Obama campaign ad: ‘Republican Women for Obama’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Obama campaign has released a new ad, "Republican Women for Obama." Republican women share their history with the Republican Party and how the party's views are no longer aligned with their own. They don't support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and share how Romney and Ryan are wrong for women.

As they share:

"If you truly believe in a small government. That government shouldn't be deciding what I can and cannot do with my own body."

"There is no way on God's green earth that I would consider voting Republican."

"I don't even want to think about them having control—as a woman I don't."

"If you're a conservative woman, and you believe in small government, then Barack Obama is your candidate because he's keeping the government out of the decisions that should remain between you and God, and you and your own conscience."

Video below the fold.

Democratic & Republican conventions: Occupiers/protesters ready for delegates

Classwarfare375-sm72

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Occupiers in Tampa, Florida and Charlotte, NC are gearing up for the deluge of politicians, dignitaries, convention delegates, journalists, and other protesters who are about to descend upon their cities.

The Republican National Convention (RNC) will be held in Tampa will be August 27-30. The Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be held in Charlotte (AKA Wall Street of the South) from September 3-6.

With their anti-women, anti-any-color-but-white, anti-immigrant, anti-middle class, anti-gay, anti-union… OK… anti-99% agenda, the RNC offers a fertile field for protests from the rest of us. With Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the ticket, the Republicans have cemented their place in history as the party of the 1%. 

Occupy Tampa is one of the few Occupations with tents on the ground, and they plan to be camping– and protesting– during the RNC.

More hints about what will be happening outside the convention halls, after the jump.

WaPo Editorial: The repugnant code behind Todd Akin’s words

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Washington Post editorializes today, The repugnant code behind Todd Akin’s words:

LITTLE WONDER that Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate, is trying to back away from his comments about abortion and rape. So ignorant and offensive were his remarks that members of Mr. Akin’s own party, including its presidential standard-bearer, issued strong condemnations,enoug though it took them a while to get strong h. Mr. Akin was utterly unconvincing in explaining that he “misspoke.” It is scary that someone so ill-informed could hold elective office or have a chance of becoming a senator.

[Note to Editors: Have you actually met the members of Congress? Todd Akin is neither unique nor the most ill-informed and extreme member of Congress. There are more where he came from.]

The comments, first aired Sunday on St. Louis’s KTVI-TV, bear repeating, if only to underscore Mr. Akin’s alarming worldview. Responding to a question about whether he would ease his opposition to abortion to allow exceptions for women who have been raped, the six-term congressman said, “It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Screenshot-7It’s idiotic, to borrow the phrase of GOP strategist Mike Murphy, to say — citing doctors, no less — that women’s bodies contain some hidden defenses that can kick in to prevent pregnancies. To suggest there are different categories of rape — some real and awful and others that are not — is loathsome. [See last paragraph of opinion below.] Even from someone who would liken student loans to Stage 3 cancer, as Mr. Akin once did, the comment was stunning in its stupidity and insensitivity.

At first, Mr. Akin issued a statement saying that he “misspoke” and his “off-the-cuff remarks” didn’t “reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.” The explanation was hard to square with the fact that opposition to abortion has been a core tenet of his time in office — the issue isn’t new to him, in other words — and that he expounded on his thoughts during a lengthy interview with KTVI’s Charles Jaco.

As calls mounted for him to withdraw from the Senate race and the National Republican Senatorial Committee announced it would not spend any money to help elect him, Mr. Akin apologized Monday on former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s radio show, calling his remarks “a very, very serious error.” Indeed.

The GOP war on women: define ‘legitimate’ rape

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Christian Taliban's candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, culture warrior Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), sparked a firestorm of controversy on Sunday with an interview he gave to a local television station. Todd Akin On Abortion: 'Legitimate Rape' Victims Have 'Ways To Try To Shut That Whole Thing Down' (VIDEO):

In an interview with KTVI-TV on Sunday, the GOP Senate nominee was asked if he supported abortion in the case of rape.

"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist."

Watch the video (below the fold).