2012 Political Predictions

[Red Arrow]

I have explained about my apparent bias against the RWRE in the past - I reiterate...in recent times (last 30 years or so) they extremist right has been more effective at advancing their radical agenda.  And it is done with a tapestry of lies, misdirection, and distortions.  It has more adversely affected our personal freedoms (Patriot Act, etc)  Continuous warfare for flimsy excuses and massive lies.  

My evaluation of the last 30 years and conservative agendas is not as negative as yours.  I won't claim everything has been peachy keen.

[Townsend]

The Romney/Ryan team is sending naked pics of Prince Harry to all the news outlets talking about Akin.

[Townsend]

I'm going to have to disagree with the "Akin = every Republican" thing I'm seeing.

[Conan71]

I'm going to have to disagree with the "Akin = every Republican" thing I'm seeing.

It's more like Akin = every moron.  Stupidity doesn't know political boundaries.

[erfalf]

It's more like Akin = every moron.  Stupidity doesn't know political boundaries.

Completely agree. I always find the "studies" that try to equate stupidity with Republicans pretty comical. All I can say is that I hope things like this aren't getting public funding. Nothing spells progress like calling people that don't agree with you stupid in newer fancier ways.

[Gaspar]

Completely agree. I always find the "studies" that try to equate stupidity with Republicans pretty comical. All I can say is that I hope things like this aren't getting public funding. Nothing spells progress like calling people that don't agree with you stupid in newer fancier ways.

Actually, life is far better if you surround yourself with people who disagree with you.  Not only do you get to experience new perspectives, but you also learn about the wisdom, intelligence and pathology behind those perspectives. Nothing makes me happier then when someone successfully makes me change my mind.

[Teatownclown]

Actually, life is far better if you surround yourself with people who disagree with you.  Not only do you get to experience new perspectives, but you also learn about the wisdom, intelligence and pathology behind those perspectives. Nothing makes me happier then when someone successfully makes me change my mind.

[Gaspar]

I think that is definitely something that everyone here can agree on, Akin is an idiot!

As brain-dead as McCaskill is, she deserves to destroy him! 

[nathanm]

I'm going to have to disagree with the "Akin = every Republican" thing I'm seeing.

Akin isn't every Republican, but he is representative of a fair whack of the group of Republicans who rode the wave into the House in the 2010 elections. And Paul Ryan, who has said similarly troglodytish things, just not in front of as many cameras or quite so unabashedly stupid. This is what happens when you mix that certain brand of evangelical Christianity with that certain brand of Republicanism.

IIRC, the Republican platform this year is calling for a life begins at conception amendment with no exception for rape and incest. Presuming the plank doesn't get voted down at the convention, which I don't see as terribly likely unless the soil from this Akin thing manages to find its way onto other candidates in the next week.

[Teatownclown]

What people don't realize is Akin won the primary with strong democratic backing in order to give Claire a fighting chance in the general election.

You may find similar setups across the country....BrideofStein?

[nathanm]

What people don't realize is Akin won the primary with strong democratic backing in order to give Claire a fighting chance in the general election.

I've seen it asserted among the leftie types that all three Republican primary candidates hold pretty much the same views, it's just that Akin is dumb enough to share.

[Gaspar]

What people don't realize is Akin won the primary with strong democratic backing in order to give Claire a fighting chance in the general election.

You may find similar setups across the country....BrideofStein?

He was ushered in from nowhere by a very strong and powerful group of evangelical organizations in Missouri. Though he claims to support the Tea Party, he was not the Tea Party candidate, Sarah Steelman was.  Once he was nominated, most of the Tea Party supporters threw their support behind him because he represented the only means to defeat McCaskill.

Missouri has a very strong Evangelical Christian base, so don't be surprised if he wins.  Once that happens, because the Republican party won't clam him.  He will be an independent, but will vote Republican and represent a pox on Senate.  He should blend in just fine with the rest of the diseased minds there.

[Townsend]

GOP Grassroots Furious at Romney Over Akin, Abortion Rape Exception

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/23/gop-grassroots-furious-at-romney-over-akin-abortion-rape-exception.html

Jennifer Mason, the communications director of Personhood USA and wife of the group's cofounder Keith Mason, is very disappointed with the way Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have responded to the Todd Akin flap. She's particularly incensed by the campaign's insistence that a Romney-Ryan administration wouldn't try to ban abortion for rape victims. "Romney and Ryan have turned their backs on the Republican Party platform in cases of rape," she says. "That's a huge problem."

Even since Akin introduced the phrase "legitimate rape" into the political lexicon, Republican leaders have been scrambling to distance themselves from him. Romney called on him to drop out of the race, and both the National Republican Senatorial Committee and American Crossroads, Karl Rove's super PAC, have said they won't support him financially. But the rush to reject Akin is infuriating the anti-abortion movement, which sees it as a further sign of Romney's weak commitment to social conservatism. "For goodness's sake, the guy won't defend a chicken sandwich, let alone his own Senate candidate," says conservative radio host Steve Deace, who recently co-wrote a book, We Won't Get Fooled Again: Where the Christian Right Went Wrong and How to Make America Right Again, arguing that social conservatives have been shafted by the GOP.

Akin is hoping he can capitalize on grassroots anger with Republican leadership. On Wednesday an appeal on his fundraising page for his Missouri Senate bid said: "Join us as we fight back against the party bosses. Help us raise $24,000 in 24 hours!" By late afternoon he'd exceeded that by several thousand dollars. A few minutes later the site set a new goal—$100,000 by midnight. On Thursday morning Akin announced that they beat it, with thousands of people donating.

To outsiders, the anti-abortion movement's disaffection with the Republican Party might seem odd. After all, in Ryan, Romney has chosen a running mate with a 100 percent lifetime voting record from the National Right to Life Committee—slightly better, as it happens, than Akin, who only scored 90 percent during one of his terms in Congress. As Mason mentioned, the 2012 GOP platform once again calls for prohibiting abortion without exception. Besides, aside from the American Family Association's ever-inflammatory Bryan Fischer, few in the anti-abortion movement are interested in defending Akin's ridiculous assertions about female reproductive biology.

Yet if there's one thing that pro-choice and anti-abortion activists agree on, it's that the Akin uproar isn't just about his suggestion that trauma prevents pregnancy. It's also about his desire to ban abortion even for rape victims. Many Republicans, including Ryan, share that position. But the Romney campaign, knowing how unpopular it is, badly wants to deflect attention from that fact, which is why there's such a concerted effort to shove Akin aside. Anti-abortion activists note, correctly, that while Republican leaders pander to them, they would prefer to do so without publicity. If Romney is embarrassed by Akin, it's partly because he's embarrassed by his own party's far-right base.

"We expect liberals to lie, spin, and twist, but why should conservatives wage a propaganda attack against a man holding the very position of the National Right to Life on rape-related abortion?" writes Joel McDurmon, the director of research at American Vision, a group devoted to creating "an America that recognizes the sovereignty of God over all of life." His answer: "Politicians like Akin, who represent the clear contrast and strong conservatism desired by the tea party, are a real threat to the old Northeastern establishment Republicans like Romney. And thus that establishment savages him—violently and in unison. Call it a political gang rape—a legitimate one."

There was a time when anti-abortion activists bowed to political expediency and enthusiastically backed candidates like George W. Bush, who supported rape exemptions to anti-abortion laws. But the rise of the Personhood movement, which seeks to legally define fertilized eggs as full human beings, has pushed the older, more incremental approach aside. At the same time, the advent of the Tea Party has convinced many conservative voters that they don't have to compromise; hence the string of Senate primaries, including Akin's, where far-right insurgents defeated more establishment candidates. In this new climate anything less than anti-abortion absolutism is unacceptable.

"The Romney-Ryan ticket putting out a statement on Monday that said, 'Hey, if you're raped, you can kill your kid if you want,' that went over like a fart in church," says Deace. Mason sees such a stance as worse in some ways than rejecting the idea of personhood altogether. "If you say that every child in the womb is a person, but it's OK to kill babies conceived in rape, that's a horrible position to take," she says. "It's almost worse than denying the personhood of those children. You're just denying their right to live."

It remains to be seen if anti-abortion donors can offset all the Republican money Akin is losing. Several major anti-abortion organizations are rallying around him, including the Family Research Council and the Susan B. Anthony List, as well as state-level groups like Missouri Right to Life, which said in a statement that it "supports Congressman Akin's defense of the life of an innocent unborn child conceived by rape." What this means in dollar terms, though, is unclear. A hundred thousand dollars in one day is a lot of money, but he'll need more than that to run a successful Senate campaign.

Mason, for one, wants to see him get it. "If he truly is a 100 percent pro-life candidate with no exceptions, with that stellar voting record we're looking for, I would hope that the pro-life and pro-family groups would fill the gap," she says.

[Townsend]

Anyone else listen to the Diane Rehm show this morning about the GOP?

A caller from Broken Arrow made it in there with the GOP rep responding with "Wow, that's a strange way to look at it.  I'm not sure what's going on in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma but..."and then my mind refused to listen any further apparently because a gentleman in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma just shocked a hard core GOP'r.

Anyone catch it?

[heironymouspasparagus]

You can listen here....I think this is the one you are talking about.


http://thedianerehmshow.org/