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When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism. Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today. What we are against: Radical Right Wing Agendas Incompetent Establishment Donald J. Trump Corporate Malfeasence We are for: Global and Econmoic Security Social and Economic Justice Media Accountability THE RESISTANCE

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Virginia Vagina Law Will "Penetrate Beyond Politics"

VIRGINIA VAGINA LAWS
UPDATE: 2/22/12 18:02
State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R) announced she will seek to strike her controversial “abortion informed consent” bill, rather than accept a watered-down version passed by the House of Delegates. Her original legislation would have required women to undergo unnecessary and invasive ultrasound procedures prior to obtaining abortions, but a House amendment weakened that requirement. The move comes on the heals of late night mockery, public protest, and Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) backtracking on his prior support of the measure. Vogel’s decision likely means that her bill won’t be considered this year.

UPDATE: 2/22/12 17:55 Virginia Ultrasound Bill Passes In House


UPDATE: 2/22/12 16:23

Gov. Bob McDonnell said this afternoon Virginia lawmakers should not require a woman considering an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound.
"There is no need to direct by statute that further invasive ultrasound procedures be done" during abortion procedures, the governor said in a statement released this afternoon.

The governor said he will propose several amendments to a bill that would have required an internal ultrasound procedure in many cases for women seeking abortions.

Instead, McDonnell proposes that the decision concerning the internal procedure, known as a transvaginal ultrasound, be left to a woman and her doctor.

"Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure," McDonnell said in the statement.
"I am requesting that the General Assembly amend this bill to explicitly state that no woman in Virginia will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily," McDonnell said in the statement. "I am asking the General Assembly to state in this legislation that only a transabdominal, or external, ultrasound will be required to satisfy the requirements to determine gestational age."
Virginia Democratic Party chair Brian Moran is already faulting McDonnell for not going far enough.
“Let’s be clear: the course of action that Governor McDonnell has advocated forces an unnecessary medical procedure on Virginia women whether their doctors think they need them or not,” Moran said in a statement. “Should Virginia women thank the Governor for giving them a choice over the type of procedure the state will force on them at his behest?”
While it's a step in the right direction, too little to late Einstein! Virginian GOP' ers have flown their true colors, America was watching Virginia, and they called your bluff, called you out, and you have proved yourselves to be truly outdated, pasty old white men - woman hating - racist!

Virginia Legislative teapublicans are jumping ship by the minute and they are trying to save what face they can, currently the dastardly bunch is in caucus, NFTOS will report back as soon as something breaks. ~ West


"Flat earth" teapublicans.............

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has decided to back off of the forced Ultrasound bill, and has said he'll review it once the final bill hits his desk.

Earlier, Govna Bob told ABC News he supports “the concept that a woman should have all of the information possible before she makes a decision about terminating a pregnancy.” Now, his office has clarified that he will “review” the bill if it passes the General Assembly:
“Our position is: If the General Assembly passes this bill the governor will review it, in its final form, at that time,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in a statement. He declined to explain the change in approach, but Virginia’s governors can sign, veto or amend legislation.

The House and Senate have approved their versions of the bill. On Tuesday, the House postponed a final vote on the legislation…for the second day in a row. [...]

"Officials" with knowledge of Tuesday night’s teapublican meeting said GOP leaders hope to introduce amendments on Wednesday, but it is unclear whether the rank and file would support them.
 

Bob McDonnell, a Pat Robertson 'Flock U' graduate whose MBA thesis would give POTUS hopeful Rick Santorum an erection - couple McDonnell along with Bob Marshall [Virginia House of Representatives Delegate (R)] and you have "Sharia Law" disguised as teapublicans.

Maddow Slamming Govna Bob

 
Rev Al Slamming Virginia Teapublicans




Daily Show



Loesch still defending "vagina probes"

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell no longer guaranteeing he'll sign state-sponsored rape bill

Virginia’s Ultrasound Bill Makes No Exceptions For Rape Or Incest


Perhaps Dana Loesch can demonstrate how this procedure is not "invasive" by subjecting herself to such an ultrasound as proof, or maybe the good "gentlemen" of Virginia should have a trans-rectal ultrasound to determine if he has any viable brain activity. Yet something tells me - I don't think either will subject themselves to either test!

Unfortunately, if and when this bill fails, teapublicans shall simply move on to some other radical attack on women's rights. Teapublicans have attacked American women for decades, how very "Sharia Law" of them.

Republican Religion/Politics circa 2012: the most dangerous cult mankind ever invented.



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Galactically Stupid, Just How Unlettered Are Teapublicans?


ULETTERED REPUBLICANS

You have choices in life, follow reality, or follow fear and ignorance.

I truly believe that teapublicans really do take pride in being Galactically Stupid. Just consider all the things we've heard over the last few years. Some still believe there was WMD in Iraq or that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack, some believe hurricane Katrina hit because of the abortions conducted in America. Some are Galactically Stupid of science and believe that intelligent design or creationism is a valid alternative to evolution. Some also demonstrate their ignorance of science by believing that the scientific consensus on climate change can be ignored because they don’t like the findings. Some are so Galactically Stupid of our own history that they are unaware of the intent of the founding fathers to create a secular government with separation of church and state.

Teapublicans have a made a real effort to distort history as much as possible of late - to the point where they are now seeking to rewrite history again. The teapublican party has bent over backwards to present their own twisted version of history, and it’s starting to look like that one requirement to be a teapublican is to be Galactically Stupid on historical facts and events.

Galactically Stupid




Below is a list of the many historical facts that Teapublicans have either distorted or have just gotten plain wrong along with corrections of their errors.

Were The Founding Fathers A Group Of Right Wingers 

Teapublicans have been crisscrossing the country trying to convince Americans that the Founding Fathers were conservatives. But were they really? The answer to this question is absolutely not. If the Founding Fathers were conservatives they would never have revolted against England. One can hardly call breaking away from the most powerful nation on Earth at the time a conservative act. Plus, the Founding Fathers supported a strong federal government, believed in civil rights, supported separation of church and state, despised corporations, and believed the government had the power to provide health care and levy taxes. This is why the Supreme Court throughout American history has rarely ruled laws unconstitutional using the Tenth Amendment.

Did The Founding Fathers Support A Strong Federal Government Or A Weak One

This is an easy one. Teapublicans are dead wrong when they claim that the Founding Fathers wanted a weak federal government. And that is simple to prove. Before we had the Constitution, America was a loose alliance of states under the Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was weak. So weak in fact that it didn’t have the power to levy taxes, could not regulate commerce, and relied on the states to provide money for defense. The states had all the power and the federal government had virtually none. This was a chaotic system that threatened to tear apart the new nation. So the Founders wrote the Constitution which created a strong central government capable of levying taxes, regulating commerce, printing money, and forming a military. Most importantly, under the Constitution, the federal government was given the power to provide for the general welfare and the states were given far less power. Teapublicans will often cite the Tenth Amendment as proof of state supremacy but they’re wrong about that too. After the Constitution was ratified, some wanted to add an amendment limiting the federal government to powers “expressly” delegated, which would have denied implied powers. However, the word “expressly” ultimately did not appear in the Tenth Amendment as ratified, and therefore the Tenth Amendment did not reject the powers implied by the Necessary and Proper Clause. In other words, the federal government has the power to make laws about things that are not found in the Constitution such as health care.


Is Social Security A "Ponzi Scheme" 

When Rick Perry called Social Security a “ponzi scheme” in the first GOP Debate, he not only made a political mistake of epic proportions, he was also dead wrong. Social Security was created to keep senior citizens out of poverty and it has done a wonderful job of doing just that. When people put money into a ponzi scheme, they don’t get it back. Social Security, however, gives the money back plus more to every person who puts money into the system. It’s far from being a ponzi scheme. The real ponzi scheme is the private health insurance business which takes money from you and then drops you when you need medical car


What Is The Constitutionality Of Federally Mandated Health Care

 Is federally mandated health care unconstitutional? According to Teapublicans it is. But that’s not what the Founding Fathers thought. Congress passed and John Adams signed, a mandatory health care insurance law back in 1791. The mandate required sailors to pay a tax and in the event they needed care, they could get medical care from the government. If it was unconstitutional as Teapublicans claim, why didn’t Thomas Jefferson or James Madison repeal it? The fact is, they didn’t, and I’d say James Madison knew more about the Constitution than any Republican does, considering he’s the primary author of that sacred document.


What Did The Founding Fathers Think About Corporations

Corporations are people according to Teapublicans. They even believe the Founding Fathers loved corporations. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The truth is that the Founding generations distrusted corporations with a passion. That’s why corporations were regulated rather harshly compared to the pampering Teapublicans give them today. Corporations were limited to an existence of 20-30 years and could only deal in one commodity, could not hold stock in other companies, and their property holdings were limited to what they needed to accomplish their business goals. And perhaps the most important facet of all this is that most states in the early days of the nation had laws on the books that made any political contribution by corporations a criminal offense. If the Founding Fathers were still alive and reinstated these regulations, Teapublicans would be accusing George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the rest of the founders of being evil, un-American socialists.


Did 9/11 Happen On George Bush’s Watch

How many times have we heard a Republican or right-wing talking head on Fox say that no terrorist attacks happened when George W. Bush was President? In July, Fox News host Eric Bolling said “we were certainly safe between 2000 and 2008 — I don’t remember any terrorist attacks on American soil during that period of time.” Other Teapublicans such as Rudy Guiliani and Dana Perino also “misremember” that period of time. I seem to recall sitting in a 20th Century History course at my high school on September 11, 2001 when terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City. And as I also recall, George W. Bush was President at the time.


Who Signed The Smoot-Hawley Act 

Many Teapublicans still have anti–New Deal views. Michele Bachmann blamed FDR for turning a recession into a depression by passing the “Hoot-Smalley Tariff”. Except that FDR didn’t pass it. Hoover did, three years before FDR took the oath of office. Oh, and it’s Smoot-Hawley, NOT “Hoot-Smalley”.


Was Martin Luther King Jr. A Republican

Teapublicans claim that Martin Luther King was a Republican. So they can explain this part of a speech by King, right? In one speech, he stated that “something is wrong with capitalism” and claimed, “There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.” So, by claiming King as one of their own - you can assume teapublicans are also adopting his philosophy?


Was Joseph McCarthy A Hero

Another idol of the teapublican party is Joseph McCarthy. Teapublicans are now rewriting school books to present McCarthy as a hero who did no wrong. In reality, where the rest of us live, Joseph McCarthy was nothing more than a witch hunter who accused innocent Americans of being communists. He had no real evidence that people were communists and he should have recognized that people have the right to be part of any political party they choose. He violated the Constitution and ignored the values of freedom that we hold dear. Just like teapublicans today.


Did Ronald Reagan Only Lower Taxes

Worshiping Ronald Reagan means you also have to believe that Reagan never raised taxes during his Presidency, but this constant right-wing claim is false. While he did cut taxes in 1981 and again in 1988, Reagan actually raised taxes every year from 1981 to 1987 including The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 which, at the time, had been the largest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history, the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, a higher gasoline levy, a higher payroll tax, and a 1986 tax reform deal that included the largest corporate tax increase in American history.


Was D-Day All About Health Care

Teapublicans have been very vocal about the Affordable Care Act and Rick Santorum is no exception. He has made the claim that Americans stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day because they opposed Obamacare. He said, “Almost 60,000 average Americans had the courage to go out and charge those beaches on Normandy, to drop out of airplanes who knows where, and take on the battle for freedom … Those Americans risked everything so they could make {their own} decision on their health care plan.”

This is absurd. The men that stormed the Omaha and Utah beaches were fighting to liberate Europe from Nazi rule. They weren’t thinking about health care 67 years into the future. They were thinking of their families and whether they’d ever see them again. Santorum also fails to realize that military personnel and their dependents have government-run health care. And the soldiers aren’t complaining about it either. And as a matter of fact, many World War II veterans and their families also have Medicare which is also run by the federal government. That blows Santorum’s claim out of the water.


Do States Have The Right To Secede 

After President Obama took office, many teapublican legislators and governors, particularly in the South, began threatening secession. They say secession is a right but is it really? The answer is absolutely not. Not only did the Civil War settle this dispute, James Madison and Andrew Jackson (both Southerners) also rejected this claim. Nowhere in the Constitution will you find the right to secede. The Constitution was created by the people “in order to form a more perfect union” and by seceding, a state breaks up the nation, thus breaking a legally binding contract. And Andrew Jackson once threatened to march an army to South Carolina after that state threatened to secede. In fact, Jackson felt that secession was treason. The Supreme Court has also weighed in on this issue. In Texas v White, the court held that the Constitution did not permit states to secede from the United States, and that the ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances, were “absolutely null”.


Was The Civil War Fought Over State’s Rights 

Teapublicans claim that it was all about state’s rights and not about slavery. The truth is, state’s rights only played a small role. The South feared that President Lincoln would end slavery, so they took preemptive measures by seceding from the Union and attacked Fort Sumter without any provocation. Slavery was, without a doubt, the main cause of the war between the states. Without slavery, white plantation owners would have to pick their own cotton, or, pay people to do it for them. They also believed Africans to be inferior and would not tolerate their freedom. We should all keep that in mind as the South/teapublican home base continues to make claims that they aren’t racist.
Was The American Revolution Fought To End Slavery 

Yet another claim that David Barton makes in an attempt to present the founding generation as perfect, is that the American Revolution was waged to end slavery. Once again, Barton makes a claim that is completely false. The American Revolution was fought to win American independence from Great Britain. Slaves were certainly not freed before, during, or after the war. They remained as slaves and would be slaves until the Civil War.
Did Benjamin Franklin Reject Evolution 

We continue with the lack of knowledge of the Founding Fathers among the reich-wing. Many teapublicans have been making the claim that Benjamin Franklin rejected evolution. There are two problems with this claim. First, the theory of evolution wasn’t around until Charles Darwin published the theory in 1859, nearly 70 years after Franklin died in 1790. And secondly, Franklin was a man of science above all else. It is unlikely that he would have rejected a scientific theory in favor of creationism. Franklin in fact, rejected the dogma and divinity of Christianity.
Was America Founded As A Christian State 

Ever heard of David Barton? He’s the guy that Glenn Beck goes to when he wants to distort history. David Barton claims that the Founding Fathers intended the United States to be a Christian state. Many teapublicans have since picked up on this claim and have been shamelessly using it to court the Christian reich-wing, and as a reason to end the separation of church and state that has been part of this country since its founding. His claim can be trounced with one question. If the Founding Fathers wanted America to be a Christian state why did they not say so in the Constitution? Instead, the Founders placed this in the document.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
~First Amendment, Bill of Rights of the Constitution

In other words, there is to be absolutely NO state religion.


Did The Founding Fathers End Slavery

Michelle Bachmann isn’t through yet. During a speaking event she once claimed that the Founding Fathers were the ones who ended slavery. That’s a surprise to me since George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe all owned slaves. In fact, 12 of the first 16 American Presidents owned slaves. But Bachmann’s attempt to paint the Founding Fathers as saints is also a denial of past Republican Party history since early teapublicans rose to prominence by fighting against slavery and the first teapublican President, Abraham Lincoln, ended slavery altogether.


Was John Quincy Adams A Founding Father

Michele Bachmann evidentially failed American History in school. Because she has absolutely no knowledge of early American history. She once claimed that John Quincy Adams is a Founding Father of America when in fact, JQA was just a child when the Revolution began. He was born in 1767 and was just 14 when the war ended. And like Palin’s supporters, Bachmann fans proceeded to edit the Wikipedia page of John Quincy Adams in an attempt to make her claim viable. Galactically Stupid!


Was The Shot Heard ‘Round The World Fired In New Hampshire

 Did you know that Lexington and Concord are located in New Hampshire? I didn’t. And the people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts didn’t either. When Michele Bachmann exclaimed to a New Hampshire crowd that “the shot heard ’round the world” occurred in their state, I’m sure that Massachusetts let out a roar of laughter. The sad but hilarious thing is that most American children know that the first shot of the American Revolution occurred in the state of Massachusetts.

Did Paul Revere Ride To Warn The British

 Sarah Palin made the dubious claim that Paul Revere actually warned the British instead of the American colonists. Her supporters even made attempts to edit the Paul Revere Wikipedia entry to make her claims sound correct. If she had taken the time to read Longfellow’s poem, Paul Revere’s Ride, she would not have made this error, as the great majority of school children know that Revere made his midnight ride to warn Americans, not the enemy.
 Teapublicans understand that the lack of education is the key to controlling their base. All they need to do is distort and re-write history in their favor to win the votes of the Galactically Stupid.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
~George Santayana
Its no wonder that Mary and Joseph rode into Bethlehem on a donkey instead of an elephant.Words seriously fail me at this point. Without ignorance we couldn’t even have the current teapublican party. Everyone tries to rewrite history, or at least put their own spin on it, but the teapublicans have taken it to an Orwellian level.

Two-thirds of the teapublicans think POTUS is a socialist, 57 percent a Muslim—and 24 percent say "he may be the Antichrist." HUH
Teapublicans define themselves largely by the worthiness of their objectives and the sincerity of their motives. The teapublican party is abysmally ignorant about its country, abysmally!

8 Facts That Prove the Tea Party Is Galactically Stupid of the U.S. Constitution

I often rail against the teapublican party, and for good reason - their ideology is socially destructive. Teapublicans use xenophobia (damn those illegal's) and religion (praise Jesus, who hates pro-choicers) to substantiate the mentality, the mentality of the Galactically Stupid!



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West