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
Transvaginal Governor Bob McDonnell (R-VA) yesterday claimed the issue of a rape exception to abortion was a “detail” to be left up to states and Congress. On ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos confronted the Governor and Party Platform Chair with the absolutist anti-abortion language in the platform he led the development of. This was his response:
McDonnell’s view of the plight of pregnant rape victims appears to be par for the course in the contemporary GOP. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently referred to rape as simply one “method of conception.” Indeed, this may be because the Vice Presidential candidate and the broader Republican Party have consistently voted to limit access to abortion even for women who are victims of rape and incest.
Moreover, McDonnell’s interpretation of his platform language is misleading. As Stephanapoulous noted, the platform endorsed a Human Life Amendment “to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to all unborn children.” As the 14th Amendment requires all persons receive equal protection under the law, the practical effect of the amendment would be to render any law that allowed for any abortion in any case unconstitutional. This includes state-level laws, which means McDonnell’s line that the rape exception would be left to Congress and/or the states is flatly false.
McDonnell may be working hard to minimize the absolutist character of his party platform for a reason – Presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports exceptions for rape and incest, putting him at odds with the longstanding position of the Republican party platform.
“Legitimate rape” is great birth control. So says Todd Akin, and he oughta know. If we are raped we can rest unafraid, ‘Cause we can’t get pregnant if forcibly laid.
Our female bodies are clever that way, We only get pregnant when we say “okay.” Doctors have told him, so it must be so, The stork only comes if we don’t say “No!”
Rape won’t make babies and that is a fact; There’s no global warming; the Earth’s really flat. We heard it on FOX News so it must be true. Well, Mr. Akin, we say “FUCK YOU!”
A whole host of pissed off grannies tunes exist here. Raging Grannies.
Is there anyone within the confines of CONUS that the teapublican
How do you spell "fundamentalist" - G.O.P There are lotsa words that are spelled that way, it's clear to see Such as desperate and corporate and Batshit Crazy Or Nauseating, frustrating, whoopsie-dazy And what's the word for thinking that poor people are lazy? Oh, it's G-O-P
How do you spell "Disconnected" - it's G.O.P Who knew that spelling such scary words could be so easy? I can spell Mischievous, Hubris, Repugnant As easy as a mouse can scare a mighty elephant I can also spell "much worse than the incumbent" with "G-O-P"
Boys and girls just listen to me closely and you'll win that spelling bee Your efforts will be anything but Quixotic
Spelling is so simple if you remember all these words are spelled "GOP" Like dangerous, disingenuous, and unpatriotic
How do you spell "Constipated" it's G.O.P It's funny cause that also just so happens to be how you spell "poopsy" I can spell hypocrite and sanctimonious I'm telling you my spelling's anything but erroneous Oh, that reminds me I can spell "erroneous" G-O-P ~Taylor Ferrara
NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West
A new poll conducted by NBC shows that President Obama's favorabilities among African American voters is at an all-time high when contrasted against presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney. The poll finds that out of all African Americans polled, 94% favor President Obama, while 0% plan to vote for Mitt Romney. The other 6% were undecided.
2012 Republican Platform To Advocate Abortion Ban Without Rape Exception
Todd Akin is wrong on his rape stance, but understand that he is not alone in this disgusting radical ideology of legitimate rape.
Teapublican politicians have been falling over themselves to condemn from Rep. Todd Akin, the Teapublican Senate candidate in Missouri, who said Sunday that women who have experienced “legitimate rape” don’t get pregnant because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” The Romney-Ryan campaign called Akin’s comments “insulting, inexcusable and frankly wrong,” in spite of Ryan’s close working relationship with Akin on a number of radical anti-abortion and contraception bills. A Romney spokesperson added that the “Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”
But embracing a rape exception for abortion rights would put the campaign at odds with the Teapublican Party’s longstanding platform, the newest iteration of which will be officially unveiled at the Teapublican National Convention in Tampa. In spite of the massive public outcry from the right over Akin’s comments, the official GOP platform committee drafted a provision Monday supporting a “human life amendment” that would outlaw abortion without specifying exemptions for rape or incest. The platform reads:
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. 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.
Heading the committee is Gov. Bob [Transvaginal Bob] McDonnell (R-VA), best known for his “mandatory ultrasound” law requiring any woman getting an abortion to undergo an unnecessary ultrasound. Transvaginal Bob also revealed his regressive position on women’s rights in his college thesis, which slandered working women, contraception, and “fornicators.” It’s no surprise, then, that under his guidance, the Teapublican Party will reaffirm its support for a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion and likely many forms of contraception.
In saying they would not oppose a rape exception, Romney and Ryan are both changing their tune. Romney said in 2007 he would be “delighted” to sign a bill banning all abortions, and Ryan has been staunchly anti-abortion in all cases, even attempting to restrict abortion access to victims of “forcible rape” only.
The human life amendment has been a tenet of the Teapublican Party platform since the dawn of the Reagan era in 1980. It has survived for 32 years and nine presidential elections, even after former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pushed hard in 2000 for an explicit exception for rape and incest. McCain ceded the language to party officials during his own run in 2008.
The “you-can't-get-pregnant-from-rape falsehood” is apparently something that enough people believe that Planned Parenthood includes it on its pregnancy FAQ page.
The problem with all this is - unlettered republicans, and this is why watching faux news is a no-no, and why higher education is so important.
"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
Republicans are furious at the extremist running for the Senate in Missouri, but yet are thrilled with the one running for Vice President. Both Ryan and Akin represent the same ideology on rape, incest, and personhood. No surprise here, what is the surprise is the hypocritical oath by these tea baggers. Not okay for Akin but for Paul [Eddie Munster] Ryan all is kosher.
Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on Monday insisted that Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) was right to claim women could not become pregnant from “legitimate rape.”
“What Todd Akin is talking about is when you’ve got a real, genuine rape. A case of forcible rape, a case of assault, where a woman has been violated against her will through the use of physical force where it is physically traumatic for her,” Fischer said on his radio program.
“Under those circumstances, the woman’s body — because of the trauma that has been inflicted on her — it may interfere with the normal function processes of her body that lead to conception and pregnancy.”
Fischer said the trauma from rape interfered with normal physiological processes that occur during conception, which “may make it impossible for her, or difficult in that particular circumstance, to conceive a child.
Where in the hell do these idiots morph from? Common sense is knocking at the GOP’s door, and they evidently are not answering.
Senate Candidate and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) told a local television station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely produces pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin cited conversations with unnamed doctors for the bizarre claim.
Akin sponsored legislation that would redefine rape in federal law to limit funding for abortion providers and has a long track record of uninformed and extreme views about women’s health. He has a consistently radical anti-choice voting record in the House, wants to ban the morning after pill, and has expressed concern that criminalizing marital rape gives women “a legal weapon to beat up on the husband” during a divorce.
Akin’s crusade against women’s access to medical services fits with his broader worldview, which is heavily influenced by a particularly virulent group of fundamentalist thinkers described as “Christian supremacists” by the Anti-Defamation League.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who is going to face Akin in November, responds:
“The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year. “
Akin responds to the controversy, says he “misspoke.” He does not apologize. Full texthere.
The Romney campaign releases a statement: “Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”
Often and frequently I hear tea baggers claiming that President Obama has done nothing for the country.
As NFTOS works to help Obama restore the basic values that have made our country great, it’s important to look back over the past three years and realize all that the President has accomplished. From the economy to education, from national security to equal rights, President Obama has kept his promises and delivered real change for American families.
Ended Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) in our military
Stopped defending DOMA in court.
Passed the Hate Crimes bill.
Appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court.
Expanded access to medical care and provided subsidies for people who can't afford it.
Expanded the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Fixed the preexisting conditions travesty [and rescissions] in health insurance.
Invested in clean energy.
Overhauled the credit card industry, making it much more consumer-friendly.
While Dodd-Frank bill was weak in many respects, it was still an extremely worthwhile start at re-regulating the financial sector.
He created a Elizabeth Warren's dream agency: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
He's done a lot for veterans
He got help for people whose health was injured during the clean-up after the 9/11 attacks.
A more detailed look at what Barack Has done:
1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the ...Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems.
2. Passed the Stimulus: Signed $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid greatest recession since the Great Depression. Weeks after stimulus went into effect, unemployment claims began to subside. Twelve months later, the private sector began producing more jobs than it was losing, and it has continued to do so for twenty-three straight months, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs.
3. Passed Wall Street Reform: Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. The new law tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions, requires derivatives to be sold on clearinghouses and exchanges, mandates that large banks provide “living wills” to avoid chaotic bankruptcies, limits their ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit, and creates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (now headed by Richard Cordray) to crack down on abusive lending products and companies.
4. Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S. military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.
5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan: From a peak of 101,000 troops in June 2011, U.S. forces are now down to 91,000, with 23,000 slated to leave by the end of summer 2012. According to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the combat mission there will be over by next year.
6. Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was discovered.
7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry: In 2009, injected $62 billion in federal money (on top of $13.4 billion in loans from the Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and agreements for massive restructuring. Since bottoming out in 2009, the auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. In 2011, the Big Three automakers all gained market share for the first time in two decades. The government expects to lose $16 billion of its investment, less if the price of the GM stock it still owns increases.
8. Recapitalized Banks: In the midst of financial crisis, approved controversial Treasury Department plan to lure private capital into the country’s largest banks via “stress tests” of their balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. Got banks back on their feet at essentially zero cost to the government.
9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended 1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.
10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi: In March 2011, joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action, including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost.
11. Told Mubarak to Go: On February 1, 2011, publicly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak ended thirty-year rule when overthrown on February 11.
12. Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush legal rulings supporting the use of these techniques.
13. Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. From 2008 to 2011, favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 percent.
14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students.
15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.
16. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards: Released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy for cars and trucks by 2025.
17. Coordinated International Response to Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010, helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.
18. Passed Mini Stimuli: To help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.
19. Began Asia “Pivot”: In 2011, reoriented American military and diplomatic priorities and focus from the Middle East and Europe to the Asian-Pacific region. Executed multipronged strategy of positively engaging China while reasserting U.S. leadership in the region by increasing American military presence and crafting new commercial, diplomatic, and military alliances with neighboring countries made uncomfortable by recent Chinese behavior.
20. Increased Support for Veterans: With so many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent. Also signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.
21. Tightened Sanctions on Iran: In effort to deter Iran’s nuclear program, signed Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (2010) to punish firms and individuals who aid Iran’s petroleum sector. In late 2011 and early 2012, coordinated with other major Western powers to impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s banks and with Japan, South Korea, and China to shift their oil purchases away from Iran.
22. Created Conditions to Begin Closing Dirtiest Power Plants: New EPA restrictions on mercury and toxic pollution, issued in December 2011, likely to lead to the closing of between sixty-eight and 231 of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants. Estimated cost to utilities: at least $11 billion by 2016. Estimated health benefits: $59 billion to $140 billion. Will also significantly reduce carbon emissions and, with other regulations, comprises what’s been called Obama’s “stealth climate policy.”
23. Passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees.
24. Eliminated Catch-22 in Pay Equality Laws: Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago. Under previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about it.
25. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S. Supreme Court: Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve, in 2009; and Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to serve, in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively.
26. Improved Food Safety System: In 2011, signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of countries importing products into America.
27. Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.
28. Expanded National Service: Signed Serve America Act in 2009, which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps. Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012, when new House GOP majority refused to appropriate more funds for further expansion.
29. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers.
30. Gave the FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco: Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009). Nine years in the making and long resisted by the tobacco industry, the law mandates that tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new tobacco products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning labels, and bans the sale of misleadingly labeled “light” cigarette brands and tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events.
31. Pushed Federal Agencies to Be Green Leaders: Issued executive order in 2009 requiring all federal agencies to make plans to soften their environmental impacts by 2020. Goals include 30 percent reduction in fleet gasoline use, 26 percent boost in water efficiency, and sustainability requirements for 95 percent of all federal contracts. Because federal government is the country’s single biggest purchaser of goods and services, likely to have ripple effects throughout the economy for years to come.
32. Passed Fair Sentencing Act: Signed 2010 legislation that reduces sentencing disparity between crack versus powder cocaine possessionfrom100 to1 to 18 to1.
33. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense: Cut the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea.
34. Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown: After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer 2011 budget deal to reduce projected defense spending by $450 billion, proposed new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defense strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and cyberwarfare.
35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned Moon Mission: Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support life.
36. Invested Heavily in Renewable Technology: As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.
37. Crafting Next-Generation School Tests: Devoted $330 million in stimulus money to pay two consortia of states and universities to create competing versions of new K-12 student performance tests based on latest psychometric research. New tests could transform the learning environment in vast majority of public school classrooms beginning in 2014.
38. Cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges: In effort to fight predatory practices of some for-profit colleges, Department of Education issued “gainful employment” regulations in 2011 cutting off commercially focused schools from federal student aid funding if more than 35 percent of former students aren’t paying off their loans and/or if the average former student spends more than 12 percent of his or her total earnings servicing student loans.
39. Improved School Nutrition: In coordination with Michelle Obama, signed Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 mandating $4.5 billion spending boost and higher nutritional and health standards for school lunches. New rules based on the law, released in January, double the amount of fruits and vegetables and require only whole grains in food served to students.
40. Expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.
41. Avoided Scandal: As of November 2011, served longer than any president in decades without a scandal, as measured by the appearance of the word “scandal” (or lack thereof) on the front page of the Washington Post.
42. Brokered Agreement for Speedy Compensation to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill: Though lacking statutory power to compel British Petroleum to act, used moral authority of his office to convince oil company to agree in 2010 to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; $6.5 billion already paid out without lawsuits. By comparison, it took nearly two decades for plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Alaska oil spill case to receive $1.3 billion.
43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of inspectors general looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.
44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families.
45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.
46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide: In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.
47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009, eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.
48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years past.
49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.
50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.
So, the next time the unlettered tea bagger asks you what has Obama accomplished, send them to this blog.
Stop watching Faux News tea baggers - it's making you dumber than a box of rocks.
Voting rights are under attack in this country as state legislatures nationwide are passing voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right.
The GOP/tea baggers know the only way they win in November is to cheat, or in this case, suppress the American voters. They use the excuse that fraud is the reason. Yes apparently the tea bagger thinks that the number one crime is to dress as someone else, pose as another and vote. Holy Guadal canal Batman, yes the bone thugs of the world want - instead of running drugs/murder/robbing and stealing, criminals want to vote as me and you or vote for someone whom is dead. Lord knows these thugs producing these fraudulent votes shall garner a bountiful pillage - which shall reduce their desperate cause to support their addictions. We all know how drug dealers will barter a fraudulent vote for an eight ball of coke.
The governing voting group has identified 2,068 alleged cases of voter fraud since the year 2000, a period during which there have been more than 600 million votes cast in presidential elections alone. This body noted an "infinitesimal amount." It also showed a total of 10 cases of in-person voter fraud during that period.
Yes readers, your more likely to be struck by lighting while watching porn in your local Stagg movie theater - than for voter fraud to occur.
The stated rationale behind the tea bagger campaign to require voter ID at the polls is utterly baseless, evidence from a new study confirms.
Tea bagging legislatures are increasingly imposing strict ID requirements for voters, ostensibly to deter in-person voter fraud. But voter fraud in general is rare. And that particular form of voter fraud is "virtually non-existent," according to the extensive public-records search conducted by a nonpartisan investigative news project funded by the Carnegie and Knight foundations. Researchers filed more than 2,000 public-records requests and reviewed nearly 5,000 court documents, official records and media reports to get their information.
I will agree to voter fraud, if the tea baggers will go through their own voter suppression.
This would include the Government of Pakistan [American GOP] having to watch every Tyler Perry made movie, and to have to pass a literacy test to be eligible, and have the right to vote.
In Mississippi, during the years of 1982-1916 these very tests existed. During this period a United States Supreme Courtcase that reviewed provisions of the state constitution that set requirements for voter registration. The Supreme Court did not find discrimination in the state's requirements for voters to pass a literacy test and pay poll taxes, as these were applied to all voters.
In practice, the subjective nature of literacy approval by white registrars worked to drastically decrease and essentially disfranchiseAfrican American voters.
The Court considered the new Mississippi constitution passed in 1890. It upheld disfranchisement clauses which established requirements for literacy tests and poll taxes paid retroactively from one's 21st birthday as prerequisites for voter registration.
Agrandfather clause effectively exempted illiterate whites, but not blacks, from the literacy test by relating qualifications to whether one's grandfather had voted before a certain date. Because the provisions applied to all potential voters, the Court upheld them, although in practice the provisions had discriminatory effects on African Americans.
We all know that the current GOP tea bagger is illiterate in two aspects of American life [Grammar and Spelling, US Constitution]. Force the tea baggers to take a test, make them prove their patriotism, make them show the country that they understand "the founding fathers" ideals and ideology, understand that there is more than two rights that Americans are entitled too. [guns and freedom of speech]
This GOP strategy leaves no doubt to me that these tea baggers plan to influence the outcome of this election [because there would be no other way for these lunatic fringes to win this election in November] - by discouraging Americans from exercising their right to vote. It is a disgusting pattern from this pugnacious party of putrid radicalism - which is to change likely voting behaviors by changing the rules on ones constitutional right, the right to vote!
Broadway performers have joined together to launch the “One More Term” Les Miserables parody, hoping to see President Obama retain his place as Commander in Chief while also highlighting Republican extremism.
The song, which borrows from “One Day More” from Les Miserables, criticizes the current Republican establishment, lampooning Republican lawmakers across America for the War on Women, homophobia, religious zealotry and more, saying “To the Dark Side they’ve succumbed.”
The parody puts particular focus on the charge that while in high school Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had friends hold down fellow classmate John Lauber whereby Romney allegedly forcibly cut the man’s hairsimply because he had dared to wear it differently, berating Romney for suggesting that he “had no memory of participating” in the incident even though at least five others who were involved all have vivid recollections to the contrary.
“Misogynistic, homophobic, radically regressive and ideologically unhinged with little apparent interest in governing and no appetite for compromise or common ground, that Grand Old Party’s out-of-order, a consequence of preposterous partisan pandering, legislative belligerence–and all that tea.”
Below from LOLGOP: 10 Reasons Paul Ryan is Worse for Romney than Palin was for McCain
1. Paul Ryan makes Mitt look weaker. Mitt only picked Ryan out of weakness. He knew he was losing and he knew he needed to get attention off his business career and tax avoidance. Because of this obvious flailing, he was bullied by the far right into picking a running mate he knew would hurt him. Mitt may have finally wrapped up the GOP nomination in August but he did it by admitting he’d lost control of his campaign. Since Mitt picked Ryan he’s already had to distance himself from the Ryan Plan and then backtrack from distancing himself. The qualities that were sinking Mitt are being emphasized with a Paul Ryan-sized highlighter.
2. Paul Ryan voted for all the worst of the Bush Administration—including the Iraq War and the tax breaks for the rich that blew the surplus. Mitt has mostly avoided the stink of Bush’s failures. Now he’s lousy with them.
3. The Ryan Plan, which even without Ryan on the ticket was dragging Mitt down. It starves the government to pay for massive tax breaks the rich do not need. It’s not a budget as much as it is a cookbook for the middle class.
4. Ryan reminds voters that Mitt is for turning Medicare into a voucher system. This not only costs seniors more but also explodes the cost of health care in general. Medicare costs are far more manageable than private insurance, but Ryan and Romney want to blow up our single-payer system that works so Wall Street can profit off seniors.
5. Ryan maybe improves Mitt’s chances in Wisconsin but hurts them in Florida, which Mitt needs to win.
6. Ryan has no business experience. Romney made the case that there should be a constitutional amendment requiring a president to have run a business as an attack on the President. Now he’s picked Paul Ryan whose only significant private sector experience is kissing private sector heiny for donations.
7. Paul Ryan’s anti-abortion rights record is as bad as a conservative can get in opposing a woman’s right to make her own health care choices. Ryan supported a personhood amendment that would ban some birth control and is against abortions even in the cases of rape and incest. He’s the confirmation any woman needs that Mitt’s attempt to seem sane on choice in Massachusetts was a total ruse.
8. Ryan doesn’t care about deficits. He cares about starving the government and transferring trillions in wealth from the middle class to the rich. 9. Ryan and Romney’s collective foreign policy experience is in trying to make America resemble Somalia. This is the first GOP ticket in generations without a veteran and with virtually no experience of foreign policy. Talk about surrendering your strength.
10. Democrats picked Paul Ryan for Mitt. At least McCain pulled his game changer from a hat. For the last two years, Democrats have been focusing on Ryan as the worst embodiment of the heartless, plutocratic instincts of the GOP. The GOP took the bait and forced Ryan on Mitt. Some say this is risky. If Mitt wins now, he’s obligated to implement the worst of Ryan’s ideas. But Romney was already in that position. If a President Mitt doesn’t give the far right everything they want, he’ll have a primary challenger by February 2013. At least Romney’s been called out and has to win on Ryan’s incredibly destructive policies.
GOP TICKET FOR 2012 MITT HOWELL III AND EDDIE MUNSTER
What you need to know about this lunatic and those whom idolize or follow her.
Ayn Rand is a disgusting psychopath - and Paul Ryan sold his soul to her - as many radical tea baggers have. Know the truth about her - and why this sociopath's influence over the [tea baggers, teabillies, teapublicans] GOP [Republican GOP = Government of Pakistan] should horrify you.
I find your argument strewn with gaping defects in logic!
In 4 minutes, you’ll know what you need to. Then NFTOS asks that you please “Share” this video with others.
See why it's so important to vote Democrat in November!
Personally, I'm glad Romney chose Ryan. They are two peas in a pod and this should convince the fence sitters to choose a side. Romney shows just how far to the right he is and how little he cares for anyone but the very rich.
And I Quote:
Ryan: “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand..."
The above quote should scare the hell out of you!
I say wonderful choice Mittens...couldn't be better.........for the Obama campaign! Obama in 2012!
Ballsy move by Mittens to pick Ryan as his running mate.
The only Americans not pissed off by the current GOP would be the elderly, [as minorities, women and Dems loathe them] well that ended today when Robme tapped Ryan as his VP. Mr. Ryan is the man whom wants to stop "entitlements" [social security, medicare]. Within minutes of physically embracing his new running mate Paul Ryan on a Norfolk, Va., stage, Mitt Romney was distancing himself from Ryan’s controversial House budget proposal.
From Romney campaign talking points, distributed toreporters after Romney’s first appearance with his VP pick (emphasis added):
Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?
• Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.
• Romney’s administration will go through the budget line by line and ask two questions: Can we afford it? And, if not, should we borrow money from China to pay for it?
• Mitt Romney will start with the easiest cut of all: Obamacare, a trillion-dollar entitlement we don’t want and can’t afford.
But Romney appears to be reminding his party who’s boss, despite having selected conservatives’ dream candidate, cautioning that Ryan’s spot on the ticket doesn’t mean Romney is obligated to accept Ryan’s budget plan in its entirety.
What you need to know right now: This election is about values, and today Romney doubled down on his commitment to take our country back to the failed policies of the past.
Congressman Paul Ryan is best known as the author of a budget so radical The New York Times called it "the most extreme budget plan passed by a House of Congress in modern times." With Mitt Romney's support, Ryan would end Medicare as we know it and slash the investments we need to keep our economy growing -- all while cutting taxes for those at the very top.
Over the next few days, Romney's campaign and its allies will tell a very different story about Paul Ryan.
The Obama campaign responds:
Romney has strongly endorsed the Romney-Ryan Budget throughout his campaign - turning time and time again to the same tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of middle-class families as Paul Ryan has championed in Congress. The Romney-Ryan Budget would turn Medicare into a voucher program, make severe cuts to programs like education that would hamper job creation, and repeal health care reform and key protections in Wall Street reform - all to pay for massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
Paul Ryan is the perfect pick to implement Mitt Romney’s agenda, since they are one and the same.
Below are two videos that should be a wakeup call to Americans, minorities, and women. An insider speaks candidly to the Rev on GOP politics - radical tea bagger style.
"We have no proof to support Robme’s welfare attack"
The ad is blatantly false; a fabrication critics say is aimed at stirring up resentment toward people of color. Yet, amid a flurry of negative speculation in the media over why Romney refuses to release his tax returns, the deceptive welfare attack has suddenly emerged at the very epicenter of the Republican’s struggling presidential campaign.
And yet, if the above videos are not pungent enough for you, listen to Eye of Newt “moon unit” Gingrich:
The number of Americans reliant on government assistance to buy food grew by more than 70 percent between 2008 – 2011, driven by a lack of jobs and the unavailability of credit as the country grappled with a near total economic collapse at the end of President George W. Bush’s second term.
Despite the nearly unprecedented economic pressure on working class Americans, President Obama did not scrap a rule that requires welfare beneficiaries to look for work. Instead, the administration gave states the option to waive federal welfare work rules if officials come up with a plan that can increase employment among the poor even more.
All this utter bullshit from the radical tea baggers, is there anything beneath them, is there a point where they stop the lies and deceit? Probably not, stay tuned and watch closely as this desperate group comes unglued before our very eyes.
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul slipped away from the talking points while on the Faux News "Happening Now" program this morning and gave the campaign a brand new headache. This one may be fatal, as it affects whatever base Romney might still have.
While ostensibly on the program to hammer an ad being aired by a pro-Obama PAC in which a man blames Mitt Romney for losing his job and health insurance, and then his wife to cancer that would have been treated under his old insurance policy, Spokeswoman Saul said these words that were followed by a thunderclap of hands smacking foreheads around the nation.
“To that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care.”
Holy Crap Batman! The last thing conservatives want to talk about, even less than Romney's tax returns (because at least there, they have a common enemy in Sen. Harry Reid), is Romneycare's similarity to Obamacare. Saul's comment turns Romney into the conservative's worst nightmare! Their main complaint about Romney all the way back to the primary season was his implementation of Obamacare on a state level would make him an ineffective messenger on repealing the president's legislation.
The editor of RedState.com, influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson put it this way:
"This might just be the moment Mitt Romney lost the election. Wow."
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney implemented a health-care legislation that features the same individual mandate provision of President Barack Obama's legislation that has come under constant fire from conservatives since it passed in 2009.
Romney has, however, repeatedly stated that his health care legislation that featured the individual mandate would not be effective as a national model.
And here, on Faux News, the "fair and balanced" network favored by the conservatives Romney needs to turn out en masse if he has a shot at winning in November, one of his chief spokespeople goes and makes the argument that Romneycare should be implemented nationwide by saying these nice people should have been in Massachusetts to get the kind of care they needed.
FYI: These are the very same provisions Romney has vowed to repeal from Obamacare if he is elected.
Several reports out this morning indicate that Wade Michael Page, the army veteran who is suspected of killing six and injuring three at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, over the weekend, was a white supremacistand a “skinhead.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Page — who was killed in a firefight with police — even played in a white-power band that had ties to neo-Nazis.
Though police have not yet named a motive in the attack, all but one of those shot were Sikh adherents. The other was a police officer.
Should law enforcement confirm Page’s ties to white supremacy, and if that proves to be the motive of the attack, it will fit with a growing trend in this country. Hate groups — groups that expressly advocate against a religion, race, or sexual orientation — have been on the rise in the United States, rising steadily since 2000.
And the targeting of Sikhs is not new either. Often, the hate crimes against Sikhs originate out of misdirected Islamophobia: Sikh men can most easily be identified by their long beards and turbans, which they wear according to religious doctrine. Assailants will mistake these men for Muslims. According to a report by Reuters, Sikh groups have seen huge spikes in hate crimes since September 11th, 2001, right at the same time when anti-Muslim sentiment in the country began to grow rapidly.
In April of this year, over 90 members of Congress signed onto a letter (PDF) asking Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller to closely monitor what they called a “growing concern” ofhate crimes against Sikh people:
“Numerous reports have documented how those practicing the Sikh religion are often targeted for hate violence because of their religiously-mandated turbans — i.e. because of their Sikh identity, regardless of whether the attacker understands the victim to be Sikh or not,” the said lawmakers, led by U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley, a New York Democrat.
Though it is the fifth largest religion in the world, Sikhism is a small religious minority in the United States — there are roughly 500,000 observers of the religion, which originated in the Punjab area of South Asia, in the US. There has only been one Sikh member of Congress —Dalip Singh Saund, who represented Southern California in the late 1950s and early 60s.
In a press conference today, Oak Creek law enforcement confirmed that the gunman’s weapon, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, was obtained legally.
