Context, Sen. Rapert? Seriously?

Feb 1st, 2013

Today, ThinkProgress reported on an amateur video (posted below) showing Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert (R), a far-right activist who has recently gained national attention for his radical assaults on reproductive choice, making the following statement:

"I hear you loud and clear, Barack Obama. You don’t represent the country that I grew up with. And your values is [sic] not going to save us. We’re going to take this country back for the Lord. We’re going to try to take this country back for conservatism. And we’re not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in!"

It's shameful. It's shocking. It's vile. And it's not playing the "race card" to hammer him for it.

Usually, this is where a public figure who has brought shame to their office makes some sort of apology.

You know the drill. At the very least, they say something along the lines of, "if anyone was offended, etc.."

Some just disappear and they lie low for a while.

Not Sen. Rapert. He has taken to his twitter account to accuse his critics of lacking "context."

No, Seriously.

It's exceedingly rare to see this sort of overt White Supremacism so proudly displayed by a public official in this day and age, but it happens.

However, I can't recall ever seeing someone caught in such a display so devolved that they think it's publicly defensible.

The Komen Kerfuffle

Feb 7th, 2012

Of all the blow-ups in the GOP's ongoing war against women, nothing has been as spectacular as the reaction to the Susan B. Komen foundation pulling their grants to Planned Parenthood. Before cheering their apparent reversal, it's worth noting how small a victory this is.

Michael B Keegan wrote this weekend:

"I too am angry at Komen's decision to put right-wing ideology ahead of its purported public health mission. But our deeper anger should be directed at someone else: the Republicans in Congress and GOP leaders who consistently make the same choices involving many times more money, and many times more women's lives. The shock of the revelation of Komen's new policies only highlighted how numb many of us have become to the larger, unrelenting attacks on women's health by right-wing elected officials.

The grants to Planned Parenthood that Komen would have severed totaled $680,000 over the last year - a total that the organization thankfully made up in two days from contributions that have poured in in response to the Komen betrayal. Let's put that in perspective. Last year, the House GOP voted to zero out the entire $317,000,000 Title X family planning budget - including about $75 million that would have gone to Planned Parenthood's preventative care and treatment programs for low-income women. Deciding that this plan wasn't disastrous enough, the House alsopassed an amendment to eliminate all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, an estimated total of$363 million, much of which goes to care for the Medicaid patients who make up almost half of Planned Parenthood's clientele. The amount that Komen would have cut from Planned Parenthood's women's healthcare was significant-- but the amount that House Republicans were prepared to cut was 500 times larger."

We should be glad that so many citizens spoke out and effected some change. But, the mission to destroy Planned Parenthood and other supports for millions of women is otherwise proceeding according to plan.

Santorum Could Take Iowa

Jan 3rd, 2012

Bear with me.

Jake Horowitz wrote a week ago:

"Back in 1975, Georgia's Democratic governor Jimmy Carter pulled off an upset to become president, and his surprise victory in the 1976 Iowa caucuses played a signficant role in his success. Carter went door-to-door and shook people's hands in order to sway Iowans' votes.

Today, this kind of in-person, on-the-groud campaigning is no longer a focus of the campaign, as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and televised presidential debates have taken precedence (debate viewership has been staggering this electoral cycle). Yet, with the race for this year's nomination still very much undecided, the momentum that a caucus victory provides remains important."

"The results will help to winnow down the field to the only legitimate contenders (bye bye Bachmann, Santorum, and Perry)."

With all due respect, his assumption that Santorum has no chance may be dead wrong. This is why actual campaigning still matters. Like Ron Paul, Santorum has a better ground game than most of his competition. Santorum is polling very strong right now and there is also something else at play;

Amanda Marcotte wrote yesterday that what truly defines the Iowa caucus this year is a single issue:

"To really understand Iowa, you need to understand the primacy of abortion as an issue to the Christian right. It’s baffling how little attention this gets, considering the tendency of all the candidates---and especially those whose numbers in Iowa, like Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, eclipse what they can get in most other states---to make frequent statements about how they consider banning abortion to be a number one priority and the big issue of our time. Economic issues are confusing and the difference between candidates is too hazy to matter to the Republican base. Foreign policy doesn’t seem to matter that much at all to voters this year. But abortion is a nice, simple issue, and the candidates by and large seem to get what the media doesn’t: The more you pound the table and stereotype women who get abortions as heartless slatterns, the better you do in the polls."

If she is correct, and I believe that she is to a degree, Santorum just might win this thing. Bachmann's campaign is not only hopeless, but her paranoid accusations against former staffer Kent Sorenson might have handed her followers to the only other rabidly pro-choice candidate.

It could be the perfect storm.

As for the broader implications, anything that gets another few hundred thousand would-be voters to Google the word "Santorum" is fine with me.

Santorum Is Simply An Asshole, cont...

Jan 1st, 2012

He has slammed President Obama for being pro-choice because the President is "black."

Colbert Takes On Siri

Dec 1st, 2011

By now, you have likely heard that the very popular iPhone app, Siri, seems to have some some interesting social engineering woven into its code. Well, Stephen Colbert has given it the treatment, so to speak...

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The Free Market Party?

Aug 23rd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Let's say that there is an activity which is perfectly legal under the laws of the United States.

This activity involves financial transactional behavior.

One could actually argue that it is part of the service economy.


With this in mind, some private citizens who require access in this marketplace elect to make agreements with private corporations to assist the way in which payments for these services are rendered.

Now... let's say that a small group of social activists feel that these arrangements are "wrong." Based on a series of religious rationales, they fight to interfere with this market by passing laws which forbid these private citizens from entering these private contracts for this legal activity.

It sounds crazy in that context, doesn't it? If, perhaps, you thought I was referring to the tenets of Sharia Law which govern "usury" or "interest," boy are you wrong.

Welcome to the American Republican Party in 2011 and its attempts to render illegal the use of private insurance policies to pay for abortions.

Crazy Bachmann Watch

March 27th, 2011

Dear Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), please run. Please, please, please run for the Presidency. It will be so much fun.

Her latest example of insane disconnect as reported in The Hill:

"We've been told that we need a truce on social issues and I would highly disagree with that because the truth is social conservatism is fiscal conservatism," Bachmann said.


Interesting. Just last week it was widely reported that a small provision tucked away inside the already vile HR3 would require IRS AUDITS of women's abortions. How spending taxpayer money on this is remotely fiscally "conservative" begs the question as to whether or not these people wholly misunderstand the very definition of conservatism?

Indiana's Shame - Rep. Pence Now Leads The War On Women

Feb 19th, 2011

THERE ARE LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST TO HELP DEFEND WOMEN'S ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

Indiana's Rep. Mike Pence (R-Dist 6) managed to successfully endanger the health of women nationwide yesterday. The Republican dominated House of Representatives passed his amendment to fully defund taxpayer support of Planned Parenthood by a vote of 240-185. 


10 Democrats joined their backwards colleagues. They are listed below along with their contact information.

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America was blunt in her response. "To be clear, the amendment to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding does nothing to reduce the deficit and it does nothing to improve the economy. In fact, health professionals will actually lose their jobs as a result, and, most egregiously, it takes health care away from American women who cannot afford to pay for it on their own."