Massachusetts GOPers, Keeping it Classy

And remember, conservatives call Mr. Obama the most divisive president in history.

This is how they treat the president of the United States.

But HE'S divisive?

And we can be sure that liberals didn't create this either:

But President Obama is divisive, and we are meanie liberals when we accuse the GOP of having a racist element in it that the GOP does nothing to stop.

No One Watched and Even Fewer Cared

UPDATE BELOW

From reading conservative blogs, one would think that the whole country has gone all Rmoney/Ryan over the past few days.  But the truth is that most Americans don't care, and they haven't been tuning in.

The convention has appealed only to the folks who are already cheering for the ticket.  No one else.

Oh, and even their most ardent propagandists, FAUX NOOZ, called Ryan's speech mostly lies.

The convention apparently has been on a noisy lie fest with the usual mouth pieces repeating the same half-truths and misrepresentations.

The good news is that fewer people tuned in, so it doesn't matter.  The only people thrilled by it all were the ones who were going to vote for Mittens against President Obama anyway.

A very large yawn.

"Republican Convention Bombs As Viewership Drops by 17 Million


Paul Ryan is no Sarah Palin. The viewership for Paul Ryan’s speech was down across every network compared to what Sarah Palin averaged in 2008.

NBC was down 3.5 million viewers. ABC was down three million viewers. CBS and MSNBC were down 2 million viewers each. CNN lost a whopping 5 million viewers compared to Palin’s 2008 speech. Even Fox News was down 1.5 million viewers. In total, only 20 million people tuned in for Paul Ryan compared to the 37 million who watched Sarah Palin.

Ryan’s ratings nosedive isn’t the Republican convention’s only problem. Only Fox News and ABC saw their viewership rise or stay the same from night one to night two. Fox News saw their viewership rise from 6.89 million on night one to 7.70 million on night two, while ABC has drawn to 2.86 million viewers on each night.

What really jumps out in the ratings data is how limited the appeal of this convention is. Fox News has led the ratings for all networks on both nights.

If the Romney campaign was hoping to reach Independents with their convention, it isn’t working. Over one third of the total audience is coming from the Republican cheering section known as Fox News."

UPDATE:

The RNC's "mystery guest" was Dirty Harry, as reported here by Infidel753.

And apparently he bombed big time.  Some of the words used to describe his performance:  "weird," "confused," "rambling."

Here are some twitter reactions:

— “20 years ago I wanted Clint Eastwood to make my day. Now I just want him to take his pills and b grateful he doesnt need medicare.” — Nancy Lee Grahn, “General Hospital” actress.

 

— “I demand to see Invisible Obama’s invisible birth certificate.” — Michael Schaffer, The New Republic.

— “And so on this day, August 30, 2012, (at)MittRomney became a better actor than Clint Eastwood.” — Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s “The Last Word.”

— “I can’t believe I just watched (hash)ClintEastwood turn into somebody’s DRUNK UNCLE HARRY on the stage of the (hash)GOP (hash)RNC. He humiliated himself.” — Star Jones, “Today” contributor.

— “I heard that Clint Eastwood was channeling me at the RNC. My lawyers and I are drafting our lawsuit.” — comic actor Bob Newhart, referring to his signature one-way-conversation routines.

— “’If Clint Eastwood ever talks to a chair on national TV, people will need a way to reassure each other’ — inventor of Twitter, March 2006.” — Patton Oswalt, comedian and actor on “The King of Queens.”

— “Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was to imaginary Obama in an empty chair. I’m drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an empty factory.” — George Takei, Mr. Sulu of “Star Trek.”

BEST TWEET OF THE NIGHT:

Jamelle Bouie@jbouie

This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.

Light Blogging

Light blogging for the next few days.  Family from California visiting, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Happily I have no time to watch the boring convention. 

But I found some interesting posters on facebook, and I'm happy to pass them along:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don't miss this brilliant rant by TBogg:

 

The Outlaw Jersey Whale

 

 

 

Heh. 

Republican National Convention Schedule

DISGUSTING UPDATE BELOW


Just to keep all you political junkies informed on what's happening in Tampa:

2012 Republican Convention Schedule!

8:30 am – Opening Music: “Trample the Weak” by Ted Nugent, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

9am – Tax planning seminar on how you too can pay less than 15% taxes on your millions/billions. Hosted by Bain Capital accountants.

9:30am – Discussion of Christian values and marital fidelity – Newt Gingrich presiding

10:30am – “Women’s Rights: What’s the Big Fuss Little Lady?” – dominated by Erik Cantor

11am -- “Why I’m Holier than Thou” -- ministered by Rick Santorum

11:30 – The Curse of Irrelevancy – sobbed by John Boehner



12pm – My Gun’s Bigger than Your’s –or “Is that a Politician in your Pocket or are you just Glad to See Me?” --telemarketed in by the NRA
 

Break for Lunch --- provided by Chic-Fil-A


12:30pm –“ How to Buy an Election: Making the Citizen’s United Decision Work for You!” – time paid for by Karl Rove and Antonin Scalia

1pm – “Keeping your Cadillacs Primed” followed by “Reaching out to the Proletariat with Dressage” – driven by Anne Romney

1:30pm – “Maintaining Conservative Values while Screwing the Elderly” – convened by Paul Ryan

2pm – “Exploit your Entire Family for Maximum Profits” or “Mama Grizzlies for Dummies” – hosted by Sarah Palin

2:30pm – Fair and Impartial News Reporting: Why it’s Over-rated and What you can do to Eradicate it – aired by Fox News

3pm – Bombastics 101 – orated by Chris Christie

3:30pm -- “A Muslim Ate my Love Child” – confessed by Michelle Bachmann

4pm -- “Why IQ is Over-Rated” --- drooled by Herman Caine

4:15 – Open forum on Gay Rights (note: Event cancelled due to lack of attendance)

4:30pm – –I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” or “The KKK for a New Generation” -- delivered by Gov. Rick Perry

5pm -- Overcoming Depression by Selling Your Soul – whined by John McCain

5:30 pm – What’s a Soul? -- questioned by Dick Cheney

6pm – “Understanding why Democrats exist in higher Numbers than Republicans…their women are all Sluts” – ranted by Rush Limbaugh
 

6:30pm – Acceptance Speech “with Special Thanks to the job creators at the top 1% …Never have so few given so little to so many so reluctantly” or “What Would Jesus Do?” – Mitt Romney (sung to the tune of America the Beautiful)

7:00 pm – DINNER (Please indicate your choice of caviar, lobster, prime rib, or swordfish served in troughs recycled from Super Pac money storage)

h/t Ohio Daily Blog


DISGUSTING UPDATE:

I read about this on the internet, but did not believe it and would not report on it until there was someone on record as an eyewitness to this.

Nuts Thrown At African-American CNN Camerawoman ‘This Is How We Feed Animals’

August 28, 2012

 

 

 

David Shuster is tweeting that a woman was thrown out of the GOP Convention for tossing nuts at an African-American CNN camerawoman, saying, “this is how we feed animals.”



CNN posted a written statement saying, “CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”

I'll probably get commenters to say this is "only one incident," and we shouldn't judge an entire group by it. 

Except that's wrong. 

Those dozens of racist emails passed around by officials of the GOP and other conservatives, who think no one will catch them, belies their protestations. 

And we all know what the real message is behind the persistent Birthers. 

The biggest Birther of all was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention. 


 

Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security Were Right

Rightwingers howled when Janet Napolitano warned that rightwing extremist groups' threats would increase over the next years.

She was absolutely correct. 

The rightwing's continued characterizations of Mr. Obama as the illegitimate leader of this country by way of the GOP's encouraging its followers to be suspicious of the president's citizenship, as well as widespread scurrilous slurs and slanders in their blast emails have produced this:

Active and former military members plotted treason against the United States and to murder the president of the United States:




Military Terror Plot: Murder Case Uncovers Terror Plot By 'Militia' Within U.S. Military

Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group composed of active duty and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components and was serious enough to kill two people – former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York – by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

"This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. "Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans."

One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Army Pfc. Michael Burnett, also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against the three other soldiers.

Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members the militia had.

Burnett, 26, said he knew the group's leaders from serving with them at Fort Stewart. He agreed to testify against fellow soldiers Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia's founder and leader, Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.

All are charged by state authorities with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled Thursday.

[skip]

$87,000 worth of semiautomatic assault rifles, other guns and bomb components that were recovered from the accused soldiers' homes and from a storage locker. He also used the insurance payments to buy land for his militia group in Washington state, Pauley said.

In a videotaped interview with military investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself "the nicest cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet." He used the Army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members belong to the group.

"All members of the group were on active-duty or were former members of the military," Pauley said. "He targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned."

The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.--HuffPost


Prosecutors: U.S. Soldiers Plotted to Kill President Obama

"More details are surfacing about the four soldiers accused of stockpiling assault weapons and bomb components and plotting to assassinate the president. According to the AP's Russ Bynum, the group calls itself F.E.A.R., which stands for Forever Enduring Always Ready. While authorities don't know how many members are in the group, they did accuse it of plotting some ambitious domestic terrorist plots:

The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state’s apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia’s goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president."
 

 And this:

"As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jay Bookman notes, "Sometimes these things get blown out of proportion, but $87,000 in weaponry suggests otherwise. And when you’re willing to murder two people to keep the plot secret, you’re pretty serious about it." The news follows a controversial report published by Reuters' Daniel Trotta last week that the U.S. Army is battling soldiers within its ranks who enlist in the Army and Marine Corps "to acquire the skills to overthrow what some call the ZOG - the Zionist Occupation Government. Get in, get trained and get out to brace for the coming race war." At the time, Business Insider's Geoffrey Ingersoll pushed back against the report in a piece titled "Don't Believe the Report Going Around About Veterans Flocking to Right Wing Extremist Groups." The AP report doesn't say if the motivations to overthrow the government were racial or anti-semitic in nature in this case but much more details are likely to come."

TAMPA STRIP CLUBS GETTING READY TO WELCOME THEIR BEST CUSTOMERS: THE GOP

Even though Isaac forced the GOP to cancel its first day of the convention, all is not lost!

Tampa and its famous strip clubs eagerly await God's Own Party and all its conventioneers for days and nights of carousing and getting it on. Lap dances!  Pole dances!  The horizontal tango! Tampa's got something for every RED blooded Republican attendee.  And if the GOP's past history of spending and partaaaaay-ing is any indication of how they'll behave, it looks like the strip clubs will have a blowout time!

Who knows, some may even carry on a fine Republican tradition and do some skinny dipping in Tampa Bay!

"Tampa’s strip cubs are dressing up, before undressing. There’s an excitement in the air like going to the polls on Election Day. But going to the poles has a different meaning here.

“You know, I’ve been in this business thirty years, and I’m telling you, I get goose bumps. I’ve got them right now, just thinking about this. To answer your question, I’ve never been so excited in all my life. I can’t wait for it,” Colazzo, said.

Colazzo even had these T-shirts made up that read The Doll House, RNC Headquarters. Certainly a must-have for any conventioneer.

So, why all this anticipation? Well, an adult industry trade organization says Republicans spend the money.

An informal survey by the association of club executives found that during their conventions in Minnesota and New York, Republicans spent $150-dollars per person at adult clubs.

The Democrats, on the other hand, spent only fifty dollars per person in Boston and Denver.



Here's a preview of coming attractions:



h/t Infidel753


And don't forget this:


'I DON'T FULLY ENDORSE' ROMNEY



I DON'T FULLY UNDERSTAND ROMNEY

 

Sarah Palin: Mega Star of the GOP Convention in 2008...

Where is she in 2012?


She not only was NOT invited to speak at the GOP convention, she wasn't even invited to attend it.

How far the once idolized darling who electrified the GOP four years ago has fallen.  She's been reduced to starring in cheesy cable reality shows, having books ghost-written for her, watching her children make fools of themselves proving they can't dance or do much of anything else, and nipping, like a pesky chihuahua, from her facebook page, at the heels of real politicians.  Oh, and she's got a gig at FAUX NOOZ, where even her bosses don't like her. 


We knew what the "Pit Bull With Lipstick" was about the moment she opened her mouth and the minute she couldn't answer what she called a "gotcha!" question by Katie Couric:  "Which newspapers and magazines do you read?"

Her interview with Charlie Gibson was a train wreck, and she failed to distinguish herself in the vice presidential debate, unless you believe that flirting and winking is evidence of a deep understanding of domestic and foreign policy.

She is the only candidate for vice president in recent history to NOT appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.  Those are unscripted shows where she would have had to rely on her knowledge to answer difficult questions.  She never showed on any of those panels because her handlers knew she would have made a fool of herself as well as them.

John McCain deserves the blame for foisting this woman on the American people and for putting an unprepared, intellectually lazy, attention and vendetta-seeking mean girl one heart beat away from the presidency.  Incredibly, despite evidence to the contrary, he still maintains it was a great choice and that Palin was a star. 

But that was then, and this is now.  Palin's lost her "star" quality in four short years--to the point where the party that encouraged her apotheosis is now shunning her during its most important quadrenniel dog and pony show. She is the GOP's persona non grata extraordinaire.   Her most ardent fans blame the media for "destroying" her, but the truth is that she is a deeply flawed person who has no idea of the qualities one needs to lead.  She had a real opportunity to show us the right stuff, and instead she stuffed her pockets, which apparently was her only goal after she quit her governorship half way through it.

We knew she was a fake then, and she's where she is today because of her own inadequacies. No one else delivered her own political self-destruction.

The important take-away from the review of Palin's downward career spiral is this:

The leading lights of the Republican Party and its followers were all disasterously WRONG about Palin and what she would accomplish.  Horribly wrong.  How many times do we have to remind them of how awful their judgement was about this woman?

Think about their very flawed, very, very bad judgement of character in politicians as the Republican Convention plays out next week.

PS.  Good-bye Sarah, and thanks for all the dish.





Here are some of the hilariously WRONG perceptions the starry-eyed dreamers on the right had about Sarah the Charlatan:

"What she's done in Alaska is what we would hope to do in Washington."
-- Lindsay Graham, U.S. senator (R-SC)

Quit?


(Sarah Palin) "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
-- Mike Huckabee, former governor (R-AR)

"She's got foreign policy experience because you can see Russia from part of Alaska."
-- John McCain, U.S. senator (R-AZ), Republican nominee for president

"She could not be a better vice-presidential pick."
-- Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, that works to elect women opposing abortion rights

"She is a courageous, successful reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment. She has run a municipality and she has run a state."
-- Fred Thompson, former U.S.senator (R-TN)

Oh, yeah.  Remember him.  He was going to get the nomination!  He's selling insurance on teevee now.

"She's a real person and she has handled real problems."
-- Pete Dominici, United States senator (R-NM)

Rachel Maddow gets it perfectly correct with this timely observation of Sarah Palin:

Republican Convention Going Full Birther

No US president, in the history of this nation, has ever had his citizenship questioned for as long as Mr. Obama has--even when incontrovertible proof of it was established.

No US president, in the history of this nation was ever mocked by leaders of the opposition, as well as members of Congress, over the question of his birth.

And no other president in the history of this nation was bi-racial.

To continue to ignore and dismiss the relationship between the persistant questioning and mocking of President Obama's citizenship and that he is bi-racial is to ignore what is in front of your nose.

Romney, who in his ignorance because of his white privileged and elitist background, has no understanding whatsoever about how his careless and nasty "joke" [nudge, nudge, wink, wink] reinforced the suspicions that the GOP has kept going about Mr. Obama being "the other," "the foreigner," and "the you-know-what" in the White House.


And now comes the news that the Republican leadership intends to keep Birtherism going by inviting these personalities to speak at its convention.

Keeping the Birtherism lie alive, the GOP proudly presents:


1. Donald Trump. The famed billionaire/birther king Donald Trump has been the most vociferous — and most closely connected to Romney — person alleging that the President wasn’t born in the United States.

2. Actress Janine Turner. The Northern Exposure star who has her own conservative radio show wrote a long screed titled “Reasoning ‘Kenyan Born.’” In it, she complains that anyone who questions the president’s citizenship is deemed a racist: “If this were a legal case in court, [Obama's] book bio stating that Obama was ‘born in Kenya’ would be taken into consideration.”

3. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens. During a town hall captured on video (at 3:5), Olens said, “You know the state of Hawaii says he’s produced a certified birth certificate… so on one hand I have to trust the state of Hawaii follows the laws. On the other hand it would be nice for the President to say, here it is, I have a copy.”

4. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. On one radio appearance during Huckabee’s bid for president, the former governor said, “I would love to know more [about where Obama was born]. What I know is troubling enough.” He later walked back the statement.

5. Florida Gov. Rick Scott. In 2010, the Orlando Sentinel reported than an audience member at one of Scott’s campaign events asked “what he would do about President Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ and whether he could legally appear on the 2012 ballot in Florida.” Scott responded, “I’ll have to look into it.”
 
6. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). The Vice-Chairman of the House Republican Conference once told reporters “Oh, I’d like to see the documents.”

7. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal was willing to sign a “birther” bill into law. It would have required all presidential candidates to release their birth certificate in order to qualify for a spot on the state’s ballot. 

h/t Huffington Post

WILLARD ROMNEY: Classless AND a Birther!

Oh it's just his little coded way of reminding all those folks of that "blah" guy who's living in the White House.

"Maybe this will get chalked up to Romney’s awkwardness and get dismissed, but it looks to me like a major mistake. Coming just after days spent debating Todd Akin’s "legitimate rape" remark, this is again a reminder of the extreme voices in the GOP, which Romney has at times been slow to denounce. And it seems less than presidential, to put it mildly. The fact that uncomfortably large numbers still believe Obama has perpetrated an elaborate plot to fake his birthplace and ascend to the presidency illegitimately is a pretty damn big deal. "  --Greg Sargent


ThinkProgress

• ✔

@thinkprogress

Can someone explain how Romney's birth certificate comments qualify as a "joke"? Crowd doesn't laugh, they cheer. thkpr.gs/R7zZH6

24 Aug 12

No, Willard, no one's asked to see your birth certificate, but the American people (63% pg.12) have asked to see your income tax returns. 

And you're ignoring them.

President Obama released 12 years of tax returns. You've released one.

What are you hiding, Willard?

GOP CRACKPOTTERY

Like iron filings to magnets, the GOP attracts crackpots who have no shame in broadcasting their moronic ideas and fears to the public.  We heard GOPer Todd Akin announce to the country that women don't become pregnant from rape because their bodies "shut the process down."  But Akin isn't the only squirrel-brained GOPer who eagerly shares his sweat-soaked imaginings with whomever will listen.  

Sheriff candidate says he wouldn't reject deadly force to stop abortions

Candidate says he believes elective, late-term abortions aren't lawful

"MANCHESTER, N.H. —

A Republican candidate for Hillsborough County Sheriff said Wednesday that he believes elective abortions are unlawful and he wouldn't reject the use of deadly force to stop them."

h/t Kevin Robbins

A real GOP Head case:

"Texas Judge Tom Head told a local television station that President Obama would turn over American 'sovereignty' to the United Nations if reelected, that Obama’s actions would potentially trigger 'civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war,' and that such a conflict would culminate with 'UN troops' led by President Obama invading Lubbock, Texas."

Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa):  Immigrants compared to dogs:

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, compared immigrants to dogs at a town hall meeting yesterday, telling constituents that the U.S. should pick only the best immigrants the way one chooses the “pick of the litter.”

King told the crowd in Pocahontas, Iowa, that he’s owned lots of bird dogs over the years and advised, “You want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest … not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner.”

King suggested lazy immigrants should be avoided as well. “You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we’ve got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet,” King said. “We’ve got the vigor from the planet to come to America.”

Romney Adviser Compares Homosexuality To Polygamy, Drug Use During GOP Platform Committee Meeting

"[A]n RNC delegate from Nevada, introduced the amendment, arguing that “under the constitution, every American gets treated equally under the law.”
 
But GOPer, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach , who is best know as the chief architect of Arizona’s xenophobic SB 1070 law and advises the Romney campaign on immigration issues, opposed the amendment by comparing LGBT people to drug users and polygamists:

'Our government routinely judges situations where you might regard people completely affecting themselves like for exmaple the use of controlled substances, like polygamy that is voluntarily entered in to. We condemn those activities even though they are not hurting other people at least directly. So this is worded way to broadly for inclusion in the platform.'

The amendment was defeated by a voice vote."

(Chalk one up to sanity!) 
Ohio GOP Election Board Member: Our Voting Process Shouldn’t Accommodate Black Voters

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable."--GOPer and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted

Why then are we not surprised when a political party that embraces crackpottery would embrace the following as their party's platform:

NO ABORTION IN CASES OF RAPE OR INCEST. The proposal for a “human life amendment” passed without a hitch — and without any exceptions for rape or incest. The committee didn’t stop there; they also adopted language that would ban drugs that end pregnancy after conception, which could potentially include Plan B, the “morning after pill.”

SALUTE TO MANDATORY ULTRASOUNDS. The GOP officially praises states’ “informed consent” laws that force women to undergo unnecessary procedures, require waiting periods and endure other measures meant to discourage them from getting an abortion. One such law receiving a “salute” was crafted by committee head McDonnell, who passed a notorious mandatory ultrasound requirement after he signed an unsuccessful bill to require an even more invasive transvaginal probe ultrasound during an abortion consultation.

NO LEGAL RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX COUPLES. The committee embraced extreme anti-gay language, even rejecting a proposal to endorse civil unions for gay couples after vehement objections from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Romney adviser Jim Bopp, who called it a “counterfeit marriage.” The rejection of civil unions, along with the refusal to include a line affirming the legal equality of same-sex couples prompted the organization GOProud to declare, “Those who have engaged in this public platform fight have provided distraction from important issues and damaged Mitt Romney’s campaign.”

REPLICATE ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAWS. Kris Kobach, who wrote the now mostly invalidated immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama, pushed for language calling for a border fence, a national E-Verify system to make it harder for undocumented workers to find employment, the end of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and an end to sanctuary cities. The committee overwhelmingly approved the proposals, as well as a line chastising the Department of Justice to halt the lawsuits against draconian immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah: “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked.”

AUDIT THE FED. The pet project of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to audit the Federal Reserve has now been embraced as an official Republican goal. For the first time, the platform calls for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve.

NO WOMEN IN COMBAT. The platform condemns “social experimentation” in the military, which covers everything from the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allowing officers to wear their uniforms in gay pride events to letting women serve on the front lines.

NO STATEHOOD, MORE GUNS FOR WASHINGTON DC. FRC’s Perkins, who recently blamed President Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the shooting at FRC’s Washington headquarters, requested and received a section specifically urging the DC Council to expand gun rights. The same section also opposes DC statehood, which would allow the District to govern itself and put an end to Congressional attempts to impose abortion bans on DC.

NO NEW TAXES, EXCEPT FOR WAR. The platform calls for a Constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority to approve any tax increase, “with exceptions for only war and national emergencies.” It would also deliberately hobble future Congresses through a cap limiting all government spending to historical average percentage of GDP — “so that future Congresses cannot balance the budget by raising taxes.”

Pro-Life Quackery

I'd never heard of Dr. John C. Willke until the story broke about Todd Akin's idioctic remarks on "legitimate rape" and women not being able to get pregnant from rapists.

A little investigation uncovered the fact that this guy, who actually has an "MD" after his name, has been advocating rape quackery for quite a long time, and the far right extremists who believe in state-forced pregnancies, like Willard Romney, Paul Ryan, and Todd Akin, have supported Willke and his bizarre ideas  by acknowledging it as though they were real science.

[John C. Willke, MD] is the founder and president of the International Right to Life Federation and president of the Life Issues Institute. He is a former president of National Right to Life.

Willke is a proponent of the concept that rape victims rarely get pregnant, stating in a 1999 article that "There's no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy" and that by his calculations assault rape pregnancy is extremely rare and about four cases per state per year.

 In an interview on August 20, 2012, following the Todd Akin rape and pregnancy controversy, he said: "This is a traumatic thing — she’s, shall we say, she’s uptight. She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic."

These assertions were disputed by a number of gynecology professors." --Wikipedia

" 'There are no words for this — it is just nuts,' said Dr. Michael Greene, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
       

Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, said, that 'to suggest that there’s some biological reason why women couldn’t get pregnant during a rape is absurd.' ”

Romney: "I am proud to have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement in our country."
 

Why are we not surprised that the scientific ignoramuses who support state-forced pregnancies would use a discredited nutjob like Willke to support their totalitarian ideas on girls and women and rape? 

Because rape is one of two exceptions most anti-abortion advocates accept (the other is incest), we're not surprised that the extremists in the anti-abortionist camp would find some charlatan to support an unfounded and unscientific hypothesis to try to destroy the argument for abortion in cases of rape. 

It's no accident or slip-of the-tongue, or "misspeak" on Rep. Todd Akins' part when he made the claims about rape victims not being able to get pregnant because "her body shuts down."  Those ideas come from a discredited extremist, and yet conservatives continue to use that chicanery to deny girls and women a legal medical procedure in all instances, through the spread of lies and misinformation.

From Andrew Sullivan's blog:


"Willke, of course, has defended Akin forcefully since the uproar. Here he is, pioneering this wingnut version of female sexuality back in 1999:

First, let's define the term "rape." When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase "forcible rape" or "assault rape," for that specifies what we're talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we're not addressing that here.

Yes, you read that right: "statutory rape can be consensual".

[skip]

"Lying behind all of this is some kind of notion that women claim they have been raped to get an abortion. It's this loophole they are trying to fill. It becomes much less obviously cruel or drastic if the odds of pregnancy by rape are close to non-existent. You can see how easily it could become a Christianist talking point, picked up by someone who lives and breathes the evangelical base like Akin. But his statistical method is as surreal as his conclusion. 

It's important to understand that this man is a central figure in the history of the religious right. What he is spouting is the orthodoxy you don't hear outside of Christianist circles - but it's there. And it's why Akin seems baffled, and why Ryan had no compunction in using Willke's specific term "forcible rape" as part of a bill he sponsored."



Infidel753, who visits here at PE, put it succintly in this comment:


"That a party which aspires to such absolute control over citizens' personal reproductive biology has the colossal gall to lay claim to words like "liberty", is an Orwellian outrage against language itself."

Infidel753 has a post up on the subject:

"This is what the Republicans are: the party of reducing women and girls to forced breeding stock for violent criminals. We should never forget it and we should never let the rest of the electorate forget it. A vote for Republicans at any level is a vote for that."

Cross-posted from Infidel753's blog:

Todd Akin is a Typical Republican

Vulvarine!