At this rate, we'll all be autistic in 20 years.

1 in 88 American kids is born with autism.

1 in 166 American kids is born with autism.
1 in 12 American kids have ADHD.
Odds of your child dying in a car accident are 1 in 23,000.
1 in 6 Americans lives in poverty.
1 in 6 American kids is starving.
1 in 9 elderly Americans is abused.
36,000 Americans die annually from the flu.
12,000 Americans die annually from the flu.
1 in 160 American kids is born with autism.
1 in 150 American kids is born with autism.
1 in 110 American kids is born with autism.
60 million American adults are obese.
1 in 4 girls is sexually abused by age 18.
1 in 6 boys is sexually abused by age 18.

It's not child pornography 'cause Time is run by leftists, and they get to define our words, you prudes.

P.S. If she had been breastfeeding him his entire life, she wouldn't...uh...look like that.

Fortuitously Timed Story Of The Day

 This is just the beginning, kiddies. By the end of October, Romney will have been accused of running up the national debt to $16 trillion.


**********  UPDATE 5/11/2012  **********

Sister of Alleged Romney Target Has 'No Knowledge' of Any Bullying Incident

 - ABC via Yahoo! News


From ABC via Yahoo! News:
Romney Offers Apology for High School Pranks, Says Homosexuality Was Not On His Mind

  Mitt Romney today offered an apology after a Washington Post piece alleged pranks the candidate pulled during his years at an all-boys high school in Michigan targeted his gay peers.

Romney admitted during a radio interview that he did some "dumb things" but that "homosexuality was the furthest thing from his mind" when it came to the jokes he played on classmates.

"I'm not going to be too concerned about their piece they talk about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school and they describe some that well you just say to yourself, back in high school well I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended obviously I apologize but overall high school years were a long time ago," said Romney in an interview on Kilmeade and Friends radio show about his years at the Cranbook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Asked specifically as to whether he remembered an anecdote in the story that describes Romney cutting the hair of one of his classmates who was "presumed" to be gay because the candidate did not like his long hairstyle, Romney responded, "You know, I don't."

"I don't remember that incident," Romney said, laughing, before adding that whether someone was "homosexual, that was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case."

The Washington Post report quotes four students who do recall the incident.
"As for pranks that were played back then, I don't remember them all, but again you know, [in my] high school days I did of stupid things. I'm afraid I gotta say sorry for it," Romney said.

Romney asserted several times during the radio interview that the Washington Post article noted that the students who reported having pranks played on them "didn't come out of the closet until years later," suggesting that the pranks could not have been targeted at gay students.

Regarding one story in the article that described Romney encouraging another student who was known for teasing another gay student by remarking, "Atta girl."
"I can't remember, you know my guess is a lot of time in my years in my boarding school where boys who do something and people say he say 'atta girl," said Romney.

"As for the teasing and the taunts that go on in high school, that's a long time ago, for me that's about what 48 years ago, if there's anything I said that was offensive to somebody I'm certainly sorry about that, very deeply sorry about that," Romney said.

The Washington Post story about Romney's high school years posted just a day after the issue of same-sex marriage was catapulted to the forefront of the election, President Obama saying he now supports gay marriage while Romney reaffirmed that he does not.

Romney used the radio interview this morning to suggest that while some may want to talk about pranks he played in high school, he still believes the economy is the most important issue facing the nation.

Wortwhile Charity Of The Day

Biking for Babies

 In our 4th year of the ride, Biking for Babies will attempt to complete over 1100 miles in hopes of raising $40,000 for eight pro-life organizations in the Midwest. The ride will begin on May 21 in New Orleans and conclude in Chicago on May 29.

The team will be larger than ever–with ten riders each hoping to complete the entire distance under their own power. The riders come from all parts of the Midwest and share a common hope in creating a greater respect for human life. 

Please be a part of the riders’ preparation by following their weekly blogs, learning about the charities they will be supporting (see “Charities” tab), learning about their personal backgrounds (see “Meet the Riders” tab), “liking” our group on facebook, or donating to the cause via the tab on the right of the website. 

Thank you for your interest in helping the 4th annual Biking for Babies ride. Your financial and spiritual support means a great deal to the whole team!
God Bless!

Meet us on the ride!

The Biking for Babies ’12 team will be making stops in towns along the way. But, the BIG party will be when we finish in Chicago on May 29th. The event will be held as follows: 

  Dinner/Our Arrival: begins at 5p.m. at Blue Star Restaurant at 1209 North Noble Street, Chicago, Illinois

Reception with nationally-known pro-life speaker, Jason Jones: 6p.m.

Mass to follow at 7p.m. at St. Stansislaus parish (1300 North Noble Street, Chicago, Illinois)

 

Student Newspaper Of The Day

From The Paisano of the University of Texas at San Antonio:

 Trade in your soul for a porn magazine at UTSA By Dylan Crice 

 Much like an annoying colony of fire ants after heavy rain, a mound of radical, extremist atheists frequently pop up on the university grounds espousing their nihilistic dribble at public meetings. Each year, a small group of very vocal individuals known as Atheist Agenda (AA) burst forth upon the UTSA campus, desperately seeking attention by trying to coax countless students to trade in religious texts for pornographic magazines. Creatively, AA has titled this obnoxious appearance “Smut for Smut.” However reprehensible, AA’s convergence upon the UTSA campus is protected by freedom of speech, but at what cost?

Many students and onlookers are noticeably distressed by this attempt to vilify what they believe to be sacred and the cornerstone of American society. These “Smut for Smut” events generally create an overtly hostile atmosphere within the university and play out as carefully orchestrated publicity events that are designed to gain attention by offending the sensibilities of the majority. Many students go to school to focus on academics solely. These students can sometimes find these AA gatherings to be very disruptive and emotionally upsetting. Often, students momentarily forget the tenets of their religious beliefs and lose their temper, while others seek to understand and challenge the collection of malcontents and their radical belief system.

Consequently, UTSA police officers and security personal must be diverted from their normal security duties to protect this aggravating group of naysayers.

AA does not just target Christian Bibles. The small group also accepts Korans, self-help books (God forbid someone try to help themselves) and other religious texts. If an individual wants to trade in their text, then the lucky person can look forward to receiving a Penthouse or Playboy magazine from wild-eyed AA members.

AA maintains that they want to educate people about the horrors that lie within religious texts and to finally reveal how dangerous these works of fiction are to the masses. Their preferred method for communicating this to students is by trading something of greater value for something they believe to be of lesser value.

I find it very troubling that these young people are willing to devote so much time and energy to a cause that is disruptive to the student population and adversely impacts the image of the university within the community.

I often imagine prospective new students taking a tour of UTSA, exploring the buildings, the faculty and the students that embody the tradition that is so much a part of the this university and then witnessing the degradation that emanates from ‘Smut on Smut’. 
Ultimately, it appears as if AA wants to trade their values for the values that the majority of student hold so dear. In other words, the Atheist Agenda wants to trade historic writings that have had a profound impact on countless individuals in exchange for rubbish that most people could care less about.

Even the dumbass commies who voted for him [and will do so again] know he's a thief.

WARNING: Citizen Lovitz's language is not edited in this clip. It is not appropriate for little kiddies, kiddies.


 Leftist Hollyweird Funnyman Jon Lovitz Explodes At Obama: 'What AF**king A**hole'

From The Daily Caller:

SNL cuts sketch critical of Obama

 The Daily Caller has obtained a scrapped sketch critical of President Barack Obama that was intended for airing at the opening of last night’s “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.

In the skit, President Obama addresses Americans soon after the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden — and he makes sure to remind viewers that all credit for the raid on the terrorist leader’s compound belongs to him.

“I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing,” the president, portrayed by Fred Armisen, begins.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at home this year, as I had to fly to Afghanistan, to remind President Karzai that, exactly one year ago, we killed Osama bin Laden, and that the decision to do so was a gutsy one,” the president continues. “And was mine.”

The president then outlines what gifts are appropriate on the anniversaries of “Killing Osama bin Laden Day,” and reminds his audience that “heavy drinking, and Killing Osama bin Laden Day, are never a good combination.”

The full text of the skit, which was authored by comedian Jim Downey, is viewable below. It is not clear why the skit was scrapped.

The real President Obama has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks for allegedly politicizing bin Laden’s death by taking too much credit for the operation that killed him.

Instead of the skit, NBC opted instead to air a parody of Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” That skit, which also featured Armisen, mocked Fox News personalities by portraying them as clueless partisans.

“Shame on President Barack Obama, who is running a campaign ad that argues that Mitt Romney would not have made the decision to launch the raid,” said Taran Killam, who portrayed Fox personality Steve Doocy.

“I can name one person who wouldn’t have launched that raid: Barack Obama!” Bobby Moynihan, playing Fox host Brian Kilmeade, interjected.

  Obama Address Cold Open - May 6, 2012

It's simple. Voters can keep a better eye on a criminal who's locked up.

From The "Christian Science" Monitor via Yahoo! News:
Ouch! Obama loses 41 percent of W.Va. primary vote to federal inmate

Meet Keith Judd, who's incarcerated in Texas for extortion. He's also a serial presidential candidate, and in West Virginia's Democratic primary Tuesday, he grabbed 41 percent of the vote from President Obama. Republicans are gleeful. 

 In an embarrassment to President Obama, Federal Inmate No. 11593-051 – otherwise known as Keith Judd – won 10 counties and 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday.

Mr. Judd is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he is serving a 210-month sentence for extortion, according to The Charleston Gazette. Judd had paid the $2,500 filing fee and submitted a notarized “certificate of announcement” to appear on the ballot.

He is even qualified to have a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, because he won at least 15 percent of vote. However, no one has stepped forward to fill that role.

But those are just details. The Republicans are having a field day with this slap at the president. Mr. Obama is deeply unpopular in West Virginia and was already certain to lose the small mountainous state in November. But the fact that enough people bothered to turn out in an uncontested primary to register a protest against the incumbent is telling.

“Just how unpopular does someone have to be for this to happen?” says Joe Pounder, research director and deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee, in a statement.

He notes that Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia wouldn’t say whom he voted for in the primary. “Apparently, it’s a smarter political calculation to let people believe you may have voted for the guy in federal prison over the sitting president of your own party. Just saying,” Mr. Pounder writes.

West Virginia’s Democratic governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, has also not revealed his vote. Energy is a big issue in his state – America’s second-biggest producer of coal – and the Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of mining-related permits has angered the local industry, writes the Associated Press.

In addition to being a convicted felon, Judd is also a serial presidential candidate. In the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary, he finished third behind Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton with 1.7 percent of the vote, per The Charleston Gazette.

According to the website for the secretary of State of West Virginia, the state’s primaries are closed. Major party members are required to “vote the ballot” of their party. But “all the major parties allow members of minor parties and unaffiliated voters to vote their ballots upon request,” the site says.

Still, the 41 percent who voted for Judd had to have included a lot of registered Democrats. One voter, an electrician named Ronnie Brown from Cross Lanes, W.Va., told the AP that he’s a conservative Democrat who voted “against Obama.”

"I don't like him,” Mr. Brown said. “He didn't carry the state before, and I'm not going to let him carry it again."

And yes, Brown did vote for Judd – or “that guy out of Texas,” as he put it.

Emperor Haile Unlikely believes Our Boys to be his Praetorian Guard.

More excrement vomits from the mouth of the Hater of the Free World.

From ABC via Yahoo! News:
Transcript: Robin Roberts ABC News Interview With President Obama

 ...But I have to tell you that over the course of-- several years, as I talk to friends and family and neighbors. When I think about-- members of my own staff who are incredibly committed, in monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together. When I think about-- those soldiers or airmen or marines or-- sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf-- [Emphasis mine. F.G.] and yet, feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask, Don't Tell is gone, because-- they're not able to-- commit themselves in a marriage...

Dumbo the Presiphant* comes out of the closet as a Confederate slavemaster; Endorses states' rights

Let's dissect the the latest horrorshow, shall we?

From ABC via Yahoo! News:
Transcript: Robin Roberts ABC News Interview With President Obama

 Benito answers a question about sodomites being allowed to play "house" with each other

...At a certain point, I've just concluded that-- for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that-- I think same-sex couples should be able to get married. Now-- I have to tell you that part of my hesitation on this has also been I didn't want to nationalize the issue. There's a tendency when I weigh in to think suddenly it becomes political and it becomes polarized. 

And what you're seeing is, I think, states working through this issue-- in fits and starts, all across the country. Different communities are arriving at different conclusions, at different times. And I think that's a healthy process and a healthy debate. And I continue to believe that this is an issue that is gonna be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what's recognized as a marriage. 

Racist!

ROBIN ROBERTS: Well, Mr. President, it's-- it's not being worked out on the state level. We saw that Tuesday in North Carolina, the 30th state to announce its ban on gay marriage. 

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well-- well-- well, what I'm saying is is that different states are coming to different conclusions. But this debate is taking place-- at a local level. And I think the whole country is evolving and changing. And-- you know, one of the things that I'd like to see is-- that a conversation continue in a respectful way. 

I think it's important to recognize that-- folks-- who-- feel very strongly that marriage should be defined narrowly as-- between a man and a woman-- many of them are not coming at it from a mean-spirited perspective. They're coming at it because they care about families. And-- they-- they have a different understanding, in terms of-- you know, what the word "marriage" should mean. And I-- a bunch of 'em are friends of mine-- you know, pastors and-- you know, people who-- I deeply respect...

Oh-oh. It must be election time. He's droppin' letters to get street cred.

* An Asian presiphant, of course. An African presiphant would be racist.

The truth about Lizzie Warren's ancestry isn't funny. It's sick.

It's the Joseph Goebbels strategy, kiddies - Accuse your enemies of your crimes.

I'll bet her bedroom is covered in Cherokee scalps.


From the truth-tellers at Breitbart.com:

Elizabeth Warren's ancestor rounded up Cherokees for the Trail of Tears

 For over a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Warren has described herself as a Native American.  When recently asked to provide evidence of her ancestry, she pointed to an unsubstantiated claim on an 1894 Oklahoma Territory marriage license application by her great-great grand uncle William J. Crawford that his mother, O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, Ms. Warren's great-great-great grandmother, was a Cherokee.  

After researching her story, it is obvious that her "family lore" is just fiction.

As I pointed out in my article here on Sunday, no evidence supports this claim. O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford had no Cherokee heritage, was listed as "white" in the Census of 1860, and was most likely half Swedish and half English, Scottish, or German, or some combination thereof. (Note, the actual 1894 marriage license makes no claim of Cherokee ancestry.)

But the most stunning discovery about the life of O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford is that her husband, Ms. Warren's great-great-great grandfather, was apparently a member of the Tennessee Militia who rounded up Cherokees from their family homes in the Southeastern United States and herded them into government-built stockades in what was then called Ross’s Landing (now Chattanooga), Tennessee—the point of origin for the horrific Trail of Tears, which began in January, 1837.

This new information about Ms. Warren’s true heritage came as a direct result of a lead provided to me by William Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection, who in turn had received the information from one of his readers. Jacobson, who has questioned Warren's explanation for her law faculty listing, calls this discovery "the ultimate and cruelest irony" of the Warren Cherokee saga.

Jonathan Crawford, O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford’s husband and apparently Ms. Warren's great-great-great grandfather, served in the East Tennessee Mounted Infantry Volunteer Militia commanded by Brigadier General R. G. Dunlap from late 1835 to late 1836. While under Dunlap’s command he was a member of Major William Lauderdale’s Battalion, and Captain Richard E. Waterhouse’s Company.

These were the troops responsible for removing Cherokee families from homes they had lived in for generations in the three states that the Cherokee Nations had considered their homelands for centuries: Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.  

While these involuntary home removals were not characterized by widespread violence, the newly displaced Cherokee mothers, fathers, and children found an oppressive and sometimes brutal welcome when they finally arrived at the hastily constructed containment areas. An estimated 4,000 Cherokees were warehoused in Ross’s Landing stockades for months awaiting supplies and additional armed guards the Federal Government believed necessary to relocate them on foot to Oklahoma.

Jonathan Crawford most likely did not join the regular Army troops who "escorted" these Cherokees along the Trail of Tears. He did, however, serve once more with Major William Lauderdale's re-formed Batallion of Tennessee Mounted Infantry Volunteer Militia. This group fought the Seminole Indians in Florida during the Second Seminole War. Crawford arrived in Florida in November, 1837, and served there for six months until his unit was disbanded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana the following May. (Note: It was not uncommon in those days for militia formed to serve for a limited period of time under specific commanders would reform later under the same commanders.)

Jonathan Crawford's service as a Private in Captain Richard E. Waterhouse's Company of Major William Lauderdale's Battalion of Mounted Infantry in Brigadier General R. G. Dunlap's East Tennessee Mounted Infantry Volunteers is confirmed by his appearance in the muster roll of the Brigade, taken around June of 1836. (Note that this transcription of the muster roll incorrectly lists the date as 1832.)

His service a year later (1837) in Major William Lauderdale's Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Infantry (Five companies of volunteers, one of which was led by Captain Richard E. Waterhouse) is confirmed by his widow O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford’s 1851 pension application before the Bledsoe County, Tennessee commissioners

Meanwhile, William J. Crawford (Elizabeth Warren's great-great grandfather who would, fifty-seven years later, falsely claim that his mother was Cherokee in that now-infamous 1894 Oklahoma Territory marriage license application) was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee in 1837. This was just a few months after his father apparently helped remove thousands of Cherokees from their homes and a few months before his father went off to fight Seminole Indians in Florida.

His father, Jonathan Crawford, Elizabeth Warren's great-great-great grandfather, died in Jackson County, Tennessee in 1841. His mother, O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, died sometime between 1860 and 1870 - most likely in Bledsoe County, Tennessee.

Neither O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, Jonathan Crawford, nor any of their seven other children, apparently ever claimed that O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford had Cherokee heritage. 


As recently as two weeks ago, Ms. Warren publicly claimed to have Native American ancestry. In Dorchester, Massachusetts on April 27 at the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen Apprentice Training Center she stated,  “I am very proud of my Native American heritage.” Yet, decades after she first made this same claim, it now appears that it is without any foundation.

It is time for Ms. Warren to publicly acknowledge the truth of her ancestry. It is time for her to admit that she has no Native American heritage that she can prove; and it is time for her to acknowledge instead, that she is likely a direct descendant of a Tennessee Militiaman who apparently rounded up the ancestors of those who truly have Cherokee heritage, the first step in their forced removal from the Southeastern United States to Oklahoma over the long and tragic Trail of Tears. 

Michael Patrick Leahy is the Editor of Broadside Books’ Voices of the Tea Party e-book series, and author of Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement.

"Elizabeth Warren" is merely Ward Churchill* in drag.

Wow. The yahoos at Yahoo! actually let some reasonableness slip through. Here's Michelle Malkin to take apart the Bay State's commie cow who dares to slander the heroic Cherokees.

“Sacaja-Whiner”: Elizabeth Warren and the Oppression Olympics

Elizabeth Warren is the Harvard law professor running for Senate in Massachusetts as a Democratic populist-progressive champion. But don't call her "Elizabeth Warren." Call her "Pinocchio-hontas," "Chief Full-of-Lies," "Running Joke" or "Sacaja-whiner."
  

Warren has claimed questionable Native American minority status for years to reap career "diversity" benefits. Now, Cherokee leaders, campaign rival GOP Sen. Scott Brown and an army of Twitter detractors have called her out for gaming the racial-preference system. Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

The Boston Herald reported last Friday that Harvard administrators "prominently touted Warren's Native American background ... in an effort to bolster their diversity hiring record in the '90s as the school came under heavy fire for a faculty that was then predominantly white and male." When asked for proof of her tribal heritage, Warren's campaign first denied that she had ever bragged about it. But from 1986 to 1995, Warren listed herself as a minority professor in a professional law school directory.

While the Democrat's team scrounged for evidence over the weekend, Warren stalled for time by asserting that she didn't need to provide documentation because family "lore" backed her up. Someone told her a story, you see, and magically conferred native status upon her. Through narrative, all things are possible! (Notorious "fake Indian" Ward Churchill is wondering why he didn't think of this alibi first before the University of Colorado at Boulder fired him for academic fraud.)

On Tuesday, Warren finally discovered a great-great-great-grandmother supposedly "certified as Cherokee" and a random cousin somehow involved with a museum that preserves Native American art. There's also a great-great-grandfather somewhere in Warren's dusty genealogical records who spent time on a Cherokee reservation. Because walking a mile in someone else's moccasins is now just as good as being born in them.

Native American officials aren't buying Warren's 1/10,000th Cherokee claim. Suzan Shown Harjo, a former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, told the Herald: "If you believe you are these things then that's fine and dandy, but that doesn't give you the right to claim yourself as Native American."

When Brown raised the issue, Warren and her progressive strategists traded in the candidate's Native American blanket for a War on Women victim's mask — because asking a privileged Harvard prof to verify her minority claims is sexist, of course.

"If Scott Brown has questions about Elizabeth Warren's well-known qualifications," her campaign manager railed, "he ought to ask them directly instead of hiding behind the nasty insinuations of his campaign and trying to score political points. Once again, the qualifications and ability of a woman are being called into question by Scott Brown, who did the same thing with the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. It's outrageous."

Once again, the left's incurable love affair with oppression chic is on naked display. It's an Olympic competition of the haves to show their have-not cred. Just a few weeks ago, it was the White House tokenizing Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — the "wise Latina" — as "disabled" in an official graph promoting the administration's minority hiring practices. What's her disability? She has diabetes. No, it's not debilitating, nor does it fall anywhere near the definition of disability under federal law.

But like their friend Elizabeth Warren, the Ivy League social engineers at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. just couldn't help embellishing their "diversity" record to score political correctness points. Birds of a manufactured feather flock together.See

Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010).

* See Fake Indian Update.

Non-perverts strike a blow against the forces of sodomite fascism.

From AFP via Yahoo! News:

North Carolina bans gay marriages

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Voters in North Carolina have approved a state constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships, still divisive social issues in the United States.

 

Wrong. North Carolina already has a law forbidding same sex "marriages". This vote basically copied part of the dictionary into the NC constitution. Trying to change the definitions of words is practically the definition of totalitarianism. Please read 1984.

BTW, why not have the report filed by someone actually in North Carolina?

 

Coservatives landslide a Repansycan dinosaur into extinction!

Watch as the AmericaLast media does everything possible to ignore the obvious - people are pissed off.
 
From AP via Yahoo! News:


Lugar loss has lessons for Republicans, Democrats

 Veteran Sen. Richard Lugar's loss in the Indiana GOP primary provides warnings for President Barack Obama and his Democrats as well as Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans six months before the November election.

In one state at least, anti-incumbent sentiment is coursing through the electorate, a potentially ominous sign for the incumbent Democratic president seeking a second term and lawmakers of all political stripes. The GOP also remains deeply split between the establishment wing and insurgent tea party, a fissure that underscores the challenge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and other GOP candidates face in the months ahead to unite the party.

"We are experiencing deep political divisions in our society right now," Lugar, 80, one of the nation's longest-serving senators, said in a statement after the results were known. "These divisions have stalemated progress in critical areas. But these divisions are not insurmountable."

The loss of Lugar — who boasted of strong conservative credentials but was lambasted by critics for working with Democrats — also highlights the degree to which deal-makers are becoming a rarity on a Capitol Hill often consumed by partisan gridlock. He follows Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate known for bipartisanship, in leaving the Senate at year's end. Others too, including former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have left in recent years.

Ultimately, it was Lugar's efforts to cross party lines and his longevity in Washington — two issues that tea party-backed challenger Richard Mourdock used against him — that proved too much for Indiana Republicans.

"Sen. Lugar has sided too many times with the Democrats," Stacy Rutkowski of Valparaiso, who voted for Mourdock, said on her way out of her polling place. "He's been there six terms, and it's time for some new blood."
A few hours after conceding, Lugar slammed Mourdock for embracing "groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican Party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it."
 
"This is not conducive to problem solving and governance," Lugar said. "And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator. Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve."

Broadly, Lugar's defeat may create an opportunity for Democrats working to hang onto a narrow four-seat majority in the Senate. National party leaders vowed to help centrist Democrat Joe Donnelly, a three-term House member from South Bend, compete against Mourdock, the conservative state treasurer, in a Senate race the party otherwise would have bypassed.

But whether Democrats follow through with that pledge — and go all in for Donnelly by spending large sums of money in the race — is an open question. Indiana has been a hard place for Democrats to win. Four years ago, Obama became the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since 1964, and he did so by a single percentage point, turning out vast numbers from the Chicago-influenced urban and industrial region in Indiana's northwest.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Canter said the race, with Lugar out, "could move in a more competitive direction." The group and a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates began attacking Mourdock even before the polls were closed. Both described him as out of step with not just mainstream Republicans, but mainstream voters.

Democratic strategist Tad Devine said Mourdock's conservative profile has Democrats optimistic about their chances despite Indiana's Republican trend. Said Devine, "If the Senate race turns out to be a moderate Democrat and an out-of-step Republican, moderate voters who regret that they can't vote for Lugar will help Donnelly."

But Republican strategist Phil Musser doubts the state will be in play come the fall.

"Nationally, Democrats will throw a lot of money into it quickly. I'm not one who believes it will be a competitive Senate race," said Musser, a former Romney aide.

The race illustrated vulnerabilities for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Incumbents, Obama included, are at risk no matter their party at a time when the economically struggling public is sour over anyone linked to Washington. So, it seems, are lawmakers with a history of working with members of the opposite party.

Just ask Lugar.

Mourdock hounded the veteran senator over questions about his Virginia home — and Indiana residency — and his long Washington ties. The challenger also took Lugar to task over his collaboration with Obama. The two worked together on nonproliferation issues, and Lugar was one of only a handful of Republicans to vote to confirm Obama's two appointments to the Supreme Court.

It wasn't just those issues that didn't sit well with voters, who craved change after nearly four decades of Lugar representing them. That was clear from signs stating simply "retire Lugar" that dotted the roadside along U.S. 30 east of Valparaiso, a Republican-leaning town in northern Indiana.

"He's a good and decent man," Valparaiso Republican Bruce Garrison said of Lugar after casting his vote for Mourdock. "But how can the country keep going on the path it's on? And how can we send the same people back to fix it?"

It's that reject-the-status-quo strain among voters that incumbents up and down the ballot will find themselves having to fight against over the next six months.

That Lugar — an establishment candidate if there ever was one — fell to a tea party-backed Republican made clear that the divisions within the GOP that were on display in 2010 primaries across the country had not yet healed.

"There is an element of the Republican base, and it's stronger than ever now, that was never going to vote for Richard Lugar," said Dan Dumezich, a Lugar supporter from northwest Indiana and Romney's state co-chairman.

The split presents a huge challenge for Romney as he seeks to unify the Republican Party in the coming months.

He has campaigned as the establishment choice, but he was beaten badly at times by insurgent favorites, first former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and later in a series of contests by conservative former Sen. Rick Santorum.

Now Romney is working to mend the rifts. Whether he can — and whether the tea party and other conservatives rally behind him — won't be clear until November.

For more laughs, check out the left-fascist comedy stylings of Mr. Heinz- Kerry, who seems to have finally stopped lying about his war record. [Hee-hee. I'm kidding. It's just that nobody pays any attention to him any longer.]

John Kerry Laments Dick Lugar's Primary Loss - ABC OTUS News via Yahoo! News