Eric Cantor Blames Obama for Republicans' Harmful Tax Policy (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in response to the State of the Union address by Barack Obama. President Obama discussed the "Buffett Rule," which says essentially that very wealthy people should shoulder a fair share of the nation's tax burden, according to CBS. Cantor attempted to sting Obama in his commentary -- but was Cantor's speech honest?

Warren Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, is said to have paid a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss, according to the Washington Post. Cantor claimed to "care about Warren Buffett's secretary," according to Politico. Cantor rhetoric then took a confusing turn by trying to pass the buck for his own party's policies and blame the tax inequality problem on the Obama Administration.

Let's take a quick look at the facts.

If you examine the tax history chart from the Tax Policy Center you can see what the highest tax rates have been since income taxes were established. The top tax rate has been exactly the same since the Bush tax cuts for tax year 2003. The Obama administration has not raised the marginal income tax level.

Here's another fact you can see: During the Reagan-Bush I era the highest tax rate dropped like a rock while the economy tanked. During the Clinton years it was raised a bit, and the economy prospered. During the Bush II era it dropped again, and look, what a shock -- the economy tanked.

If Buffett pays a lower tax rate than Bosanek it's not because Obama made her pay more. It's because right-wing administrations keep lowering the taxes, letting rich people pay less.

The lesson to be learned here is that a nation cannot prosper while the wealthy continue a class war against the poor and redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich by failing to pay their fair share.

If the Obama administration is to blame in any way for this situation it's by failing to raise taxes on the wealthy investor class to reverse the catastrophic harm caused by the unending efforts of the right wing to protect the rich.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120131/pl_ac/10884421_eric_cantor_blames_obama_for_republicans_harmful_tax_policy

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Base Jumping Off the Most Insane Pool in the World [Video]

Singapore's Marina Bay Sands hotel is home to one of the most-photographed and internet beloved swimming pools on the planet. It's atop a massive tower, and looks seamless, like a levitating mirror. So why not leap off off of it? More »


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Gingrich makes play for evangelicals, tea partiers

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with his wife Callista, campaign at The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, meets with supporters during a campaign event at the The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

(AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has been reaching out to evangelicals and tea party advocates as the Florida primary approaches, touting an endorsement from campaign dropout Herman Cain as well as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's recent accusation that the establishment was trying to "crucify" him.

Standing outside the First Jacksonville Baptist church as dusk fell, Kurt Kelly, chairman of Florida Faith Leaders for Newt Gingrich, said the candidate held a midweek conference call with an estimated 1,000 evangelical pastors around the state.

He said the goal of the call was to solidify support as much as possible behind Gingrich, at the expense of rival contender Rick Santorum, who is running a poor third in the pre-primary polls in the state.

In the course of the conversation, Kelly said, Gingrich "shared his faith, shared his vision and shared his past."

Kelly did not expand on his reference to Gingrich's past, although the former speaker has been married three times.

He said one of the other pastors on the call questioned Gingrich further, and the candidate "showed a contrite heart and showed true confession and true repentance."

Gingrich was anything but repentant in his remarks about Romney during the day.

During a pair of Sunday morning television interviews, he said his chief rival had adopted a "basic policy of carpet-bombing his opponent."

One of the ads being run by Romney suggests that Gingrich is exaggerating his ties to Ronald Reagan. Gingrich chafed at that, noting that the former president's son Michael was joining him on the campaign trail Monday "to prove to everybody that I am the heir to the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts."

Cain, a tea party favorite, will also appear with Gingrich on Monday.

At a large rally Sunday at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida, Gingrich accused Democratic President Barack Obama of coddling foreign leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I believe we need to be stronger than our potential enemies," Gingrich told the crowd. "The president lives in a fantasy world where there are no enemies, there are just misguided people with whom he has not yet had coffee."

He said Chavez "deliberately, cynically and insultingly gave him an anti-American book and Obama didn't have a clue that he'd been insulted."

He said the Obama administration should be focused on Ahmadinejad's "pledge to wipe out Israel and drive America out of the Middle East."

"But if I were a left-wing Harvard law graduate surrounded by really clever left-wing academics I would know that this was really a sign that (Ahmadinejad) probably had a bad childhood," Gingrich said.

He described Obama's approach to Ahmadinejad as, "If only we could unblock him we could be closer to him and we could be friends together."

Gingrich, who served in the House for two decades, also made a populist pitch as a Washington outsider. He said the GOP's "old establishment" is trying to block his path to nomination.

"It's time that someone stood up for hard-working, taxpaying Americans and said, 'Enough,'" Gingrich said. "And if that makes the old order uncomfortable, my answer is, 'Good.'"

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-29-Gingrich/id-3cbdc205397044fca4d4379b6dba46a7

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Last Man on Moon & 7 Other Space Leaders Back Mitt Romney (SPACE.com)

The last man on the moon, first space shuttle pilot and six other space leaders signed an open letter today (Jan. 27) supporting the candidacy of Republican presidential primary contender Mitt Romney.

Romney is competing in Florida this week for the GOP nomination, duking it out with the other Republican frontrunner, Newt Gingrinch.

"Restoring the U.S. space program to greatness will require the leadership, management skill, and commitment to American exceptionalism possessed by only one candidate in this race: Mitt Romney," the letter reads. "We support Mitt's candidacy and believe that his approach to space policy will produce results instead of empty promises."

Signatories include Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, as well as the first space shuttle pilot, Bob Crippen, and former NASA administrator Mike Griffin. [50 Years of Presidential Space Visions]

Players in the commercial space industry, including Eric Anderson, chairman and CEO of space tourism firm Space Adventures, and Mark Albrecht, chairman of the board of satellite communications provider USSpace, also signed the letter, as well as Scott Pace, director of the?Space Policy Institute at George Washington University (who also serves as chair of the Romney Space Policy Advisory Group), Peter Marquez, former director of space policy for the National Security Council, and William Martel, professor of International Security Studies at Tufts University.

"We have watched with dismay as President Obama dismantled the structure that was guiding both the government and commercial space sectors, while providing no purpose or vision or mission," the group wrote. "This failure of leadership has thrust the space program into disarray and triggered a dangerous erosion of our technical workforce and capabilities. In short, we have a space program unworthy of a great nation."

They argue that Romney's plan will promote U.S. leadership in space.

"As president, Mitt Romney will facilitate close collaboration not only within the government?s civil and national security space sectors, but also with the private sector and with research institutions," the letter reads. "He will create conditions for a strong and competitive commercial space industry that can contribute greatly to our national capabilities and goals."

In a speech today in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Romney stressed the importance of such collaboration, saying he wasn't yet ready to lay out a sweeping vision for NASA and the future of American spaceflight. Rather, as president, he would talk to leaders from the military, academia, the private sector and NASA to help create and map out that vision.

"I will do that to get the job done right, to make sure we protect our interests, protect our future, protect our health and protect ourselves from threats from space," Romney said in the speech, which was webcast online by the newspaper Florida Today.

Romney and the other GOP hopefuls debated policy, including their ideas for NASA, last night (Jan. 26) in Florida.

While Gingrich has said he plans to aim high in space and establish a manned moon base by 2020, Romney said such projects are too extravagant.

"I'm not looking for a colony on the moon," Romney said during the debate. "I think the cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions. I'd rather be rebuilding housing here in the U.S."

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120127/sc_space/lastmanonmoon7otherspaceleadersbackmittromney

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Syria: Are Captured Iranians Military Men or Engineers? (Time.com)

Claims that Iranians and Lebanese Hizballah members are aiding President Bashar Assad's troops in their ferocious crack down against dissent are almost as old as the 10-month Syrian uprising. Yet despite the thousands of amateur videos that have captured so much of the gruesome, bloody repression, precious little evidence has emerged to back the allegations of foreign assistance, beyond the assertions of antigovernment activists and the testimony of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence.

On Thursday, al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite channel, broadcast amateur footage purportedly showing five of seven Iranians captured by Syrian military defectors belonging to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the besieged central city of Homs. A Syrian rebel who gave his name as Abu Bassem told the channel that the seven were nabbed by the FSA's Farouk Brigade on two separate occasions. Five of the men were allegedly Iranian soldiers, operating as snipers under the direct supervision of Syria's much feared Air Force Intelligence branch in Homs, Bassem told al-Jazeera in a phone call from the city, while the other two were civilians working at a local power plant in Jandar, near Homs. (See photos of protests in Syria.)

Five of the men are shown in a six-minute, 20-second snippet. Bearded and cloaked in black, they sit against a white wall, with a lone rifle propped up between the second and third man. A scrolling red ticker on the screen says that they are Iranian Revolutionary Guards and calls on "all Iranian Revolutionary Guards to immediately withdraw from Syrian territory." One of the five men holds up a laminated photo identification card. The Enduring America website posted a Farsi-to-English translation of his comments: "My name is Sajjad (Haider Ali) Aminan and I am a member of the revolutionary armed forces of Iran. I am leader of a five-member special team. I entered Syria on Oct. 16, 2011. The others entered Syria on different dates."

The men then all state their names: Ahmad Aziz Askari, Hasan Hasani, Majid Qanbari, Kyumars Qobadi. One says that they have killed "many civilians in the city of Homs, including many women and children."

The footage then cuts to two laminated photo ID cards, showing their back and front, as well as three passports. The pages are flipped, one by one, including all of the blank pages. (Read "The Arab League to Syria's President: It's Time for You to Go.")

Is this proof of Iran sending military reinforcement to prop up its main Arab ally? Or could something else be happening there? On Dec. 21, Syrian state media reported that eight foreign engineers, including five Iranians, were abducted "by terrorists" as they traveled on a company bus to their place of work, the Jandar power plant on the outskirts of Homs. The nationalities of the other three engineers were not stated. Shortly afterward, Iran's Press TV reported that "two more Iranian experts, who were trying to clarify the situation of the five abducted engineers," were kidnapped. Their whereabouts are unknown. On Jan. 2, an unknown group called the Movement Against the Expansion of Shiism in Syria sent a claim of responsibility for the abductions to the Agence France-Presse office in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The men in the video bear a resemblance to the five engineers abducted in December, as portrayed in a photo circulated in the Syrian and Iranian press. Their names also appear to match. The men, who are all dressed casually in jeans, jackets and track pants pose alongside a man identified as their Syrian cook. They are not the only Iranians nabbed in Syria. "Eleven Iranian pilgrims traveling by road to Damascus were kidnapped by an unknown group," Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying on Thursday by the state news agency IRNA. "We call on the Syrian government to use all means ... to release the Iranian nationals," he said. (Read "The Crisis in Syria: No Immunity for Bystanders.")

Sectarian tensions have been rising in the multiethnic, multisectarian patchwork of the Syrian state as the death toll spirals beyond 5,000. Resentment toward Assad and some of his Alawite co-religionists is strong among certain quarters of the majority Sunni population. Although Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, comprise some 12% of Syria's 22 million people, they are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of Syria's political, business and military communities. There is also rising anger toward Assad's staunchest regional backers, Shi'ite Iran and the Shi'ite Lebanese militant group Hizballah (Party of God), which is now frequently referred to by Syrian activists, refugees and defectors alike as the "party of the devil." It's not inconceivable that a busload of Iranian pilgrims were nabbed by antigovernment elements, perhaps as bargaining chips.

Bassem of the FSA's Farouk Brigade stressed during his interview with al-Jazeera that he and his group were not against Shi'ites. "We are not sectarian," he said. "We ask Iran to admit they sent members of Revolutionary Guards to Syria. He said that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had until Jan. 28 to withdraw all Revolutionary Guards from Syria.

Pressed by the anchor about what would happen should the deadline lapse, Bassem said: "We are not terrorists, criminals or killers. We are against anyone who threatens innocent Syrians. We caught these people, they were armed. They are snipers. They were killing our Syrian brethren. We will try, God willing, to return them to their families safely, but given the difficult circumstances Homs is experiencing, we cannot guarantee their safety."

More: "Can Israel Stop Iran's Nuke Effort?" (Subscription)

Watch TIME's video "Why They Protest: Egypt, Libya and Syria."

Read "Syria: Who Is the Real President Assad?"

View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20120127/wl_time/08599210551000

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Bayern Munich apologizes for hoax player signing

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:01 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012

MUNICH (AP) -Bayern Munich apologized Friday for tricking fans over a "spectacular new signing" after supporters reacted angrily to a publicity stunt in which the Bundesliga leaders sought to increase their fanbase on Facebook.

Bayern said on its website that it had taken fans' numerous comments into account to determine that many were "very angry" with the club.

"We're sorry. But it wasn't our intention to disappoint you with the new FC Bayern app," Bayern said. "Rather, we wanted to put the focus on you with this action, to show how important each fan is for Bayern Munich."

Fans had been directed to Facebook to watch the announcement of a new striker Thursday, and were made to "like" Bayern's page in order to view the proceedings.

Instead of learning the identity of striker Mario Gomez's backup, fans were then presented with an app called "The New FCB Star."

"Dear fans, you probably already noticed that we did not sign a new player. This app is for our fans to show the importance of you for our club," the club had said. "Each Bayern fan is the 'spectacular new signing,' our 12th man!"

Thousands of fans reacted negatively, leaving uncomplimentary comments on the club's Facebook page - even though Bayern described the whole thing as "a bit of fun for our fans."

Bayern's own goal was compounded when Munich's TZ newspaper reported that the club had warned its players about publishing photos or sharing information on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, with an outright ban coming into effect within 90 minutes of a game.

The warning came after Bayern defender Breno complained on Twitter of being forced to play in the reserve team, and midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk posted footage of Uli Hoeness' 60th birthday party on YouTube and a picture of the Bayern dressing room before a game.

"The players know that they need to cut it down," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes told Bild on Thursday - the day of Bayern's "spectacular new signing."

"It's not on that you take photos or allow photos be taken before a game - like Tymoshchuk - and put them on the internet. It's tomfoolery, it's unprofessional."

Heynckes said Friday that the timing and manner of Bayern's publicity stunt "weren't quite so fortunate," especially after the 3-1 loss at Borussia Moenchengladbach last weekend.

"If we had won 4-0 in Moenchengladbach and it had been presented in a different manner, then it would have been somewhat more successful," Heynckes said.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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How a typo led to a marriage

By Rosa Golijan

Courtesy of the Salazars

The next time you make a particularly strange typo, don't throw your keyboard out the window ? instead just smile. Smile, because it's possible for a simple typo to lead to a marriage.

After all, it was a typo that brought together?Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar despite the fact that they lived?about 9,000 miles apart and were "completely unaware of each other's existence."

Apparently an email intended for Rachel accidentally went to Ruben ??thanks to their similar email addresses and some sloppy typing skills?? in Jan. 2007. Ruben politely forwarded that email along to its intended recipient and began an email chain that led to a marriage proposal.

You can hear Ruben and Rachel share the details of their love story in the video below.?It is an animated clip?created by the folks behind StoryCorps,?a non-profit organization with a mission of providing "Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories" of their lives. (I strongly recommend checking out the organization's YouTube page after you're done watching the video. There are many more gems to be found there.)

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244209-how-a-typo-led-to-a-marriage

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Campaigning Mitt Romney seldom notes Mexican roots

Leighton Romney, a second cousin of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, poses for a portrait in the parking lot of his import-export company in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Romney's father, George, was born in Nuevo Casas Grandes and several descendants of his grandfather's brother live in the nearby community of Colonia Juarez. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Leighton Romney, a second cousin of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, poses for a portrait in the parking lot of his import-export company in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Romney's father, George, was born in Nuevo Casas Grandes and several descendants of his grandfather's brother live in the nearby community of Colonia Juarez. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Brandon Romney speaks to the Associated Press at the school in the Mormon community of Colonia Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Brandon, who coaches football at the school, is son of a second cousin of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Kelly Romney pauses as he speaks to the Associated Press at his home in the Mormon community of Colonia Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Kelly is a second cousin of U.S Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The candidate's father, George, was born in Mexico, and he still has extended family there, relatives born and raised in the border state of Chihuahua who support his candidacy but not his tough stance on immigration.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

A Mexican flag waves next to the Mormon temple in Colonia Juarez, in Mexico's Chihuahua state, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Several descendants of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's grandfather's brother live in this town. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

The Mormon temple is lit as night falls in Colonia Juarez, in Mexico's Chihuahua state, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Several descendants of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's grandfather's brother live in this town.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

COLONIA JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney rarely mentions a key fact as he works to woo Hispanics ahead of Tuesday's Republican presidential nominating contest in Florida ? his own Mexican heritage.

"I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary," he said Wednesday in an interview with Univision, a Spanish-language television network. "But I think that might be disingenuous on my part."

His father, George, was born in Mexico, and his extended relatives still live in that same community, the border state of Chihuahua. The younger Romney's second cousins, tall men with light hair who speak American-accented English, share the family's last name and Mormon faith. They support his White House candidacy, but not his tough stance on immigration.

They've also never met him, though Romney's siblings have been to the house where their father was born on July 8, 1907, among a colony of Mormon pioneers in a stunning agricultural valley at the foot of the Sierra Madre. George Romney's family left Mexico when he was 5, returning to the U.S. to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution.

"A lot of people ask why hasn't Mitt come back to see where his roots are. His father left here at such a young age and I don't think that he has that culture embedded like we do," said Leighton Romney, 52, who was born in the United States and is registered to vote in Arizona. "I live here because I love my country," he added. "That's Mexico."

He manages the fruit growers cooperative Grupo Paquime in nearby Nuevo Casas Grandes, and readily showed off his elaborately researched family tree to an Associated Press reporter who visited the office where he sells fruit to Walmart de Mexico and other large chains.

A two-term Michigan governor, George Romney faced questions about his eligibility to run for president in 1968 because he wasn't born in the United States. Yet, George was born a U.S. citizen, not Mexican, because his parents were U.S. citizens. And in those days, Mexico didn't grant dual citizenship so the parents had to choose one country or the other. Mitt Romney has said neither his father nor his grandparents spoke Spanish.

Like all U.S. politicians today, Romney walks a fine line between courting voter rage against illegal immigration, mostly from Mexico, and seeking the support of Hispanics, the fastest-growing voting group in America. In the rare cases where Romney has noted that his father was born in Mexico, he has done so to illustrate how the now-wealthy family came from humble beginnings rather than using the fact as a way to discuss immigration.

The Romneys can trace the family history to 1555, where they have records of a Mr. Romney, no first name, born in 1555 in the town of Tonbridge, England. The Mexican roots are intertwined with their Mormon faith.

The candidate's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, was born in 1843 in Nauvoo, Ill., where Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church. Miles Park Romney had five wives and 30 children, and fled to Mexico after passage of the 1882 Edmunson Act that barred polygamy. Among the first Mormons to settle in to the rolling Mexican valley bordering Texas, Miles Park Romney married his fifth wife after the church banned the practice in 1890.

Among the 11 children borne by Miles Park Romney's first wife were brothers Gaskell and Miles Archibold Romney.

The family fled back to the U.S. in 1912, when the Mexican Revolution struck Chihuahua and revolutionary forces invaded the English-speaking communities.

Gaskell Romney stayed in the U.S., with his five children, including Mitt's father, George.

But Gaskell's brother, Miles Archibold Romney, returned to Mexico.

The Mexican Romneys, who number about 40, live in solid brick homes with gingerbread accents and green lawns. They count themselves among the most prosperous ranchers and farmers in an area just 190 miles from the border city of El Paso, Texas. They ranch cattle and grow peaches, apples and chili peppers. They also run businesses, a prestigious school with an American football team and basketball program where the students emerge speaking flawless English.

"It is a very open community, where we have been progressive, and we have shaped a life for ourselves, our children, that we think is a healthy life," said Leighton Romney. "We have been here for generations."

Colonia Juarez and its surroundings have not escaped the drug violence that first terrorized the Mexican border and has now migrated to other parts. Meredith Romney, Leighton's brother, was kidnapped in 2009 and held hostage for two days in a cave until his family paid an undisclosed ransom.

The family says the area has gotten safer in the last year and that kidnappings have decreased. They credit Chihuahua's new governor, Cesar Duarte, who took office in 2010.

The town of 1,035 people has another emblematic symbol of the community's success: a white marble temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a golden statue of Moroni, the angel said to have visited Joseph Smith. Next to it is the LDS-affiliated Academia Juarez, with three-story brick buildings and large lawns more reminiscent of Utah than Mexico.

Leighton's nephew, Brandon Romney, 33, grows chili peppers and helps with the school's sports teams. During a recent basketball game, he ran around giving instructions in both English and Spanish to teenagers playing on the court and stopped to talk about his famous relative.

"He's just another guy to me," Brandon Romney said. "Some people get kind of a sense of pride about it. I've never known him, never talked to him."

Brandon Romney and his other relatives who are eligible to vote in America plan to support their distant cousin. Some say they will donate to him if he wins the nomination.

The family generally sees him as a smart businessman who can lead America out of its economic turmoil. They only part ways on immigration, sharing the Mexican view that migrants seeking work in the U.S. should be given a legal means to do so.

The candidate has taken a hardline against illegal immigration. He favors a U.S.-Mexico border fence and opposes education benefits for illegal immigrants. He would support legislation that seeks to award legal status to some young illegal immigrants who serve in the armed forces, but not for those who attend college.

This week, Romney said he favors policies that encourage "self-deportation," where illegal immigrants decide on their own to leave the U.S., over those that would require the government to return the immigrants to their home countries.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-26-LT-Mexico-Romney-Relatives/id-2012ebc79b364a4a93308c37f7cd35d2

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MarcBodnick: Awesome. Why do Democrats and Republicans in California not move their primary? Answer from @MattMcDonaldHPS. http://t.co/wwZeT1vr on @Quora

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Awesome. Why do Democrats and Republicans in California not move their primary? Answer from @MattMcDonaldHPS. qr.ae/7dj2Z on @Quora MarcBodnick

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