I wanted to share the latest post co-signed by the Pennacchio gang here with the Boo-munity. Looking down the line, we all know that $antorum is the evilest of evil here in PA, and arguably, in the Senate and he had the gall to write a book. So it’s all out there, ready to be taken apart…
Oh, the Hypocrisy
Last week we showed how Bob Casey’s stands on the issues conform neatly with the wishes of his special interest PAC donors. This week, Rick Santorum.
We’ve had a look at Santorum’s new book, It Takes a Family. Funny thing. While the biblical strict constructionist spends many pages wheezing about the hazards of gay union, he says nary a word about the evils of alcohol. Now in real terms, which is more damaging to families, alcohol — which according to the Centers for Disease Control increases violent crime, spousal and child abuse, birth defects, injury, disease, and death — or two mommies? Santorum wants you to focus on the two mommies, but then he takes money from six PACs (heh) that sell alcohol, including the National Beer Wholesellers Association PAC. Maybe that’s why Senator Sanctimony introduced a bill to halve the excise tax on beer, which would increase rates of the problems above. Clearly, Heather’s Mommies need to form a PAC and pay some tribute!
And that’s not all. Righteous Rick takes money from gambling giant MGM Mirage (via Daniel Webster PAC!) and big tobacco (Altria (Phillip Morris), Lorillard (Daniel Webster, again) — hey, is that why he voted NO on increasing tobacco restrictions? And, wait for it . . . PORN! (Comcast, Fox, Adelphia). Sin just isn’t what it used to be.
On page 54, Santorum pauses for an odd meditation on the social benefits of bowling leagues. Was this reverie induced by a $5000 donation from the Bowling Proprietors Association of America PAC? He spends two whole pages singing the praises of Wal- Mart. But then Wal-Mart gave $20,000 to Santorum in 2004, and has given through at least seven different PACs in this election cycle. That’s got to produce a heck of an afterglow. But should a sitting US Senator act as a corporate huckster?
In the saddest irony of all, this book ostensibly focused on the poor spends dozens of pages fretting about abortion and declining first-world (mainly white) birth rates, but not a word on America’s rising infant mortality rate, the 29 percent of US children who had no health insurance for some part of last year, and 30 thousand of the world’s children who die each day of hunger and preventable disease, about whom Santorum proposes to do, well, not much.
From the sacred to the profane, from the sublime to the ridiculous, it’s not about God, it’s about greed. And it’s better for Santorum to be thought a sincere zealot than seen for what he is, a hired gun. Santorum isn’t the problem; he’s the symptom. The problem is a system that lets special interests run our country to advance their own narrow goals, goals that don’t even serve them well in the end.
Casey or Santorum. Either way, you get no universal health care, no reproductive choice, and an Iraq War without end, amen.
If you want your country back, take charge now. Choose Change, Choose Chuck. Please share this message with your friends and family using our forwarding feature.
Best wishes and thanks for all you do.
Julian, Stephanie, Sabra, Dan, Liz, Albert, Danie, and Dave
P.S. Santorum will be participating in Justice Sunday III at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Planned Parenthood will be demonstrating earlier in the day. ActUp is planning demonstrations beginning at 6:30PM. For more information, contact ActUp Philadelphia at: (215) 386-1981 or Jose DeMarco at (215) 756-4756.
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For a chapter by chapter look at the book from a Liberal fellow Philly area blogger, please check out Above Average Jane‘s posts. Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and the conclusion. Oof. But rest assured, she didn’t buy the book and send $antorum any money, she borrowed it from her local library branch.
Otherwise, I hope to see some of the gang here at the protest/demonstrations on Sunday for JustUs Sunday III up at 714 N. Broad St on Sunday the 8th. First program starts at 7p! I’ll report back with photos.
