Tag Archives: incest

New GOP — Same as the Old

North Dakota is going to have a “personhood amendment” on its ballot in 2014.

You know, the provision that says a fertilized egg has the same constitutional rights you and I have.   The thing that would ban not only all abortions (rape, incest, life of the mother), but also hormonal birth control and in vitro fertilization.

The provision that those wild and crazy leftist radicals in Mississippi defeated.

Having measures like this on the ballot will generate lots of attention beyond North Dakota in 2014 and affect other races, just as ignorant extremists like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin tainted the GOP beyond their own losing races and hurt the party across the board, including Mitt.

It’s About the Big Bang, Not Big Bird

The GOP tells us that this is a watershed election.  I agree, but not for the reasons they say.  This isn’t about whether or not we’re going to switch to vouchers for Medicare or what the Medicaid budget is going to be.  This is about whether we’re going to continue down the Republican path to the Dark Ages.

To their shame, the GOP has let extremists take over their party at the state and national level.   The question on November 6 is whether we’re going to let the crazies take over our country.

I grew up believing that some things were settled in our society — that evolution was established science, that Keynesianism was established economics.  But now the GOP presents laughable, long-discredited science and economics as the truth.

With 435 congressional districts, we’re going to get people like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin.  But fringe people like him should not be elevated to the Senate.  And they definitely shouldn’t become Vice President, but Paul Ryan and Todd Akin are Tweedledee and Tweedledum on social issues.  Ryan is a little more careful about what he says in public, but their views and votes are the same.

We are outraged about the Taliban shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan because she defended the right of girls to go to school.  We rightly think the Taliban are sick barbarians.  But if Ryan and Akin had their way, we’d have 14-year-old rape and incest victims dying from illegal abortions.  That is every bit as sick and barbaric.

I voted for Bush 43 in 2004 and McCain in 2008 because I was afraid of the radical Muslims.   I’m still a registered Republican, but I’m voting for Obama because I’m afraid of the radical Christians.  I want to defeat the Christian Taliban here at home.

 

Mitt’s Doing It on Purpose

I love Josh Marshall and his site Talking Points Memo.  But I think he’s wrong about this one.

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Mitt said he’d keep the popular stuff in Obamacare, like making sure people with preexisting conditions can get insurance.  Not long after, his campaign walked that back, saying that it wasn’t a policy change, and that it was only for those with continuous coverage, not those buying insurance for the first time or coming back into the market.

Josh Marshall says that shows either a “disorganized campaign” or Mitt’s “ingrained flipfloppery.”

I think both the comment yesterday and the walkback today were planned and on purpose.

Meet the Press attracts moderate and independent voters, many of whom are undecided.  Mitt was trying to appeal to them, to make them think he’s a reasonable guy.

By contrast, many of those viewers will never find out about the campaign’s walkback.  So Mitt gets credit with them, while calming down his base, which does pay more attention.

The campaign is fully aware of this, that you reach out to moderates in a high-profile way, and then pull back in a quieter way, knowing a chunk of them won’t notice.

If you want more evidence, Mitt did exactly the same thing quite recently on abortion.  All of a sudden, he said that he supported the right to an abortion in the case of rape, incest, health and life of the mother.  He had been saying rape, incest, and life, but not health.  So the reference to health of the mother was a change, one intended to make him seem more reasonable.  It was taken back by the campaign right after.  But many more people heard Mitt and read the reports of his softer position than heard his campaign spokesperson disavow it.

Disorganized, my tush.  They know exactly what they’re doing.

Stop Blaming Akin for the GOP’s Insanity

From “Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Timing Couldn’t Be Worse for Republicans,” Mark McKinnon, The Daily Beast:

“A reporter asked me recently about the importance of convention platforms, and I said I couldn’t remember a convention platform that had any real impact on the outcome of an election.  Well, thanks to Missouri Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin, this year’s party platform will likely get a lot more attention than it otherwise would have and could have real impact on the outcome of the election.

“The Akin fiasco could not have been more poorly timed for Republicans.

“So now we can expect days of discussion about Republicans and abortion, and heightened focus on the platform language that was drafted Monday. … That means no exceptions.   Not rape.  Not incest.  Not the life of the mother.

“It won’t matter much that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying now they would not oppose a rape exception.  Unlike John McCain, who had a history of pushing for an explicit exemption in the language, Romney and Ryan have records that will send a chill up the spine of most women.   Romney said in 2007 he would be ‘delighted’ to sign a bill banning all abortions, and Ryan supported legislation restricting abortions to victims of ‘forcible rape.’

“So, thank you, Todd Akin.  Just as Republicans were opening their show and hoping to widen the tent, you’ve managed to attract attention to yourself and your caveman views.

“Hear that sound, GOP?  That’s women running for the exits — and the big tent collapsing.”  Emphasis added.

Um, Mark, Akin isn’t attracting attention to himself and his caveman views, he’s attracting attention to the GOP and its caveman views, to Romney/Ryan and their caveman views.  The big tent isn’t collapsing, because it’s a myth, it doesn’t exist. 

The problem isn’t that Akin is suddenly making everyone look at the GOP platform and the Romney/Ryan abortion record.  The problem is that the GOP has a bat-shit crazy platform, and Romney and Ryan have bat-shit crazy records.  Akin isn’t creating a one-man problem, he’s pointing out an existing party-wide problem.

McKinnon’s thank you to Akin is obviously sarcastic, while mine is heart-felt.  McKinnon thinks that Akin’s hurting Romney and Ryan is somehow unfair.  But if Akin were some freak, he wouldn’t be able to hurt the GOP nationally.  They’d be able to dismiss him and his impact would be limited to Missouri and not affect the presidential race or any other races. 

McKinnon doesn’t understand that the problem isn’t this one guy, it’s the extremism that has infected and taken over the party.  Until they purge themselves of this extremism, rather than try to finesse it and hide it and cover it up, the GOP deserves to lose. 

McKinnon is right that the Akin timing couldn’t be worse for the GOP, but it couldn’t be better for the country. 

Americans don’t believe women should be forced to endure a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or be forced to die from a pregnancy they can’t survive, as the GOP believes.  So Americans shouldn’t vote for the GOP.

If the GOP wants the White House, they have to clean their own house first.

No Reason Both of Us Should Lose

Mitt is calling for Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race.  Dude, no reason both of us should lose.

I haven’t heard a peep from Mitt about the GOP platform’s plank against all abortions with no exceptions for rape, incest, or even the life of the mother.

Abortion, tax cuts for rich people, Mitt’s taxes, Medicare…  Notice no one is talking about the unemployment rate?  Happy days in Chicago, slit-your-wrists time in Boston.

Does Mitt Oppose 2012 GOP Platform?

So is Mitt going to run against his party’s platform?  The platform panel for the GOP Convention today approved an anti-abortion plank that has no exceptions for rape or incest.

In the light of the Akin disaster, Mitt said yesterday a Romney administration wouldn’t oppose abortions for rape victims.

How can the GOP nominee not support his party’s platform, which means not supporting abortions for rape victims?

Too Stupid to Live

West Virginia GOP Senate candidate John Raese is campaigning against anti-smoking laws.  He claims that his having to put No Smoking signs up in his buildings is just like Hitler making Jews wear Stars of David:

“Remember, Hitler used to put Star of David on everybody’s lapel, remember that?  Same thing.”

In this guy’s defense, it is West Virginia, so I assume his parents are also siblings.

Pre-emptive strike on Right Wingers leaving “shocked, shocked” comments — your guy Dick Cheney made a West Virginia incest joke back in 2008.