Buffett investment, is a possible witness. Other Goldman executives who may be called to testify are David A. Viniar, the chief financial officer, and Stephen R. Pierce, the head of the bank’s capital markets business. Even one of Goldman’s outside lawyers, Steven Peikin of Sullivan & Cromwell, is on the list.

The government is likely to ask Mr. Trott about the timing of the Buffett investment and how quickly it came together. He also may be asked about how many people knew about it, including the Goldman board.

Mr. Pierce is expected to discuss a secondary stock offering of Goldman stock that Mr. Gupta is accused of passing along to Mr. Rajaratnam.

At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, the government said that its first witness was expected to be Caryn Eisenberg, Mr. Rajaratnam’s secretary at his Galleon Group hedge fund. She is likely to testify about how frequently Mr. Gupta and Mr. Rajaratnam spoke to each other, according to people briefed on the case.
Witness List for Rajat K. Gupta Trial

The Truth Team 

is a network of supporters of President Obama who are committed to responding to unfounded attacks and defending the President’s record. When you’re faced with someone who misrepresents the truth, you can find all the facts you need right here—along with ways to share the message with whoever needs to hear it.

The many ways Karl Rove’s new attack ad distorts the facts

Following the lead of Americans for Prosperity’s unabashedly false attack ad, Karl Rove’s group American Crossroads is spending $25 million on a deceptive, month-long ad campaign to mislead Americans about the promises President Obama has kept in his first term.

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Here’s a quick breakdown of the many ways Rove’s ad distorts the facts and tries to distract Americans from Mitt Romney’s economic record:
Housing

• False: The ad claims that the President has not helped responsible homeowners who are facing foreclosures.
  
• Fact: President Obama’s policies have helped over 1.1 million homeowners refinance and take advantage of historically low rates, and spurred public and private efforts to help over 5.9 million people keep their homes through mortgage modification.
  
• Romney: Mitt Romney’s only plan to help Americans at risk of losing their homes is, “Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
  

Middle-class tax cuts

• False: The ad falsely insists that the President broke his promise to cut taxes for middle-class Americans.
  
• Fact: Under President Obama, taxes on middle-class Americans are near lows not seen since the 1950s. A typical family making $50,000 a year has seen their taxes cut by $3,600 over the President’s first term in office. He also cut taxes on small businesses 18 times, including recently passed tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans.
  
• Romney: Romney raised more than $750 million a year in taxes and fees while Governor of Massachusetts, imposing more fee hikes than any other state in 2003 and hitting taxpayers’ pocketbooks as hard as any tax increase and, “less fairly as well.” And even as Romney would cut taxes for millionaires by an average of $250,000, he would raise taxes on 18 million working families.
  

Health care coverage

• False: The ad wrongly claims that Americans won’t be able to keep their insurance plan under Obamacare.
  
• Fact: Obamacare actually expands access to quality, affordable health care insurance. Most Americans get insurance through their employer, and the law doesn’t change that. There are now incentives that encourage employers to offer and continue to offer coverage to workers. Health reform also will prevent insurance companies from dropping people who have pre-existing conditions or capping coverage.
  
• Romney: If elected, Romney promised to “kill” Obamacare on day one, jeopardizing coverage and care for millions of Americans.
  

Deficit reduction

• False: Rove’s ad claims President Obama is wantonly increasing spending rather than working to reduce the deficit.
  
• Fact: Despite inheriting the largest deficit relative to the economy since the end of World War II, President Obama has put forth a plan to reduce our deficit by over $4 trillion over the next decade. His plan would bring discretionary spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy since President Eisenhower was in office. In fact, spending, taxes, and the deficit are all lower as a share of the economy since President Obama took office.
  
• Romney: As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney raised the state’s debt by $2.6 billion—a 16 percent increase. And now, he’s pushing policies—including extending the Bush tax cuts and giving even deeper tax cuts to the wealthy—that could explode the deficit by as much as $5 trillion.
  

Rove is working hard and spending a lot of money to distort reality. But he cannot hide the fact that the President is delivering on his promises, nor the simple fact that Romney would return to the failed policies that caused the economic crisis and weakened the middle class.
Watch Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter dismantle the ad here.