This is where mansplaining, the lack of sex ed, and the idiocy of the teabaggers combine into a huge shitstorm that isn’t so much hilarious as terrifying.
• Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” After the interview caused a firestorm, Akin said in a statement that he “misspoke.”
• Ryan and Akin largely agree when it comes to abortion rights. Both believe abortion should be illegal even in the case of rape and incest. Both were co-sponsors of H.R. 3, the 2011 bill that would have limited the federal abortion coverage exemption only to victims of “forcible rape” and women whose physical health was in danger from her pregnancy, closing a supposed loophole in health-of-the-mother exemptions conservatives have been crowing about for years.
• Conservative strategists and activists did not rally to Rep. Todd Akin’s defense Sunday after the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri said that “legitimate rape” victims have a biological defense mechanism to prevent pregnancy. Instead, a growing chorus is calling for him to withdraw from the race.
• First, Ron Paul’s “honest rape”, now Akin’s “legitimate rape”. These aren’t anonymous commenters on Red State, it’s Senate nominees and reasonably high-profile presidential candidates. So, fuck yeah, Ryan-Romney should have to answer for it. Where the fuck do they find these people? Maybe I’m wrong, but all this terminology smacks of “she was asking for it, the way she was dressed” blah blah blah. I thought we were past that.
Bits and pieces:
• The Conservative Psyche: How ordinary people come to embrace the cruelty of Paul Ryan and other right-wingers. Scientific research into the way we think explains the reasons decent people wind up supporting horrific policies.
• Why is this important? Remember the big stink the right waged after some Secret Service agents let loose?: The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff — and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was the senior most GOP lawmaker in Israel on the trip, was so upset about the antics that he rebuked the 30 lawmakers the morning after the Aug. 18, 2011, incident, saying they were distracting from the mission of the trip.
• The Romney campaign views this as a distraction issue, but the tax returns are all about Mitt Romney’s character. In a desperate attempt to change the subject, the Romney campaign is now claiming that you don’t care about his tax returns. The campaign’s latest destined to fail gambit on the question of the tax returns is to try to tell the American people what they think.
• Speaking to Fox News’ Carl Cameron Saturday morning, Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan made the case for why he believes his foreign policy credentials are stronger than President Obama’s, emphasizing that he has been a voting member of Congress longer than the president. Ryan cited his votes in favor of the Iraq War as evidence that he has had more foreign policy experience than Obama. “I’ve been in Congress for a number of years,” he told Cameron. “That’s more experience than Barack Obama had when he came into office.” “I voted to send people to war,” he added.
• Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs on Sunday defended Joe Biden, saying a recent comment that GOP economic policies would put people “back in chains” was not racially motivated and claiming it was no different than how Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), speak of Wall Street reform. “No more race baiting than when John Boehner says ‘let’s unshackle Wall Street, let’s unshackle big business,’” said Gibbs.
• Bain Capital’s Link To OpSec Smears: Spokesman for OpSe, Gabriel Gomez, is a principal of Advent International, a Boston-based private equity group. All of these equity firms are intertwined with each other through various deals, but Advent and Bain trumpeted their joint acquisition of RBS WorldPay in 2010. One of the participating members of the deal was Sankaty Advisors, the offspring of Sankaty High Yield Capital and other Sankaty entities which have Mitt Romney’s brand stamped all over them.
F.D.Brightly
Just when you thought they couldn’t get any dumber [Shorter Question Everything]
This is where mansplaining, the lack of sex ed, and the idiocy of the teabaggers combine into a huge shitstorm that isn’t so much hilarious as terrifying.
• Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” After the interview caused a firestorm, Akin said in a statement that he “misspoke.”
• Ryan and Akin largely agree when it comes to abortion rights. Both believe abortion should be illegal even in the case of rape and incest. Both were co-sponsors of H.R. 3, the 2011 bill that would have limited the federal abortion coverage exemption only to victims of “forcible rape” and women whose physical health was in danger from her pregnancy, closing a supposed loophole in health-of-the-mother exemptions conservatives have been crowing about for years.
• Conservative strategists and activists did not rally to Rep. Todd Akin’s defense Sunday after the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri said that “legitimate rape” victims have a biological defense mechanism to prevent pregnancy. Instead, a growing chorus is calling for him to withdraw from the race.
• First, Ron Paul’s “honest rape”, now Akin’s “legitimate rape”. These aren’t anonymous commenters on Red State, it’s Senate nominees and reasonably high-profile presidential candidates. So, fuck yeah, Ryan-Romney should have to answer for it. Where the fuck do they find these people? Maybe I’m wrong, but all this terminology smacks of “she was asking for it, the way she was dressed” blah blah blah. I thought we were past that.
Bits and pieces:
• The Conservative Psyche: How ordinary people come to embrace the cruelty of Paul Ryan and other right-wingers. Scientific research into the way we think explains the reasons decent people wind up supporting horrific policies.
• Why is this important? Remember the big stink the right waged after some Secret Service agents let loose?: The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff — and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was the senior most GOP lawmaker in Israel on the trip, was so upset about the antics that he rebuked the 30 lawmakers the morning after the Aug. 18, 2011, incident, saying they were distracting from the mission of the trip.
• The Romney campaign views this as a distraction issue, but the tax returns are all about Mitt Romney’s character. In a desperate attempt to change the subject, the Romney campaign is now claiming that you don’t care about his tax returns. The campaign’s latest destined to fail gambit on the question of the tax returns is to try to tell the American people what they think.
• Speaking to Fox News’ Carl Cameron Saturday morning, Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan made the case for why he believes his foreign policy credentials are stronger than President Obama’s, emphasizing that he has been a voting member of Congress longer than the president. Ryan cited his votes in favor of the Iraq War as evidence that he has had more foreign policy experience than Obama. “I’ve been in Congress for a number of years,” he told Cameron. “That’s more experience than Barack Obama had when he came into office.” “I voted to send people to war,” he added.
• Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs on Sunday defended Joe Biden, saying a recent comment that GOP economic policies would put people “back in chains” was not racially motivated and claiming it was no different than how Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), speak of Wall Street reform. “No more race baiting than when John Boehner says ‘let’s unshackle Wall Street, let’s unshackle big business,’” said Gibbs.
• Bain Capital’s Link To OpSec Smears: Spokesman for OpSe, Gabriel Gomez, is a principal of Advent International, a Boston-based private equity group. All of these equity firms are intertwined with each other through various deals, but Advent and Bain trumpeted their joint acquisition of RBS WorldPay in 2010. One of the participating members of the deal was Sankaty Advisors, the offspring of Sankaty High Yield Capital and other Sankaty entities which have Mitt Romney’s brand stamped all over them.