Things to Know - 5 February

1.  Here's some recent history on the lead up to the current Komen Foundation problem.  If anything, the polarizing issues that always lingered, are now better exposed to the public, and the issue of womens' health is better understood, and Planned Parenthood may be stronger as a result:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-he-komen-planned-parenthood-tictoc-20120204,0,5488549,print.story

2.  Now, it's coming out that there was much more of a right-wing faction steering a political spin on the Komen Foundation.   This politicization may further the extent of its demise:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12206

3.  Newt Gingrich has sullied the name of Saul Alinsky lately, and invoked nothing but typical porkie fury on who he was.  But no one really knows who he was.  He died in 1972.  Here's Bill Moyers, in his own style to remind us who Mr. Alinsky was, and how he Porkieness is practicing his dark art of politics-by-Newt:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12200

4.  The columnist in this piece place Mitt Romney as the candidate of the Tea Party, which I am not sure that the established GOP would like to be saddled with.   Not a ticket to winning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-the-stealth-tea-party-candidate/2012/01/31/gIQAy0BZnQ_print.html

5.  Frank Bruni is suggesting that Mitt is doming himself no favor by scuttling any references to life experiences in his church.  Why?  It might benefit him, but all we can speculate is that he is not willing to do so because of a perception of public backlash at the practices of the church of LDS:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/bruni-mitts-muffled-soul.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

6.  Maureen Dowd does a job on describing Callista Clingrich, as only Ms. Dowd can do:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/dowd-the-great-mans-wife.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  The grasp on power that Putin has on Russia is debatable.  He is being denounced in the streets, and he's wisely not taking action to stop it.  However, how are the strings going to be untied.  He acts like he's in charge, but is he really?:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/friedman-russia-sort-of-but-not-really.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

--
Juan Matute

"If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
       -- Tallulah Bankhead

"I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises."
       -- Buzz Aldrin

"The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you."
       -- Nancy Astor

"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
       -- Abraham Lincoln

"There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker."
       -- Charles M. Schulz