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Sums it up quite nicely. Via comedian Joe Mande.

Shakesville: Kansas Republicans join their New Hampshire colleagues in lying about the mythical link between abortion and breast cancer.

Eritas: It’s not true, but easy to imagine – Match.GOP, the site for creating lifelong Republicans.

Red State Blues: It’s true, but hard to imagine – Utah Republican Governor Gary Herbert abstains from abstinence education.

Rick Perlstein: What is old is new for Republicans.

Speaking of which, your quotes of the day: “Mr. Stevenson…has attacked with violent fury the economic system of the United States.” (Richard Nixon, 1956) “Our president has divided the nation, engaged in class warfare and attacked the free enterprise system that has made America the economic envy of the world…They’re not only attacking me, They’re attacking every person who dreams of a better future. He’s attacking you.” (Mitt Romney, January 21, 2012)

Guest blogging Mike’s Blog Round Up today is Jon Perr from Perrspectives. Send your tips, recommendations, comments and angst to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

I’ve mentioned before that the process of becoming a mother informed my political activism. I was opinionated before, but felt that my voice didn’t particularly matter. But having a child changed me. Simultaneously, it felt like I finally belonged to this world and that it wasn’t about me any longer. I viewed everything through the lens of the legacy I was leaving my children. I felt compelled to make my voice known. In short, everything changed for me, even how I processed love songs I heard on the radio. There is nothing more primal, more unconditional than the love I have for my kids. So this is my vow to my beautiful, intelligent, powerful daughters: I won’t give up. I will not stop fighting to prevent these heinous, ignorant violations of their rights as fully sentient human beings to make decisions and choices for their own lives and bodies. It doesn’t appear to interest any of the Sunday shows, this assault on women’s bodies and intelligence. But I don’t care. I won’t give up. And I don’t want to see any of you giving up either.

ABC’s “This Week” – GOP Presidential Race: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Panel: George Will, Haley Barbour, Bill Burton, Nia-Malika Henderson, David Ignatius.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” – GOP presidential race; Afghanistan: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sudan: actor George Clooney and John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project; Round Table: Afghanistan: author and veteran Wes Moore, author Jon Krakauer, Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; Bob Woodward, Helene Cooper.

NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show” – Topics: Will the President Have to Pull Out of Afghanistan Ahead of Schedule? Santorum is keeping the 2012 GOP race alive – could it go to the convention? Panel: Katty Kay, Andrew Sullivan, Liz Marlantes, David Ignatius. Meter Questions: Will the GOP Candidate move to the center for the general? YES: 7 NO: 5; If Rick Santorum won the Michigan primary, would Republican leaders try a significant Stop Santorum effort? YES: 6 No: 6 .

MSNBC’s “Up with Chris Hayes” – Topics: Goldman Sachs and gas prices. Panel: Noam Scheiber, Alexis Goldstein, William Cohan, John McWhorter, Guest host: Ezra Klein.

MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” – Topics: Money vs. message; Afghanistan; Latino voters; Behind NCAA March Madness. Panel: Col. Jack Jacobs, Dave Zirin, Jemele Hill, Angela Maria Kelley.

CBS’ “Face the Nation” – 2012 elections: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus; David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Panel: Panel: Ed Gillespie; Rich Lowry; Norah O’Donnell.

CNN’s “State of the Union” – Republican presidential race: Santorum; Budget negotiations, jobs, the economy: Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Eklil Hakimi. Panel: Anita Dunn, Ed Gillespie.

CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” – Britain’s austerity measures; global economy: George Osborne, U.K. chancellor of the Exchequer. Budget deficit; taxes: Grover Norquist. Sudan and China; Kony video: George Clooney; John Prendergast. Healthcare around the world: T.R. Reid.

CNN’s “Reliable Sources” – Coverage of the GOP presidential race: Catherine Crier; Matt Lewis, the Daily Caller; David Shuster. Ali Wentworth. Erik Wemple, Washington Post; Kai Ryssdal, American Public Radio’s Marketplace

“Fox News Sunday” – Republican presidential election: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney; Sudan: Clooney and Prendergast. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News; AB Stoddard, The Hill; Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard; Charles Lane, Washington Post.

What’s catching your eye this morning?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, folks! It’s Blue Gal from The Professional Left Podcast, bringing you this week’s podcast round up. Be aware that these podcasts are also available on i-Tunes, and may not be safe for work.

Virtually Speaking: Our own Susie Madrak talks with Avedon Carol.

KCRW’s To The Point: Women Target Men with Humor to Defend Reproductive Rights

Thom Hartmann (video): Week in Review with Bernie Sanders

Feel free to share your favorite podcasts in comments and it’s also an open thread.

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Rick Santorum was well into his speech during a campaign rally in Arlington Heights, Ill., on Friday when two men in the crowd embraced in a rather passionate kiss, prompting a “mic check” and two guards to escort them from the rally.

The crowd reacted with audible screams, gasps and wagging fingers. Another man jumped up and followed the pair out as the audience began chanting “U-S-A” until they left the gym at Christian Liberty Academy where Santorum was speaking.

Santorum, who often expresses his opposition to homosexuality, continued his speech without addressing the incident, prompting cheers from the audience. It wasn’t clear whether the two men are gay or simply making a political statement.

“I don’t think the message should be about what my sexuality is,” one of them told a reporter. “It’s the message that [Santorum's] saying about sexuality that matters.”

[Hat tip Patch.com]

[Caution: Strong language NSFW.]

At an Occupy the Midwest gathering in St. Louis on Thursday, at least 14 occupiers were arrested by local police after being pepper-sprayed, and beaten bloody.

The above video was filmed Friday morning, as Michelle Witthaus with Occupy St. Louis gives her account on the Occupy protester arrests in Compton Hill Reservoir Park on Thursday evening.

The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune reports:

Several hundred people from around the country are in St. Louis for this week’s Occupy the Midwest conference. About 150 protesters sought to set up an encampment Thursday at Compton Hill Reservoir Park, but were told by police they would be in violation of the park’s 10 p.m. curfew.

At around 10:30 p.m., officers moved in, prompting a skirmish that left some protesters bloodied. Officers used pepper spray during the exchange. Two of the 14 arrested are expected to face resisting arrest charges in addition to curfew violation charges.

Note that in the video, Ms. Witthaus states that the occupy group had already decided to leave the park on their own, due to the people who had traveled to St. Louis from other states.The did not want to risk arrest.

In the news account, one of the organizers of Occupy the Midwest had this to say on Friday morning:

“City officials had indicated that park curfew would be enforced, but the actions taken tonight were unprovoked and without warning,” A.J. Segneri, an organizer of the conference, said in a statement. “Tonight’s shameful actions by the city of St. Louis should be a wake-up call around the region.”

From the same article, a city official had this to say:

But Eddie Roth, director of public safety for the city, said the protesters provoked officers, showing aggression toward them and acting chaotically as officers moved in.

“It wasn’t police chaos,” Roth said. “It was demonstrator chaos — running into streets, yelling at officers.”

In this next video, it’s clear that the arrests did not happen at the park, as police are grabbing protesters off the sidewalk. The person filming this clip gets pepper sprayed as he is filming the arrests while standing on the sidewalk. I do hear people yelling at the police, but I believe that tends to happen when you’re pepper sprayed for no apparent reason.

This next video shows only a few of the bloodied protesters in cuffs being led away by police.

Another news account gives another statement by the same city official, Eddie Roth, the director of public safety:

Roth said the tone of Thursday’s gathering was more aggressive.

“I believe a significant majority of the people gathered here under the Occupy the Midwest banner are sincere, reasonable, passionate but measured people who are here for all good reasons,” Roth said. “I think there was a notable minority here to sew chaos.”

I didn’t see any protesters “sewing chaos,” however both reports mention a smashed window on a police cruiser, but after watching the videos I can’t conclude that this was done deliberately by a protester.

Here is video footage from a local news station, although they don’t show much of what they obtained “due to foul language.” After watching these videos, I see police violence, and zero protesters breaking any law. They aren’t even in the park when the arrests begin. It also appears this cameraman is either tackled by police or caught up in another skirmish after requesting badge numbers:

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How pitiful is it that anyone is still out there trying to pretend like this whole argument over women’s reproductive health and access to affordable birth control is a matter of “religious liberty?” That’s exactly what former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin was doing during one of Anderson Cooper’s little “fair and balanced” debates this Thursday night on CNN.

Hilary Rosen was exactly right when she said this in response to Matalin’s hand wringing for the Catholic bishops:

ROSEN: The only thing that they seem to, you know, want to take to the streets on is something that discriminates against women who don’t agree with the men in the church.

If Mary Matalin wants to convince anyone that it’s not Republicans that have been on a jihad against women’s reproductive health over the last few decades, and really aggressively over the last few years, she’s going to have to do a better job than she did here.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

COOPER: Well, joining me now is CNN political contributor, Republican strategist, Mary Matalin, also CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist, Hilary Rosen.

So, Mary, you saw the poll number. Six in 10 Americans are saying that this isn’t about religious freedom. Is this a losing issue for Republicans?

MATALIN: Absolutely unequivocally not. That was one poll and it depends how you ask it. In “The New York Times” poll, in the CBS poll, in myriad other polls when majorities of Americans, including women oppose the government, the full force of the government to intrude on First Amendment rights — First amendments guarantee of religious rights.

I’m saying, women, when it’s posed that way and that’s how the regulation is written and that’s what not just Catholics but it’s multidenominational, have made an argument not as forcefully as the Obama people have, to switch it, to frame it up, when they — when they say what it actually is, people oppose it. But equally important, probably more important is what you led with. Three- quarters of Americans, including women, do not even think this is a political issue. Equal numbers, three-quarters of Americans, including women, think the top political issue is the economy.

It’s not an issue. And they don’t want the government to be dealing with birth control. So I’ve strategically, the president has made a grievous political error here, I believe.

COOPER: Hilary, do you see that as an error? I mean, as far as Democrats go, critics are saying they’re playing politics on this. We’re seeing ads, mailers, fundraising, appeals from them, and a lot of talk about women on the campaign tail from the Obama administration.

ROSEN: Well, I mean, first of all, the president did not make this a political issue. The president issues a regulation to try and accommodate, implementing a law that Congress passed, and the Republicans and — went out and started opposing it and jumping on it.

It is the Republicans who are opposing reauthorizing the — the Violence Against Women Act today in the United States Senate. It’s Mitt Romney who’s on the campaign trail saying, let’s get rid of Planned Parenthood. These are not Democrats going out there. To the extent that Democrats are actually telling voters what it is that the Republicans are saying, you bet we are.

And here’s a key issue, which is, you know, when men have medical issues, they are medical. When women have medical issues, they seem to be political. And I think what women are sick and tired of is having their health issues politicized and framing this as a religious liberty issue is equally infuriating. I think, you know, why isn’t the — why isn’t Catholic Church out there ranting and raving about not serving pork on Fridays in their cafeterias.

The only thing that they seem to, you know, want to take to the streets on is something that discriminates against women who don’t agree with the men in the church.

COOPER: Mary?

MATALIN: Oh, Hilary, please, the Catholic bishops and Cardinal Dolan have tried to work with the White House. They sat there for a week, waiting for an accommodation which turned out to be –

ROSEN: An accommodation –

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let her finish — let her finish what — no, let her finish what she’s saying.

MATALIN: Hilary. Hilary. Please.

COOPER: Go ahead, Mary.

MATALIN: They are — this is a 2,000-year-old Catholic belief that the natural order of things is love, marriage, sex, procreation. So the overwhelming majority of American people including women do not want their religious liberties invaded. They — all we’re asking is this. In this very narrow issue exempt religious institutions and those that are affiliated with religious institutions and this would go away. But it won’t go away because the president hasn’t vented this war on women.

And I — I’m going to agree with you on this point. If we’re against subsidizing — using taxpayer dollars for birth control or sexual sorts of drugs, then we’re waging a bigger war on men because we don’t want taxpayer subsidized erectile drugs and arguably I think that’s a much bigger issue for men — I’m not a scientist but anecdotally after decades I think that’s a bigger health issue for the men.

ROSEN: But the Catholic –

MATALIN: Than birth control is for women.

COOPER: But guys –

ROSEN: The Catholic Church is not going after any men’s health issues. They are not making those value judgment. It’s only about women. And you know here’s the issue I think that we have to focus on, which is, you know, women are going — are watching now. You know, and this is — this is going to be an issue that is waking up women.

The gender gap in 2008 for the election was, you know, over 10 points, the difference between senator — then Senator Obama and John McCain. In 2010, it evened out. This is going to widen that gender gap. Women are sick of having our reproductive health and our health issues be politicized and used on the campaign trail.

COOPER: And Mary, Mary –

MATALIN: Yes.

COOPER: I mean, couldn’t you argue that both sides are using this as a political issue? I mean the Republicans certainly raised the stakes on this issue between Rush Limbaugh’s comments, Rick Santorum’s comments on the trail, they saw it as a religious liberty issue and that as something that would mobilize people to come out and vote, and on the Democratic side they see it as a women’s health issue and that’s something that’s going to mobilize women voters who they believe are going to side with the Democratic Party.

MATALIN: Right. The president specifically turned it into a women’s health issue, and a war on women because — let me translate for you, Anderson, because women are dropping him like a bad first date. He had a nine-point gender advantage the last time, he’s down to less than half that.

Mitt Romney is not even on the field yet and he’s only down by four points. Mitt Romney has no gender gap. But I think this is insulting to women. They do not think there is a birth control problem. They do believe, as all Americans do, that it’s a government out of control problem. So what is happening here is every — all of his enthusiasm, the intensity and the support among all this demographics, starting with women who — the president is right, are going to make a difference in this election are leaving the president because they are insulted by making them focus on this. Any woman who’s going to be jazzed up by this are not people who would ever, ever vote for Romney as he gave them birth control and a man to go with it.

ROSEN: You know, my friend Mary is, you know, engaging in wishful thinking here. She may be right that this is not an issue that’s — important. But it is — her candidates, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney who are running around the country trying to get elected on this. By saying they’re going to get rid of Planned Parenthood, by saying that there’s a war on, you know, religious liberty using what was a regulatory issue to be a political issue.

You know, it is the Republicans ginning up this issue, it’s the Republicans refusing to reauthorize a statute that has been on the books for years.

COOPER: Hilary, both sides are using the issue.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I mean aren’t both sides use this as an issue?

ROSEN: Well, you know –

COOPER: I mean they both see this as an opportunity in different ways.

ROSEN: I think that Democrats started out here playing defense. And you bet we’re going on offense because it became clear that this is not just a political game. It became clear that literally our rights are threatened. And that is going to be the case if you have a Mitt Romney president and a Republican Senate, because they’ve laid out their agenda.

COOPER: We got to leave it there.

ROSEN: That’s it. They’ve been very clear.

COOPER: Hilary, appreciate your perspective. Mary Matalin, as well. Thank you.

Oh dear. This means that the administration still plans to make God-fearing Catholic organizations indulge in accounting tricks that will still result in the same thing: Women insured through those organizations will get free access to contraceptives. How awful.

Let us stop here for a moment to think of all the people in this country who did not want to pay to bomb innocent people in Iraq, who believed with all their hearts that the war was immoral and a crime against God, and yet no one (especially the Republicans in Congress) gave a damn what they thought:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration took another step on Friday to enforce a federal mandate for health insurance coverage of contraceptives, announcing how the new requirement would apply to the many Roman Catholic hospitals, universities and social service agencies that insure themselves.

In such cases, the administration said, female employees and students will still have access to free coverage of contraceptives.

The coverage will be provided by the companies that review and pay claims — “third-party administrators” — or by “some other independent entity,” it said.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the government would guarantee women access to contraceptives “while accommodating religious liberty interests.”

The new proposal escalates the election-year fight over the administration’s birth control policy.

President Obama had previously announced what he described as an “accommodation” for religiously affiliated organizations that buy commercial insurance but object, for religious reasons, to covering contraceptives and sterilization procedures. In these cases, the White House said, the insurer “will be required to provide contraception coverage to women free of charge.”

On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services went a step further and said it would propose a similar requirement for group health plans sponsored by religious organizations that insure themselves.

The new proposal did not mollify Republicans in Congress.