Boy, 7, Steals Car in Michigan
A young boy got behind the wheel because he missed his father. Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.It was centuries ago, right around this time, when the city of Aachen, Germany, was struck by an unusual outbreak that, legend says, spread as far away as Madagascar.
According to the scant written accounts there are of the outbreak known as St. Vitus' Dance, back in 1374, groups of people -- sometimes thousands at a time -- started dancing uncontrollably. It continued for days, and in some cases, weeks and months. Some people reportedly danced until they collapsed from exhaustion or even death, while others suffered heart attacks and broken bones.
"One written account described people as united by one common delusion," said James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego.
The dancers also seemed to hallucinate and lose control of their senses, Fowler said.
To this day, no one knows what led so many people into the dancing fits. At the time, many people believed it was a curse.
Fowler and other experts, however, believe the 14th-century dancing outbreak was an early example of social contagion. Just as yawning and laughing seem to be contagious, experts say manic dancing can be as well.
St. Vitus' Dance, which began exactly 637 years ago last Friday, is also a medical condition known as Sydenham chorea, named after the doctor who discovered it. The disease seemed to resemble the manic dancing that took place in Europe in honor of St. Vitus, the patron saint of entertainers.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes Sydenham chorea as a central nervous system disorder characterized by jerking movements mostly of the face, arms, legs and hands. It's caused by infection by the same bacteria that cause rheumatic fever.
But as far as the early dancing outbreak is concerned, it's consistent with the belief that people tend to mimic others around them.
"We tend to imitate body language and the emotional state of people that we're with, and we're not aware of it," Fowler said.
John Cacioppo, director of the University of Chicago's Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, said, "A couple of different processes contribute to something like this. One is peer pressure. If you're sittng in a setting and everyone is acting in a certain way, you do the same thing."
There's also a concept called pluralistic ignorance, which Cacioppo described as, "I would stop, but I don't see anyone else stopping."
In his book "Connected," California's Fowler described St. Vitus' Dance in some detail and also talked about other episodes of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness, including a 1962 outbreak of laughter among schoolgirls in Tanzania.
Fowler also said other things are socially contagious, such as obesity, happiness and loneliness.
"Someone has an intense emotional experience, and because of its intensity, passes it on to other people," Fowler explained.
Past research has suggested that mirror neurons contribute to this behavior.
"These are neurons in the part of the brain that you use to move your own body," Fowler said. "They fire when someone else is doing something."
Mirror neurons are at work often, though they only rarely cause episodes such as St. Vitus' Dance or the African laughing outbreak.
"It's unusual to find it in such a concentrated form, but it's easy to find contagion and mimicry every day," Cacioppo says. "Even babies show it."
Youths hurled rocks and fire bombs at riot police in central Athens on Tuesday as a general strike against new austerity measures brought the country to a standstill.
Lawmakers are embarking on their second day of debate on austerity measures that must be passed in votes on Wednesday and Thursday if Greece is to receive another batch of bailout funds to see it beyond the middle of next month.
If the votes don't pass, Greece could become the first eurozone nation to default on its debts, and that could send out huge shock waves through the global economy.
The new austerity drive is proving hugely unpopular in Greece and another demonstration in central Athens soon descended into violence. For several hours, police fired volleys of tear gas and stun grenades at masked and hooded youths just before the second day of debating was to resume. Police said 18 people were detained, with five of them later arrested, while four policemen were injured and transferred to a military hospital.
The clashes came at the start of a two-day strike called by unions furious that the new euro28 billion ($40 billion) austerity program will slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks. The measures come on top of other spending cuts and tax hikes that have sent Greek unemployment soaring to over 16 percent.
"The situation that the workers are going through is tragic and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union blockading the port of Piraeus. "The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war."
A peaceful demonstration of 20,000 people in Athens was soon marred by outbreaks of violence, when two groups clashed. One side took refuge near a coffee shop, and police fired tear gas in an attempt to clear the crowds and get them out.
The situation quickly degenerated, with masked and hooded youths pelting police with chunks of marble ripped off building facades and steps. They set fire to giant parasols at an outdoor cafe, using some to form barricades, and smashed windows of a McDonalds outlet and other snack shops.
Staff at upscale hotels handed out surgical masks to tourists and helped them with rolling luggage past the rioting, over ground strewn with smashed-up marble and cement paving stones.
Youths torched a satellite truck parked near parliament. The fire caused a freezer at a neighboring kiosk to explode, and hooded youths ducked behind the burning truck to help themselves to ice-cream cones.
"The troublemakers are attacking the police fiercely and trying to disrupt a peaceful protest," police spokesman Athanasios Kokalakis said.
The scale of the strike bought large parts of the Greek economy to a halt. Everyone from doctors and ambulance drivers to casino workers and even actors at a state-funded theater were joining the strike or holding work stoppages for several hours.
An ongoing strike by electricity company workers kept up rolling blackouts across Greece. Not far from the violent protest, cafes and ice cream vendors popular with tourists used portable generators to keep the power on.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours in the morning. Another walkout is scheduled for later. Strikes by public transport workers snarled traffic across the capital and left tourists stranded around Piraeus.
A wildfire has swelled to more than 93 square miles in the mountains above a northern New Mexico town that is home to a government nuclear laboratory.
Firefighters worked through the night and into Tuesday hoping to put out spot fires erupting ahead of the 60,000-acre blaze.
Crews are burning some areas to rob the fire of fuel. They are also clearing out brush at homes on the western side of Los Alamos as a precaution.
Thousands of residents remained evacuated Tuesday and the fire has forced the closure of Los Alamos National Laboratory for another two days.
Lab officials say all nuclear and hazardous materials, including those at the lab's principal waste storage site, are accounted for and protected.
A chemical found in common plastics may undermine a man's masculinity and his ability to attract a female, or at least that's what a new study on mice may suggest.
It is the latest research to question the health safety of the hormone-changing compound bisphenol-A, or BPA.
In the study, researchers found that female mice were not attracted to male mice that were exposed to BPA in the womb. They also noted that males exposed to the chemical in the womb were more likely to behave like females.
Researchers said female mice exposed to BPA were unaffected by the chemical.
It's possible that BPA exposure alters the males' hormone signals, researchers said, and some say the chemical exposure may have the same effect on people by altering developmental sexual traits in boys and girls.
"BPA has been shown to suppress the early production of testosterone. In short, the females can sense [the males'] compromised state and are less attracted to these males," said Cheryl Rosenfeld, associate professor in biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri and co-author of the study.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 1 million pounds of BPA are released into the environment each year, primarily uised as an ingredient to harden plastic. The chemical has been widely scrutinized, causing several consumer products, including baby bottles, water bottles and microwavable dishware made with the compound, to be taken off the shelves.
Last year, the European Union and Canada banned the use of BPA in baby bottles. Many U.S. states are following suit by considering a ban on the chemical, as well.
Chemical in Plastics Threatening Masculinity?
Last week, the American Medical Association voted to adopt a policy which recognized BPA as a chemical that interferes with human hormones. The organization now urges makers of BPA plastics to label and identify the chemical in the product.
"While the exact outcomes may differ in humans, there is reason for concern that sex-specific behavioral alterations are a significant risk following prenatal exposure to BPA," said Dr. Rodney Dietert, professor of immunotoxicology at Cornell University. "Brain, behavior and immune effects are commonly seen with developmental exposure to BPA."
In a previous study, researchers linked BPA to lower sperm counts and smaller testes in male mice. Another study reported that a female mouse had reduced pregnancy rates when she mated with a male exposed to BPA, said Dr. John Spangler, associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
"This study adds to the increasing evidence that BPA is a toxin that we should regulate more stringently," said Spangler.
Researchers said the mice were fed food laced with BPA at levels considered safe for human exposure, but the American Chemistry Council disagreed, saying "typical human exposures are miniscule compared to the dose used in the study."
"Given the incredibly high exposure levels of BPA used in this study—a single dose level approximately 250,000 times higher than typical human intake – there is little to be learned from the authors' work," the American Chemistry Council said in a statement.
Casey Anthony's defense team is expected to call meter reader Roy Kronk to the witness stand today in what could be a key moment in the defense's strategy.
Kronk is the man who discovered Caylee's remains in a wooded area near the Anthony family home and who the defense claims is "morally bankrupt."
Casey Anthony, 25, is accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Kronk's attorney told ABC affiliate WFTV late Monday night that Kronk had been asked to appear in court today.
During opening statements in the trial, defense attorney Jose Baez attacked Kronk's character and alleged that he tampered with Caylee's remains.
"Mr. Kronk is a morally bankrupt individual who actually took Caylee's body and hid her," Baez said on May 24. Kronk later "found" the body, Baez claims, because he hoped to collect a reward.
Updated evidence photos from the Casey Anthony murder trial
The lawyer did not explain in his opening statement how Kronk allegedly came into possession of Caylee's body.
Caylee's remains were found in a wooded area off of Suburban Drive near the Anthony family home on Dec. 11, 2008, nearly six months after she was last seen alive. The toddler was reported missing on July 15, 2008, 31 days after she disappeared.
The defense claims that Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that George Anthony, Casey Anthony's father, helped dispose of the body. They claim that Casey Anthony hid her daughter's death in a bizarre coping mechanism that she learned after years of sexual abuse at the hands of her father.
George Anthony has denied those allegations.
Roy Kronk Expected to Testify About Finding Caylee Anthony's Remains
If Kronk testifies, he will be one of the first witnesses mentioned who could corroborate the defense's shocking opening statement. The defense team has seemed to shy away from their opening statement since they began calling witnesses. Instead, they have focused on trying to poke holes in the prosecution's forensic evidence.
Prosecutors claim Caylee was drugged with chloroform and duct tape was placed over her nose and mouth.
The toddler's remains were found by Kronk with duct tape, a Winnie the Pooh blanket, canvas bags, black plastic trash bags and a Gatorade bottle with a syringe.
This morning, a man who was working with Texas Equusearch in the hunt for Caylee, described combing the wooded area in September 2008, nearly three months before Caylee was found.
Joe Jordan said he and his search team did not find Caylee's remains. He and his team did find a cooler and a pink baby blanket.
When Caylee was found, he sent an email to law enforcement.
"I conveyed I believed I was in the location where I believe her remains were located," Jordan said.
Jordan told law enforcement that the remains were moved.
The defense is trying to establish that Caylee's remains weren't placed in the wooded area until shortly before they were found and while Casey Anthony was in jail.
Upon cross examination, Jordan said he may have been mistaken and may not have searched in the area where the remains were found.
On Monday, two private detectives testified that they had also searched in the wooded area in November and did not find Caylee. They also found something that looked like a blanket. It's unclear if it's the same blanket that Jordan described today or whether it was the blanket found with Caylee's body.
Studies have persuasively demonstrated that depictions of extreme violence in video games like "Mortal Kombat" and "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" harm youngsters' mental health, according to pediatricians who disagreed with part of a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a California ban on video game sales to children.
However, the mental health experts agreed with the justices that ultimately, parents have a responsibility to vet and control what their children watch and play.
"The studies are actually very strong," said Dr. Laura Davies, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She had just read a paper published this past weekend in the journal Pediatrics that found violent videos disrupted preschoolers' sleep.
"Every one of us -- child psychiatrists, behavioral pediatricians and regular pediatricians, see in our practices every day that when children (younger than 7) are exposed to violence and to trauma, they act out ... by biting, hitting, kicking, name-calling, wetting themselves, poor sleep, poor eating," Davies said. "Older kids act out by fighting, with academic problems, social problems, bullying, anxiety, fearfulness, withdrawal from friends."
Writing for the high court's 7-2 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia agreed with a lower court that the state of California failed to prove that depictions of "killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being" were sufficiently harmful to young minds to justify carving out a free speech exception solely for children.
For centuries, young children have been exposed to "no shortage of gore" in "Grimm's Fairy Tales," he wrote. "Cinderella's evil stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by doves. And Hansel and Gretel (children!) kill their captor by baking her in an oven."
Davies, however, said the impact of reading "Grimm's Fairy Tales" on the page cannot be compared with the visual and aural assault of a violent video: "It's much more vivid and much more traumatic," she said. On another level, though, repeatedly playing these fictional, interactive videos distorts children's concept of death, she said.
"When I interview kids in my forensic practice, and they've killed somebody, they don't think the person is going to stay dead," she said. "They think that what they see on TV with these video games, with the movies, is that you kill them and you get another life."
Dina L. G. Borzekowski, an associate professor of health, behavior and society at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, said she concurred with Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent, in which he found a "compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors."
As video games, more than half of which are rated as containing violence, become increasingly sophisticated, "it is very scary to think how children and adolescents will be sold products where they can practice violence," Borzekowski said.
"I think that parents can use more tools, not fewer, to guide their children in better media choices," she said. The Supreme Court decision "allows children to buy the virtual boxing gloves, and yes, the virtual guns."
As deplorable as she finds violent videos, Borzekowski said she opposes censorship. Instead, she would limit children's exposure to them with age restrictions, much like film ratings limit at what age children can see movies depicting sex, drugs or bad language.
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Brody Curtis has a big smile across his face, about the only part of his little body that is not swaddled in thick bandages. The one-month-old was born with epidermolysis bullosa, which means he is missing skin on much of his body and what skin he does have is fragile and can easily erode.
"He looked like he had third degree burns," said his mother, Heather Curtis, a 33-year-old high school math teacher from Charlestown, Ind. "The doctors could almost see his veins."
Bandages cover Brody's arms from his elbows to his fingers and from his knees to his feet, as well as around his skull. It takes the Curtises about an hour to change the dressing and apply a salve, which they must do each day to prevent a life-threatening infection.
Epidermolysis bullosa is a spectrum of inherited skin disorders whose hallmark are a blistering response to minor injuries, heat or even rubbing or scratching, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Brody has the recessive dystrophic form of the disease. In addition to his fragile skin, he has blisters inside his mouth and on his tongue, which is typical in patients with the disease.
Epidermolysis bullosa or EB strikes about 1 in 20,000 children and there are about 30,000 cases nationwide, half a million globally. Brody's condition occurs in one in about a million children, according to Curtis.
Brody's doctors don't know if his skin will ever grow back, but they hold out hope that one day he could lead a normal life.
"We do know that different forms can cause early death in life and it can cause skin cancer," said his mother. "Some people go on to be blind or have deformities in their bodies."
"But we just don't know," she said.
Heather and her husband Chuck, both healthy, are carriers of the genes that cause the disease. Their daughter Mckenna, 5, is also disease free.
Couples who carry the gene for the disease have a 25 percent chance of passing it on to their children.
"EB group disorders are tremendously variable in their severity," said Dr. Jouni Uitto, chair of the department of dermatology and cutaneous biology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Twenty years ago, Uitto was one of the first doctors to describe Bart's syndrome -- one of the variant's of EB, identifying mutations in the gene that causes the variant of EB. About 15 genes in various combinations are associated with the EB spectrum.
"In the most severe forms, children can die a couple of days or weeks after birth," Uitto said. "The skin is not functioning. Or they have infections and eventually develop malnutrition and some form aggressive squamous cell cancer."
Blisters can appear not only on the skin but can scar the mucous membranes of the mouth and the esophagus. Kidney and urinary tract infections are also associated with EB.
"At the milder end, there is an increase in the tendency to get blisters and erosions on their hands and feet when they have trauma," he said.
There is no effective treatment, other than bandages to avoid trauma and infections. New molecular approaches are being developed including bone marrow transfers and fibroplast injections, according to Uitto.
Prenatal testing is available to couples before conception for families at risk.
Brody's parents had no idea they were carriers of the disease. Heather Curtis said she had a normal pregnancy and the baby was a seemingly healthy six pounds, 13 ounces.
But the doctors knew almost immediately, noticing skin missing on the baby's arms, legs and head.
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If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below. Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser windowClick the Privacy tabAdjust your privacy setting if necessary"Bachelorette" badboy Bentley Williams, who infamously quit the ABC reality series after privately acknowledging that he wasn't attracted to bachelorette Ashley Hebert, returned to the show last night. His re-appearance, though brief, forced another suitor to quit the competition.
When host Chris Harrison first told Hebert that Williams has traveled to Hong Kong to see her and was in the same hotel where she was, she seemed stunned.
"Are you serious?" she asked, with tears in her eyes. "He's here. Is this a joke?"
Williams, a 28-year-old divorced dad who lives in Tampa, Fla., left the show in the third episode after openly courting Hebert, then bad-mouthing her behind her back. He told her that he missed his daughter back home, but privately confessed that he was not attracted her.
He had also expressed disappointment that the new bachelorette wasn't Emily Maynard, a former contestant on "The Bachelor."
Hebert -- a 26-year-old dental student from Maine -- has said she was heart-broken when Williams left, and unable to fully respond to the other men vying for her hand because she lacked closure with him.
Last night, she got that closure, and more.
Hebert went to Williams' room, and kissed him in greeting. The two sat on opposite ends of a couch, making small talk, but it soon became clear there wasn't a happy reunion in the making.
"Tell me what's up. Tell me what I've missed," Williams said.
Hebert replied that she'd had "a really hard time" when he left, to which he replied that he "selfishly" appreciated that. She also told him she still could not let go of the strength of her connection to him.
But when she pressed him for more meaningful discussion about his earlier departure and what his reappearance meant for them, he replied that his going home didn't bode well for their future.
"I would implore you to do all you can to see what you have here," he said, referring to the remaining contestants.
At that point, Hebert ? who has been criticized for being weak and foolishly obsessed with Williams, even though she hasn't seen his private confessionals of his true feelings for her ? spiritedly tells him that he should just "be a man" and tell her the truth about his intentions.
She also asked him why he had come all the way to Hong Kong to deliver bad news.
"You should have called," she said.
"I cannot believe I wasted so much time on Bentley," she said afterward. "He's a bad boy that wants to play women and has so many issues in his head ? He's such a player. He's disrespected me to the core."
"You know what? Bentley, if you're watching this, f**k you! I'm done with you," she said.
Following that goodbye, Hebert socialized with the remaining men.
On a date with J.P. Rosenbaum, with whom she says she has the strongest connection, she revealed that she had seen Williams at the hotel and had gotten closure.
Rosenbaum appeared shocked at first, but then thanked her for telling him the truth.
"I'm glad you got the closure you needed and I appreciate your honesty," said Rosenbaum, who told the cameras he is "crazy" about Hebert.
But the other competitors weren't as understanding when Hebert disclosed the news about Williams.
Some expressed surprise; others, disappointment. And some told her that they had left lives behind to devote to the competition, and to her, and felt that her continuing involvement with Williams had devalued their participation.
She seemed shocked by their reactions.
Lucas Daniels, who had a date with Hebert early in the show, said he didn't see how they could make up what had been lost.
"My biggest pet peeve is wasting my time," he told the other contestants.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance in front of a crowd since being shot in the head Jan. 8, rising from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, when he received the Spaceflight Medal.
Giffords, D-Ariz., entered, being pushed in a wheelchair, to a standing ovation from a crowd of hundreds at the awards ceremony auditorium at Space Center Houston, which is next to the Johnson Space Center.
Her hair was much shorter than in previously published photos. She was wearing glasses, a beige scarf, a light shirt, jeans and sneakers. She smiled and waved to the crowd.
Giffords and Kelly held hands for most of the event. She appeared to chat with people sitting around her, and laughed when the crew of STS-134, the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last mission, was introduced. Kelly commanded the mission.
Giffords left during home movies of the crew, shown during the event.
The Spaceflight Medal is awarded to shuttle astronauts who return safely from their missions.
Giffords, shot in the head at a meet-and-greet event with constituents in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, was released from TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston on June 15 after showing months of "clear, continuous improvement," a hospital spokesman said. She continues to be an outpatient at the hospital.
Jared Loughner allegedly opened fire at the Giffords event, where six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Giffords.
Earlier this month, the first pictures of Giffords since the shooting were released on the congresswoman's public Facebook page.
The milestone photos of Giffords were taken by a professional photographer one day after she marked another milestone in her recovery, traveling from Houston to Florida to watch the May 17 launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, captained by her husband.
The photos were the public's first look at Giffords since April 27 when she was seen boarding a plane to Florida.
The day after the shuttle launch, May 18, Giffords was back in Houston, undergoing the surgery to replace a piece of her skull. The injury Giffords received when she was shot in her left forehead led to brain swelling, which required the removal of a portion of her skull to relieve pressure.
As the pictures were released, Giffords' chief of staff Pia Carusone said the congresswoman still was struggling to regain her previous level of communication.
"Her words are back more and more now, but she's still using facial expressions as a way to express," Carusone said. "But when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that's where she's had the trouble."
ABC News' Michael S. James, Bob Woodruff and Leezel Tanglao, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The new documentary about Sarah Palin has yet to debut, and already, it's caused more of a stir than most Hollywood summer blockbusters.
Ahead of today's premiere of "The Undefeated," reports swirled that the former Alaska governor and her aides were inviting prominent Republicans in the key Hawkeye state to meet with Palin after the screening at the Pella Opera House. Those reports, originally circulated by the blog Politico, were shot down late Monday by Republican operatives and Palin's political action committee.
A top Republican operative in Iowa told ABC News that "not only have I not heard from Governor Palin regarding meetings, I am unaware of anyone who has been contacted regarding private meetings."
In an interview, former Iowa GOP executive director and prominent conservative Chuck Laudner told Politico that a "Palin backer" contacted him about attending a mingling session after the film. Palin is slated to attend a cookout near the Pella Opera House after this evening's screening.
Politico posted the story under the headline "Sarah Palin team reaching out to Iowa activists for meetings."
In an interview with ABC News on Monday afternoon, Laudner called the headline "a lie" adding, "I never indicated that."
"I was on a general list for the gathering in the park," he said. "I'm not going now, after all this."
Several other prominent GOP activists also told Real Clear Politics that they had not been contacted regarding potential sit-downs with Palin while she is visiting the important early nominating state.
A statement released by SarahPAC late Monday dismissed the Republican rendezvous reports, saying Palin "looks forward to spending time tomorrow with the people of Pella, Iowa and enjoying the premiere of Stephen K. Bannon's new film, 'The Undefeated.'"
Critical Documentary Comes on Heels of 'The Undefeated'
A cinematic love letter of sorts, "The Undefeated" chronicles Palin's life and rise through government, portraying her as a crusader against politics-as-usual, a true "maverick" as she and Sen. John McCain branded themselves in the 2008 election. It isn't the only Palin documentary garnering attention.
British filmmaker Nick Broomfield is shopping a documentary that examines Palin's life and rise to prominence through interviews with her parents, friends, and colleagues such as ex-legislative director John Bitney, ex-Senate president Lyda Green, ex brother-in-law Mike Wooten and many more.
In a preview clip from the film, Bitney and Green bemoan Palin's habit of using her Blackberry during meetings.
"It was frustrating at times to set up a meeting with legislative leadership to talk about a piece of legislation or a bill or an issue or something that needed to be worked out, and the whole time, she would be doing this," Bitney says, motioning his thumbs as if using a Blackberry. He adds that Palin was "just very unengaged in the conversation" and often, "she wasn't listening."
Green echoes his sentiments.
"I never felt that Sarah was ever connected to the business in the building, going around the Capitol," she says. "She generally had her two Blackberries and was texting most of the time."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the as yet untitled film is screening for buyers this week in Los Angeles and may premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
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June 28, 2011 8:10 AMOn the heels of her official entry into the Presidential campaign in Iowa yesterday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann came to “GMA” today.? I gave her the opportunity to clear up some of her past statements that caused Chris Wallace to ask if she is a “flake” and the Pulitzer-Prize winning website Politifact to find that Bachmann has made more false statements than any of the other GOP contenders.??
Top of my list – Bachmann’s contention earlier this year that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery. And her 2005 argument that eliminating the minimum wage could “virtually eliminate” unemployment.
Here’s the transcript:
Stephanopoulos: Sarah Palin in Iowa, President Obama in Iowa, one step ahead of them - Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. She made it official in Iowa yesterday. This morning she is in New Hampshire. Thanks for joining us congresswoman.
Bachmann: Thank you George, it is great to be with you this morning.
Stephanopoulos: In your announcement you said 'my voice is part of a movement to take back our country.' From whom?
Bachmann: Well, from the people all across the nation. The voice that I learned growing up in Iowa was a very reasonable common sense voice and that is one that I’ve learned, that I’ve taken to – very successfully to the halls of Congress. And now I want to take that to the White House so that we can get the country back on the right track and get job creation going. That’s the message that’s resonating with people and that’s why so many people have been going to my new website that we launched, michelebachmann.com.? They are joining up on Facebook and Twitter. It’s really a growing movement, we’re in New Hampshire today and we’re on our way down to South Carolina to start our bus tour so we are very excited with the response from people all across the country.
Stephanopoulos: You have been making a lot of progress, also getting a lot of scrutiny.? I am not going to get too deep into the "flake" flap from Sunday. But as you make progress in this campaign everything you say is going to get more scrutiny. And the Pulitzer Prize winning website, Politifact, has found that you have the worst record of making false statements of any of the leading contenders. And I wondered if you wanted to take a chance to clear up some of your past statements. For example earlier this year you said that the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence worked tirelessly to end slavery. Now with respect Congresswoman, that’s just not true. Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.
Bachmann: Well you know what’s marvelous is that in this country and under our constitution, we have the ability when we recognize that something is wrong to change it. And that’s what we did in our country. We changed it. We no longer have slavery. That’s a good thing. And what our Constitution has done for our nation is to give us the basis of freedom unparalleled in the rest of the world.
Stephanopoulos: I agree with that…
Bachmann: That’s what people want...they realize our government is taking away our freedom.
Stephanopoulos: But that’s not what you said. You said that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.
Bachmann: Well if you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery….
Stephanopoulos: He wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers – he was a president, he was a Secretary of State, he was a member of Congress, you’re right he did work to end slavery decades later. But so you are standing by this comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery?
Bachmann: Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved.
Stephanopoulos: Well let me move on to another one of your statements on the issue of jobs which is so central to this campaign. You said back in 2005 that taking away the minimum wage could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment.? Where is the evidence for that?
Bachmann: You know I think what we need to do is, again George, focus on job creation. I’m a former federal tax litigation attorney. I worked for years in the federal tax court system and watched how devastating high taxes are on business and individuals and farmers. And I’m also a job creator. My husband and I started from scratch a successful small business. That’s really the focus that I’m hearing today in New Hampshire. People are very upset that the president has us at 9.1 percent unemployment. That is not acceptable. He promised us that we wouldn’t see unemployment go above 8 percent. We’ve lost millions of jobs, people are suffering, they are hurting and I feel their pain and I want to make sure that what we do going forward is actually to address this and turn the economy around and get it on the right track because that’s really what people care about – that’s what they’re talking to me about all across the country.
Stephanopoulos: I think that’s what everyone wants to get this unemployment down but do you still believe that eliminating the minimum wage could virtually eliminate unemployment?
Bachmann: I think what we need to do is bring economists together, people who have been in this field to let us know what are the job killing regulations that could help us in turn put the economy on the right track. And so I think we need to across the board look at all of the regulations of various departments and do that. Unfortunately under President Obama we’ve seen a tremendous expansion of even more government regulations, that’s lead to even fewer jobs being created. So there’s several tactics we need to look at, one is the tax code, another is the regulatory burden that adds approximately 1.7 trillion of burden on job creators. If we could lift that then I think we’d see more people get higher wages, better benefits and more jobs because what we want is more job growth in America rather than to see jobs transferring overseas.
Stephanopoulos: Let me try one more time, so you are saying that the minimum wage is one of those regulations you’d take a look at, you’d try to eliminate it?
Bachmann: Well what I’m saying is that I think we need to look at all regulations, whatever--whatever ones are inhibiting job growth that’s what we need to --
Stephanopoulos: And the minimum wage is one of them?
Bachmann: All regulations George. I think every department. We have just too much expansion of government and so what we need to do is tamp that down so that the American people can keep more of what they make.
Stephanopoulos: Just a couple more questions. Do you think that Sarah Palin is trying to rain on your parade by coming to Iowa today?
Bachmann: You know I think that it’s wonderful that the governor is coming to Iowa. I think that they’ll enjoy her, she’ll certainly enjoy them. People in Iowa are just such wonderful transparent people and it’s their values and their character and their morals that they poured into me when I was growing up there as a little girl. That’s the voice that I want to take to the White House because that’s a voice that has been missing for a long time. We need that kind of common sense again and that – that happy, fiery optimism and I’m looking forward to taking that to the White House.
Stephanopoulos: Finally one—one final question. I think one of the most impressive things that people find in your background is the fact that you and your husband have helped raise 23 foster children and I know you want to shield them but are they prepared and are you prepared for the loss of privacy that comes with the president campaign? And is that something you are concerned about for them?
Bachmann: Well when we were making this momentous decision we sat down for a long time as a family and contemplated what this was meaning and yes, we are ready. We have five wonderful biological children. Our last one is off to college our oldest one is a doctor. And then we had great – a great 23 foster children in our home as well. And as you can imagine and appreciate we’ve tried to keep a good handle on their privacy and we will do that, we will respect their privacy. We are thankful that we had them but we also want to observe their privacy and that of their families.
Stephanopoulos: Okay Congresswoman thanks so much for joining us again this morning.
Bachmann: Good morning, thank you.
--George Stephanopoulos
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There are 25 work days between today and financial apocalypse. That's when the U.S. government exhausts emergency borrowing authority and the nation's debt ceiling must be raised. But between now and then are only 12 days when both chambers of Congress will be in session.
The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate have proven to be miles apart ideologically when it comes to their goals on debt reduction, but the two chambers have also been furlongs away physically for much of this year's legislative session.
In the nearly six months that Congress has been in session, there have been only 59 days when both chambers met for legislative business at the same time, an unusually low number according to some congressional scholars. That means so far this year the flags flew simultaneously over both chambers about 65 percent of the time.
Normally the House and Senate take joint breaks around holidays such as the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day. Not this year. The House is out this week for a break leading up to Independence Day while the Senate takes its holiday break next week.
It will be the same story in November when the House takes its Veterans' Day leave the week of the holiday and the Senate takes its the week after.
"It's very unusual," said Norm Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "You have a Congress where the House and Senate are completely out of sync. Usually there is a very substantial amount of overlap."
But this year, new House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, whose office sets the House schedule, said in a Dec. 8, 2010, letter to his fellow representatives that his intent was to create certainty by publishing the full calendar before the start of the session, increase efficiency and productivity by grouping working days together, and guaranteeing at least one five-day constituent work week every month.
There was no mention of taking the Senate's schedule into consideration. The Senate did not make any amendments to its calendar following Cantor's announcement of the House's schedule.
The houses are not meant to work in tandem. But the scheduling has created some difficulty for debt talks, which stalled late last week.
"The image of Wall Street people pulling their hair out and members kind of back in their districts talking about agriculture subsidies strikes you as pretty strange," said Sean Theriault, a congressional scholar at the University of Texas.
It will take until the last possible moment "before the world collapses" for lawmakers to strike a deal on the debt ceiling, Thierault said.
A group of about 30 protestors from No Labels, which advocates for bipartisan cooperation, took to the streets outside the Capitol building Monday to urge members of Congress to stay in session until they reach deal to raise the debt ceiling.
"The American people are tired of partisan gridlock and August 2 is fast approaching. Our elected officials should stay on the job until a deal is done. No deal - No break!" said David Walker, a No Labels founding member.
The House is currently on a 10-day break and the Senate breaks on Friday for 10 days. Two weeks before the default deadline, representatives will be in their home districts for what they call a "constituent work week."
"It's just unacceptable for them to take this much time off," said Josh Zeitlin, a No Labels spokesman. "We definitely think that the American people are sending a clear message that the fiscal crisis is a huge deal and Congress needs to get the job done."
Vice President Biden complained about the conflicting schedules in May after leaving one of the bicameral, bipartisan debt talks that he was spearheading on the hill.
"It is a little inconvenient, totally unintended. The House is out one week, the Senate is out another week," Biden told reporters May 24.
House negotiators stayed in Washington during one of their constituent work weeks and senators involved in the talks stayed through one of their breaks so that the talks would not be postponed because of the differing schedules.
Things haven't gotten any better in the meantime. The latest round of negotiations were derailed last week after the two Republican members, Cantor and Jon Kyl, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, walked out over disagreements about raising taxes.
President Obama called the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate separately to the White House today to try to break the impasse.
