Month: August 2012

Going for the frozen zygote vote

by digby

I can’t for the life of me figure out why Todd Akin removed this from his website:

… or why the Republicans think he’ll have a problem winning his race.

h/t @litbrit

“Use of force is never pretty”

by digby

I wonder how many real crimes were committed unmolested while the LAPD engaged in brutality against a skateboarder and wasted the time of dozens of police officers in the process:

Ronald Weekley Jr., 20, of Venice, Calif., told USA TODAY that officers broke his nose and right cheekbone and gave him a concussion after they tackled him from behind Saturday night. Video shows several officers restraining the Xavier University sophomore and one officer punching him in the face while he was face down.

The Los Angeles Police Department, however, maintains that Weekley resisted arrest after officers tried to stop him and discuss his traffic violation. After he ran from police, officers pursued him and used force — including “several punches” — until he was put into handcuffs, Commander Andrew Smith told USA TODAY.

Weekley admits he was riding his skateboard in the street, against on-coming traffic. But he said that there were no cars at the time and that in Venice it’s common practice, as with bikes, to ride in the street.

It is. I see it every day.

I don’t know the whole story — the preliminary word from LAPD is that the kid tried to run. But there’s no excuse for punching someone who is in custody with four cops on top of him which we can see clearly in that video. I don’t care if it was Charles Manson. But it wasn’t Charles Manson. It was a skateboarding college kid doing what skateboarders do every day in Venice.

On the other hand, I give the other officers at the scene credit for not escalating the violence as they did in Orange County last month. And there didn’t seem to be any attempt to take the video camera. So there are cops who know how to behave professionally. And, unfortunately, some who don’t.

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Akin “apologizes”

by David Atkins

Oh boy:

“Rape is an evil act. I used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that I apologize,” Akin says. “As the father of two daughters, I want tough justice for predators. I have a compassionate heart for the victims of sexual assault, and I pray for them. The fact is, rape can lead to pregnancy. The truth is, rape has many victims. The mistake I made was in the words I said, not in the heart I hold. I ask for your forgiveness.”

This non-apology is so very typical of the fatuous conservative Christian.
1) Refuse to admit that you were wrong. Insist only that you misspoke.

2) Try to sound tough.

3) Refuse to backtrack on the original statement. Akin never said that rapes couldn’t lead to pregnancy in the first place. He said that the female body has ways of decreasing them. His “apology” still hasn’t backtracked from that.

4) Show no real signs of contrition, but only “forgiveness.” “Forgiveness” is the all-purpose conservative Christian get-out-of-jail-free card that lets them be as mean-spirited as they want but have it all turn out OK in the end.

The good news is that Akin is a belligerent SOB who believes that God is calling him to the U.S. Senate through divine providence. And when people believe something like that, nothing will convince them to quit.

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Solidifying the base

by digby

I think this is pretty much what Romney expected:

According to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 22 percent of registered voters say Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan to be his running mate makes them more likely to vote for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

That’s compared with 23 percent who say the Ryan pick makes them less likely to vote for Romney, and 54 percent who say the new running mate doesn’t affect their vote either way.

Romney’s the “middle of the road” mushy moderate of the pair. He needed a hardcore wingnut who, post-Palin, would pass muster with the Villagers and not completely scare off the little old ladies. He didn’t need a safe pick. He needed a polarizing pick who would validate him with the hardcore base. And he got him.

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The deficit reduction vicious circle

by digby

Oh, this is excellent news for our British friends:

George Osborne’s attempt to cut Britain’s deficit was dealt a blow today when official figures revealed that the Government borrowed £3 billion more than expected last month.

Public sector finances suffered from a 20 per cent fall in corporation tax receipts from business while public spending rose by 5 per cent, fuelled by higher benefit payments.

Overall public sector net borrowing came in at £600 million in July, compared with a surplus of £2.8 billion in the same month last year. City’s expectations had been for a surplus of £2.5 billion.

Public sector net debt now stands at above £1 trillion, compared to £940 billion a year ago, and represents 65.7 per cent of the UK’s GDP, up from 61.8 per cent last year.

July is normally a strong month for tax income, but total receipts fell 0.8 per cent, driven by the drop in corporation tax. The poor figures were compounded by a revision of net borrowing for April to June, which was revised up by £1.4 billion. It means net borrowing is £44.9 billion, £9.3 billion higher than a year ago.

That sounds awful. Obviously, their deficit cutting has inhibited growth and they need to change course.

Terribly sorry, but that won’t be happening:

The disappointing figures are likely to put pressure on Mr Osborne to cut back on departmental spending still further.

At the weekend it emerged that civil servants in the Treasury have been privately warning colleagues across Whitehall to prepare for a fresh round of cuts following the disappointing tax receipts. These cuts could come as soon as his autumn spending statement.

“There’s a lot of nervousness and other officials are talking to their oppos [opposite numbers] in spending departments,” said a Whitehall source. “They are saying we haven’t got enough cash and expect a much, much harsher environment.”

What’s that old saying? Something about learning from the past and being doomed?

The truth is that the British seem to have found the magic formula for drowning the government in the bathtub. First you ignore everything you’ve ever learned about how to deal with an economic slump and immediately slash government spending and raise taxes. This will be explained as vitally necessary to turn the economy around as deficit spending is the central economic problem the nation faces. This will inevitably result in a double dip recession and lower tax receipts which will require even more slashing of government spending. And on and on until one day (when we’re all dead) the economy rights itself and the government is the empty shell the conservatives always wanted. Huzzah.

The US managed to avoid the worst of this, although our system has allowed individual states to do much of the work that’s kept our economy from rebounding. But the double-dip has been avoided by the behavior of stubborn wingnuts who refused to take yes for an answer when it was offered to them. Whether that will remain the case as time goes on is an open question. But those who are still clamoring for “deficit reduction” in the face of very low growth and high unemployment can certainly look to our very special friends across the pond for inspiration. They are showing the way.

Update: I heard the Very Serious Centrist Matt Miller on MSNBC earlier extolling the virtues of Mr Cameron a a leader who did the right thing by refusing to lower taxes on the wealthy as he promised in order to fight the deficit. (About four minutes in …) Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Why should women have any say in who fathers their children anyway?

by digby

Don’t kid yourself. The rape and incest exceptions are dead among Republicans:

The man trying to provide Rep. Todd Akin the softest possible landing after the congressman’s foolish comments about pregnancy and rape was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Akin during his run to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate.

In the furor over Akin’s remarks and increasing pressure for him to drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, Huckabee used his syndicated radio program Monday to give the embattled candidate a safe venue to express remorse and his determination to remain in the race. Huckabee also took the opportunity to cast the best possible light on Akin’s awkward position. The former Arkansas governor and onetime GOP presidential contender suggested a couple of cases in which he suggested that rapes, though “horrible tragedies,” had produced admirable human beings.

“Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape,” Huckabee said of the late American gospel singer. One-time presidential candidate Huckabee added: “I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things.”

Isn’t that great? The dumb animals who are forced to go through the pregnancy and childbirth (and are physically reminded of their “horrible, horrible tragedy” every day for the rest of their lives) will just have to suck it up because their off spring might turn out to be a Christian conservative leader. Why should women have any say in who fathers their children in the first place?

And as I wrote yesterday, keep an eye on the exception to save the life of the mother too. They’re edging quickly toward that position as well. That’s where the rubber meets the road and they have to decide between “innocent life” and the dirty girls who got themselves pregnant.

This isn’t a tough call for many of these so-called “pro-life” people. After all, almost all of them are proponents of capital punishment, even if some innocent people get caught in the mix. It’s pretty clear that the only life they value is the one that has not yet been born.

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Nice little network you have here

by digby

I guess when you get into bed with the Tea Party, you’ll get out of it when they say you’ll get out of it. From Eric Boehlert:

In the wake of the controversy that erupted when Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in Missouri, claimed it was “really rare” for victims of “legitimate rape” to become pregnant from the assault, CNN earned an unfortunate media distinction: Among the very few pundits I’ve seen defending, or trying to excuse, Akin’s outrageous comments are Dana Loesch and Erick Erickson.

Both work for CNN.

Thanks to Erickson and Loesch, CNN today is associated with a radical position on the Akin story that outflanks anything even Fox News commentators are saying about the controversy.

This is the price CNN continues to pay for wanting so badly to be connected with representative of the right-wing press. Perhaps in search of shields to protect itself from the incessant whines about “liberal media bias,” CNN’s decision to legitimize the strange views of Loesch and Erickson remains a deeply misguided one. read on …

I’m not sure what these two would have to do to get treated the way that Rick Sanchez and Octavia Nasr were treated, but if calling Supreme Court Justices “goat fucking child molesters” or saying that you’d like to urinate on corpses doesn’t do it, it’s hard to see what would.

Obviously, CNN is terrified of the right wing. Which is just sad. The right wing couldn’t hate them any more than they already do. That should be liberating and allow them to get rid of this failed Tea Party experiment. It doesn’t appear that they understand this.

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The Conservative Leadership

by digby

Well, if you ask the National Republican Senatorial Committee …

Good morning –

Just a quick background update on the situation in the Missouri Senate race. While much of the press coverage has understandably focused on the statements by Republican leaders yesterday regarding Congressman Akin, I wanted to point out for your background that they have been joined by leading conservatives across the country who have called on Congressman Akin to step aside for the good of the party and the pro-life movement he cares so deeply about.

Below are just a few examples for your consideration…..

Radio/TV Host Sean Hannity urged Akin yesterday to reconsider running and reminded him that “elections are bigger than one person”

Radio Host Mark Levin similarly urged Akin to step aside saying this race is far too important to risk losing to the Democrats.

National Review’s Jim Geraghty observes, Who Isn’t Calling for Akin’s Withdrawal? Claire McCaskill & Planned Parenthood.

Columnist/Radio Host Dennis Prager penned a column for Townhall.com calling on his fellow pro-life leaders to join him in disavowing Akin’s remarks.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer on Fox News last night called Akin “toxic” and said “he’s got to go”

Radio Host Hugh Hewitt tweeted – “If Akin drops out and GOP wins Senate, he has career. If he stays in and GOP doesn’t win Senate, infamy and injury to prolife cause”

Author Ann Coulter penned a column in Human Events calling on Akin to do the right thing and step aside for the good of the pro-life movement

National Review editorial board called on Akin to step aside, writing in part, “Akin is a stalwart conservative and an honorable man, we regret to say that he inspires no such confidence”

Wall Street Journal editorial board also called on Akin to step aside, writing in part, “Having uttered one of the more offensive and ill-informed comments in recent years, Mr. Akin could cost his party a seat it is favored to win this November and thus possible control of the Senate.”

The Tea Party Express called on Akin to step aside saying “It is critical that we defeat Senator Claire McCaskill in November, but it will be too difficult to achieve that with Todd Akin as the conservative alternative.”

Limbaugh’s on vacation so he’s lost his usual spot at the top of the list.

Notice that most of them are offering the pragmatic reason that he can’t win the election. Needless to say, if the seat wasn’t so important to their chances of winning back the Senate in the fall, they would not have felt compelled to weigh in. Republican politicians say nutty nonsense all the time. Often from the floor of the House and Senate.

And, by the way, the new GOP platform is out. And guess what?

The draft official platform strongly supports a “a human life amendment” to the Constitution:

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform declares. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

Let’s be very, very clear that such an amendment–which Mitt Romney has said unequivocally he would sign–would not only criminalize abortions of any kind for any reason, but also would outlaw many forms of contraception, in-vitro fertilization, and treatment of pregnant women with life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Moreover, it would also criminalize miscarriage.

This is their official position. The only detail of Akin’s they didn’t add in was Akin’s colorful “medical” information about women’s magic secretions. Other than that, they’re all good.

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A heartfelt apology to conservatives on the subject of climate change

by David Atkins

Dear conservatives,

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize deeply on behalf of climate science.

I’m sorry that your worldview is deeply inconvenienced by the harsh realities involved. You’re right: if climate change is real and man-made–which it certainly is–then the libertarian ideology you conservatives hew to so steadfastly requires rethinking. I know Ayn Rand’s ghost would blanche at the thought, but take heart: she didn’t believe in an afterlife, anyway.

As you know, conservatism is inherently reactive rather than proactive about any problem that doesn’t involve killing foreigners, controlling women or preventing undesirables from voting. For all other matters of importance, conservatism requires standing athwart the history of human progress and yelling “stop!” to all of us altruistic, proactive bleeding hearts and do-gooders.

For instance, libertarian economics requires that instead of proactively regulating corporate activity that might hurt people, consumers punish a company reactively after it has done something wrong, and after consumers notice that said company has done so. But if companies and consumers are doing something wrong that nobody really notices until it’s far, far too late to do anything about, that’s a real fly in the ointment. I apologize for that. It’s quite inconvenient to you, I know.

But then, life does have a habit of taking wrong and immoral assumptions about the world, and demonstrating just how wrong and immoral they are. Sadly, that also includes libertarian economics. Most of us learn this lesson about life while growing up sometime in our teens, but I understand that it may take time for those of us who never overcame our adolescent fascination with Atlas Shrugged to pick up a novel by an actual writer like Dickens or Steinbeck, instead. It’s tough.

Finally, I apologize that reality cannot be made to conform to your pet worldviews and objectivist utopian fantasies. As you know, life is a scary place with deluded, grasping parasites lurking around every corner. Someday you may even learn not to be ones. In the meantime, please accept this apology on behalf of reality and science everywhere.

Sincerely yours,
David Atkins

Does Rape Prevent Pregnancy? Views Differ!

by tristero

Disgusting. You may have read this article as a thorough debunking of extreme religious nuttiness. But you would be oh-so-wrong.

There’s a hoary rightwing strategy called “Teach the Controversy” that’s been a genuine pain in the neck to deal with for those interested in teaching evolution in science classes rather than lies. It’s the same con being worked here.

Willke and that Harvard egghead – hey, they’re both doctors, so who’s to say who’s right, huh? Let’s keep an open mind, shall we?

But, you might ask, what about that thorough drubbing Wilke got? Well…

Who cares what the article says or the context? No one will remember in a week. But Harvard! The New York Times! What associations for Willke! This screwball’s status as a national spokesman just increased dramatically. These mainstream guys take Willke seriously enough to engage his arguments. He’s been waiting his entire career for this moment. Mission accomplished.

Here’s the problem: Every moment spent engaging the “Teach the Controversy” scam by pretending there actually is a controversy – be it Ryan’s nutty budget, a creationist’s lies, or a misogynist’s rape fantasies – is a moment not spent addressing our badly depressed economy, expanding our real knowledge of evolution, or grappling with the real horror and consequences of rape.

This country doesn’t have the time to take the far right’s crackpot notions seriously.  You simply don’t give the Willke’s of the world the satisfaction of soliciting a reaction from prominent physicians. Everyone has better things to do.

Disgusting.

UPDATE: I hope it’s clear that I’m not suggesting that people ignore the extreme right. We know where that’s got us, namely here. But we can’t react to the right, either.

The physicists have a phrase: “It’s not even wrong.” That’s about right. We need to make it very clear that these ideas don’t have so much as a toe-hold in serious discourse. Not ban them, of course. Not ignore them. Not engage them. But pump the discourse so full of good ideas, real ideas, important ideas and genuine controversies that there is little space left for nuts like Akin and Willke and Ryan and Romney.

UPDATE: Akin clarifies further. A far more sensible article than the Times story. (I’m not being sarcastic.)