Who Calls the Shots on a Woman's Right to Choose?

While I realize abortion is not THE primary concern nationally, it is important to women, myself included and it is important in the battleground aka "swing" states.  

On October 22, Gallup reported, "Abortion was the top issue named by women voters in 12 key swing states as 'the most important issue.p for women in this election,' according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. By contrast, 1% of women and less than 1% of men, nationally, consider it the most important problem facing the nation."

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2012/10/23/new-gallup-poll-shreds-cnns-speculation-women-abortion-and-gop#ixzz2AEKFzeFJ

Abortion rights, a woman's right to choose, the Roe v Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court don't seem to matter to the men running for office.  Paul Ryan is pro-Life, conceding only to Mitt Romney's less radical position because Romney, not Ryan, is the Presidential candidate. If Ryan becomes president, all bets are off.  After the Biden/Ryan debate, the Washington Post had this to say: 

But the position Ryan articulated Thursday — “the policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortions with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother” — is different from Ryan’s earlier position of no abortions, except possibly in cases where mother’s life was endangered.

Todd Akin...hoo boy, we know his story. He's reduced his lead in the state of Missouri to a virtual tie with incumbent Claire McCaskill.

And then there's THIS guy.    

Candidate Romney was for him before he was against him.  Sound familiar?

Letterman's Top 10: Paul Ryan, Weightlifter

Numbers 6 and 5 are my favorites.

Paul Ryan Has A Bridge to Sell You

Norah O'Donnell parses the voting and verbal record of Rep. Paul Ryan.. . to his face.

Notice how he pauses and emphasizes her name, "Norah", over and over. She smiles when he tells her she's wrong. He tells her

"Norah, you're mistaken."

I actually saw a "The Good Wife" re-run last night that covered EXACTLY this political tactic!

FOX NEWS Analyst Rejects Ryan Talking Points

What is going on here?  Twice in one week during the same event, Fox News person is openly criticizing a spokesperson at the RNC.

In a surprising move, Fox News joined CNN, The Huffington Post, the Washington Post's Wonkblog, and ThinkProgress in publishing a fact-check of the Republican vice presidential nominee's speech, finding that the speech was full of lies and misleading assertions.  Huffington Post 8/30/2012 

Pretty interesting stuff:  "Paul Ryan's speech in 3 words"

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming!

Republicans Ignore Women's Issues at Their Peril

Women on the airwaves are PISSED!  They are all over the moronic comments of Rep. Todd Akin (R: MO) yesterday regarding abortion for "legitimate rape" victims.

The good side of this?  Claire McCaskill, whom most pundits   said was in the "fight of her political career" now has a great chance to win re-election.                                                                                                      **********

Next we have Republican members of the House of Representatives carousing in the Sea of Galilee involving drinking and nudity:

A group of House Republicans were reprimanded last August for taking a late-night swim in Israel's Sea of Galilee that reportedly involved drinking and nudity. As Politico reported Sunday night, a number of Republican lawmakers on a fact-finding trip to Israel were involved in the incident, including Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Some spouses, family members, and staffers were also present. According to the report, Yoder took off his clothes before entering the reservoir, which the Bible cites as the place where Jesus walked on water.  Huffington Post 08-20-12

Gotta love those awesome junkets abroad.                                                                                         ********* The Donald weighs in on women in general "not getting what's going on" when it comes to President Obama. In his usual subtle delivery, he states his case:

Can you imagine being married to this guy?  Or working for him?  Every time I hear him speak and look at his hair, all I can think is "What a douchebag."  It's ever so much more descriptive than "asshole".

President Obama is currently giving an impromptu press conference as I type this.  His comment when asked his thoughts on Akin's "legitimate rape" response.

Obama: "We shouldn't have a bunch of politicians - a bunch of whom are men - making health-care decisions for women"  MSNBC  08/20/12

Yeah.  Tell that to Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Donald Trump and the GOP in general.  

JUST RELEASED:  NBC/WSJ POLL:   Obama 56% vs Romney 39%  with WOMEN

Romney Ryan...nuff said

It’s here — in Ryan’s views and policy judgments — we find the true ideologue. More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today’s Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.  
Robert Reich "The Ryan Choice"





For more on Paul Ryan's budget:  http://www.barackobama.com/romney/ryan/

Class Warfare???

I don't understand this "class warfare" sound bite coming from the mouths of members of the GOP.  It's a catchy phrase, to be sure, but in the context it's used, it seems oxymoronic.

The term expression now used by many politicos on the Right is a refutation of  the tax proposals put forth by the President last Monday.  President Obama wants to tax anyone making a million dollars plus to pay at least the same effective tax rate as many of those who work for them.  Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

There was a hue and cry from the GOP with (R) Rep. Paul Ryan leading the charge with his own tax program "which would slash taxes for the rich as well as funding for food stamps and other low-income assistance programs".  Huh?  When asked if he was engaging in his own "class warfare", his said

“...the president is using rhetoric that divides people, that preys on people’s sense of anxiety, fear, envy.” He said: “what we’re trying to do is appeal to people’s sense of hope, aspiration. We want an equal- opportunity society. We want a society of upward mobility, and that is what we’re striving for.”

Wait.  Whose hopes and aspirations is he talking about?   Upward mobility?  Right now, many of us would be happy with a job, food on the table and a permanent place to sleep.

Speaker of the House Boehner was not to be denied his moment in the sun; of course, he always looks like he's been in the sun.  

“I don’t think I would describe class warfare as leadership. The government has a spending problem and I don’t believe it makes any sense to tax the people we expect to invest in our economy.”

Uh, that would be a shitload of GOP supporters and opposition to environment protection, social welfare and less government oversight like the billionaire Koch brothers.

They couldn't possibly mean these people.  The ones the US Census Bureau say are now 46,000,000  strong in what is still considered by many the "richest country in the world":

The pain was not evenly distributed, however. Black households suffered the greatest decline, losing 10.1% of household income since 2007. Those over the age of 65 saw household income increase by 5.5% since 2007.

Roughly 9.4 million individuals have lost their full-time jobs since 2007. There are roughly 6.6 million fewer men in the full-time workforce and 2.8 million fewer women.

The national poverty rate has hit 15.1% of the population now lives in poverty — up from 14.3% in 2009 and from 12.5% in 2007. 

The Census reports that 46.2 million individuals now live in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009. This is the highest number of people living in poverty since statistics were first kept in 1959 — a 52-year highRead more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/census-report-income-down-poverty-up/5140/#ixzz1YobLjsa6

You get the idea.  And the idea is we, the people of the United States of America, are circling the downward economic drain while the country burns and the GOP, lobbyists, bankers, corporations and Wall Street fiddle.

MediScare Goes Viral

Joe Scarborough calls it "Mediscare". The Repubs say it's being "demagogued". The Agenda Project has a response.




While I'm not crazy about the extreme approach, it certainly is attention getting; kinda like those "death panel" rants Sarah Palin was giving a while back. 

Jimmy Fallon, on "Morning Joe" this morning has a different take. 

"Any time you get to throw a dummy off a cliff, that's good stuff."