tmccarthy0's picture

    Overreach

    I thought we might be finished, I thought Republicans might retreat from some from their extremist anti-womyn, anti-contraception, anti-human medieval belief that females are chattle. Did they, nope, they doubled down dug themselves a trench of quicksand. It is unbelievable what these dudes are willing to do to destroy their party with their public jihad against womyn.  In their massive opposition to prescription drug coverage for womyn they remind  me of the old story of Bison following each other mindlessly off a cliff, this cliff being the cliff of fair and equal access to  prescription drug coverage for womyn.

    Yesterday began with Daryl Issa's, Chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, holding a hearing hilariously and ironically titled:  “Lines Crossed:  Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” It was great because of course Congressman Issa had no womyn on his original panel of dudes he called to testify on behalf of Issa's conclusion which came long before he called this hearing,  It is obvious that for Issa and his pals in congress that hearing on contraceptive coverage was held to find a way to get to no, using whatever possible including banning womyn who are pro-choice from testifying at the hearing.

    That is how the day began, but as we moved quickly into afternoon we heard Rick Santorums SuperPac guy Mr. Foster Friese. Friese stunned Andrea Mitchell when he made the statement that womyn in his era used and asprin between their legs as their form of contraception, which I guess explains all those teenagers getting married in the 1950's and early 60's.  He was doing what all those old guys do, he was inferring that womyn who use  contraception are sluts. Yikes, and all Santorum's staff can say, is that Friese doesn't work for the campaign. Umm, Okay.

    Overreach is the word of the day, Republicans are carrying on in Newt's footsteps, they love overreach, although they don't see it as overreach. Issa and his crew make excuses, THIS ISN'T ABOUT CONTRACEPTION, they scream, no, no, this is about RELIGIOUS FREEDUMB. You stick with that dudes, and you will see your party shrink enough for us to drown it in the bathtub, to quote your leader Grover Norquist.

    This is part and parcel of what Julian Sanchez , David Frum, Jon Chait were discussing all last year, the Epistemic Closure of the Republican Party. It isn't only the case that Republicans are purging some of their best thinkers from their club, David Frum from the American Enterprise Institute or Andrew Sullivan a man who was once considered a "good conservative" and Bruce Bartlett, who was fired by a right wing think tank called the National Center for Policy Analysis in 2005 for writing a book critical of George W. Bush's policies, who has written that he even lost a great many friends and been shunned by conservative society in Washington, DC after his book came out, sacrilege!

    And then of course there is this little piece of information from a survey conducted by Democracy Corps, which finds the Republican brand:

    "is in a state of collapse -- over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans."

    According to that survey those voters who gave Democrats victories in 2006 and 2008 are back, in a big way, in particular among unmarried womyn.  Their direct assault on our rights is going to kill off their chances in the fall, it will mostly likely affect those running down ticket as well, this issue alone will relegate Republicans to a smaller and smaller slice of the electorate.  And they don't seem to care one bit.

    Crossposted @ TheAngriestLiberal

    Comments

    The single funniest video I have seen this year occured when Babwa Walters responded WHAT? to Herman Cain's hope of being Secretary of Defense someday.

    http://dagblog.com/comment/reply/13087#comment-form

    But the SECOND funniest video involved Andrea Mitchell responding with a gasp to the Bayer Aspirin quip.

    And I think this has something to do with phonemes (bare ass); but it really was the reaction of Andrea. I mean with her new commercials out on MSNBC and with her thirty or forty years of journalistic meanderings across the world this woman has heard everything as has Barbara.

    Andrea followed up on this gasp on her show and MSNBC has been guesting a lot of women in the past couple of days.

    This all male panel has been put up on the cable screen scores of times.

    Issa looks so bad on all this.

    And I have been reading blogs and articles on this perspective at Huffpo and Dailybeast and Slate and Think Progress and the repubs are coming out in droves attempting to defend themselves with some 1st Amendment crap.

    And it is falling flat everywhere except FOX and who the hell cares about FOX--just 30% of Americans who really hate America.

    Let the repubs dance this hokey-pokey.

    If they end up with 30% of the female vote in this country, I will be amazed.

    Good follow-up Mac!


    Thanks Dick. I am glad to see women finally getting their voice about this issue.


    Like the venomous insect in the tale about the scorpion and the frog, the GOP's nature is to destroy their enemies even if the GOP destroys itself in the process. They openly make sexist and racist comments to feed red meat to the GOP base. At some point, even GOP women have to break ranks with this nonsense.


    I think Independent women are the ones mostly affected by this, I don't know so much about Republican women. And for sure it is Independent women Republicans need to attract if they want to win this election.  And it seems they don't want to win at all.


    Very Good Summary. On NBC Nightly News yesterday, someone from Pew Research, said the GOP was going to pick up Catholic voters in states like Pennsylvania for their stand on religion freedom. Like this was really a thought out plan for the election. I guess they had to show their financial backers that they were on top of this with all the positive analysis they had on this issue.

    Can someone help me on this?  I'm having trouble understanding what religious freedom is being assaulted and / or trampled upon.  Since when do Protestant religions cheer on anything that involves the Catholic church imposing their beliefs on non-Catholics?  I am obviously missing something here. Either that or the spinning has gotten me so dizzy my mind can't focus on the obvious answer.  The other day, a Facebook friend recommended I read an article in the National Review, which was so over-the-top insane, I could barely get through it.  It was a rant about the Obama administration and their conspiracy to destroy the separation of church and state, blah, blah, blah.

    When this whole thing started, I thought the issue seemed simple;  if a religious organization chooses to work in the public sector, why should they be allowed to make adherence to their religious beliefs, a condition of receiving that service?  If the Catholic church provides non-religious services, and receive grants and other support from the government, don't they have to perform services in a manner which is consistent with the laws of the land, as opposed to the laws of the Catholic church?  And if they hire people in the open market, and not through their religious organization, how do they justify forcing their beliefs on their employees?   And now here's where my mind continues to be boggled; how do the Right wingers make a case that it's Obama destroying the separation of church and state?  Isn't giving the Catholic church special dispensation from compliance with the law doing that?  I understand Catholics not wanting to go against their own teachings.  But then, don't choose to work amongst non-believers with the expectation that you can tell them what THEY should believe.  I keep thinking this harkens back to the 19th century missionaries in Africa, when Catholics brought medicine to the natives with the provision they first convert to believing in Jesus.

    Maybe I'm tired, maybe I'm focused on other things right now, maybe I'm an idiot, but I just don't understand.  To me, it's like a weird nightmare where logic doesn't exist and elephants sh*t baloney and sell it as gold.

     


    Oooh Mr. Smith good points!

    I love your last paragraph, I don't get it either. I am a woman and I don't get it, it is as if Republicans are in total meltdown mode, but since Americans support the actions of the Administration you'd think they'd pull back from all of this, but no, they've doubled down, not sure why, but they did! Maybe they want to lose the house too.


    Thanks Momoe!


    Thanks for your post. This thing about Freiss has been bothering me a lot. 

    It's hard to believe a guy like Freiss would make the aspirin statement un-premeditated. On the one hand I have known so many guys like him who talk exactly like that, the wives demurring---oh, that's just the way Foster talks, etc.

    What bothers me is that the media has now reacted, predictably, and where are we? Santorum is rallying his base and is on the national media bring up issues like---Reverend Wright.

    It might have been off the cuff, and it might just have been well thought out. Just sayin'.

     

     


    Weird thing is Oxy, I've met people like Mr. Friess too, no doubt about it, but I didn't realize that if you had tons of money you could basically get on TV to say whatever you want no thinking required! He didn't seem to realize his audience wasn't CPAC where they laughed at his dumb joke. That is the deal I think, he didn't realize there would be lots of folks in the country, okay women, who wouldn't laugh at that at all.

    I don't care though, for me it was a laugh, b/c it does continue to make Republicans seems like Neanderthals, and for me that works just fine. I'd like to see the Republicans lose the house over this, and they would once and for all recognize that politicizing our health issues will hurt their efforts to Talibanize our government.

    I can't dream right!


    I watched Bill Moyer & Company and there was a discussion about all the dog whistling going on from the Republicans. The point that was made talked about how the GOP was chasing an allusive far right base that the rest of us can't make any sense out of. The average Republican voter is just as confused about it as we are. That is why the low turn out and lack of enthusiasm in the primaries so far.

    got a link, please?

     


    Sorry to say this TMC, but you just listed all the badges of courage GOPers are proud to wear when out in the public square. They take pride in them there badges and the more fun you poke at them, them more important they become to their cause. In other words, you can't shame them simply because shame is self  is on such a high level above them, they can't reach out and grab it to save themselves when all else fails.


    Yeah your probably right Beetle.


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