Last Call

He's not going anywhere, folks!

Appearing on Gov. Mike Huckabee's radio show on Tuesday, Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin said he was indeed staying in the race.

"I want to make things absolutely clear," Akin told Huckabee. "We are going to continue with this race for the United States Senate.

Akin added that his campaign is seeing a "tremendous outpouring of support" from grassroots organizations.

The deadline has passed, and the GOP is stuck with him as dozens of GOP members of Congress called on him to drop out of the race, including both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. 

And so...it begins.

Bomb-Iran-A-Ding-Dong

Hey kids, guess what the Romney/Ryan camp says our foreign policy will be in 2013?

In any event, the debate over a joint resolution will clarify who stands where. At the moment, no one is persuaded that the United States will use force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That situation worries Israelis and emboldens Iranians, not the outcome we want. A clear statement now that is backed by the nominees of both parties and elicits widespread support in Congress would demonstrate that, whatever the election results, American policy is set. That is the best (and may be the only) way to avoid an Israeli strike in the near future and the best (and may be the only) way to persuade Iran to negotiate seriously. And if we are unwilling as a nation to state that we will act to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, that conclusion should solidify support for what would then become the inevitable Israeli strike. A refusal by the White House to seek such a joint resolution would itself suggest that, while “all options are on the table,” the likelihood is that that is precisely where they will remain.

So, unless Obama and the Democrats join with the GOP to immediately declare war on Iran, they cannot be considered serious about America's security.  Sure.  And just like that, Republicans are the only choice on foreign policy again, right?

The Village will make sure of that.  After all, "avoiding making Israelis nervous" has been our stated foreign policy goal for decades.  It's probably in the Constitution by now.  You know, the same one the Republicans seem to reference all the time about American being founded as a Christian country or something.  SHUT UP WHY DO YOU HATE THE JEWISH STATE!

PS, wars pay for themselves.  Ask Halliburton.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...Republicans want you to make that lemonade, baby.  By law.  Or else.  You don't get a choice in their world, so just deal with your lemon.  And by lemon, I mean "rape pregnancy".

An official from Missouri’s Republican Party on Monday defended Senate candidate Todd Akin after he suggested abortions should not be allowed in any case because victims of “legitimate” rape victims could not get pregnant.

GOP 4th Senate District Committeewoman Sharon Barnes told The New York Times “that abortion is never an option.”

In an interview with KTVI-TV over the weekend, Akin had said that “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” referring to pregnancy after so-called “legitimate rape.”

Barnes “echoed Mr. Akin’s statement that very few rapes resulted in pregnancy,” according to the Times, and she added that “at that point, if God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don’t kill it.”

“That’s more what I believe he was trying to state,” she insisted. “He just phrased it badly.”

Yes, because "Our political party's stated position is that we will mandate by threat of felony murder conviction that you give birth to your awesome rapey blessing or else face prison or worse" is so much better.

Republicans are nuts.  Their votes also count as much as yours, and they sure as hell plan to use that right.  You might want to vote too.

Moms Hit Hardest By Employment Trends

 Though the media has focused on the plight of unemployed dads, it’s moms who are suffering the most in the current recession, a new study shows. 

The study, which looked at the outcomes for laid-off workers across the United States, found that married women with kids spent more time in-between jobs than married dads.

Making matters worse for the moms was the big pay cut they took once they finally found a job: On average moms lost $175 per week more than dads, according to the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Again, it doesn't help to just "create jobs" if you're going to perpetuate the inequalities that prevent success.

If married women are discriminated against for having kids, you can bet the bias against single mothers is dramatically worse.  Being a woman is a reason to be passed over for hiring, a reason to be charged more for insurance, a reason to be paid less because... well, I can't even make up a passable excuse for that.

Still think it's not important to let families plan pregnancies and avoid further discrimination?  Still think it's a good idea to vote unanimously to prevent fair pay for women workers?  It doesn't take a genius to figure the math on this word problem: if you slash assistance out of the budget and then take steps to cause more people to need assistance, and a train is going west at 60 mph, how long does it take to create a labor class that is desperate and dependent?

WTH? Judge Blows Call On Teacher Abuse

A Florida judge sided with a special needs teacher who allegedly used hot sauce to stop an autistic student from eating art supplies and recommended the school district reinstate the woman's job.

Lillian Gomez was fired from her job at Sunrise Elementary School in Kissimmee, Fla., in February after school officials found out that Gomez had allegedly put jumbo-sized Crayons in a cup and soaked them for days in hot sauce before moving them to a bag that was labeled with the student's name.

The judge says she may not have used the right approach, but she was attempting to do the right thing for the student.

Whaaa...?

Using any sort of controversial or non-standard discipline on a child in public school by someone who is supposed to be a professional without the parent's knowledge or consent must be overseen.  Carefully.  Frankly, my dear, I don't care if she was trying to help this poor kid. She failed on a criminal level to do so.  Doing this to any child is wrong, doing it to a child who may not be able to control the behavior or speak about what happened is so wrong that anyone who does so should never work unsupervised around children.  Ever.

The Encyclopedia Of Brown

Steve M, as usual, has a damn good point here as he notes that in the latest PPP Massachusetts poll, Scott Brown is pulling ahead, but Bay State voters want the Dems to keep the Senate by a 17 point margin:

"Very interesting tension" is one way of putting it. Another way is: Liberals and moderates are too freaking stupid to recognize that the only way to stop the wingnut madness is to vote against all Republicans forever -- even "nice" ones like Scott Brown -- until the party abandons insane, frothing-at-the-mouth radicalism as a governing philosophy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: In all likelihood, Elizabeth Warren cannot beat Scott Brown. Massachusetts voters like him too much. Warren can -- perhaps -- beat the Republican Party, however. Her best chance of victory is to stop running against Brown and start running against, well, Todd Akin and all his ideological soul mates. On the right, Missouri voters know how this works. On the left and in the center, blue-state voters still don't have a clue. 

And it's a valid point.  Dems judge races on the candidates at hand.  Republicans judge races by "Screw Nobama."  I think Elizabeth Warren can beat Scott Brown, but she'd win by 15 points if her opponent was Paul Ryan or Todd Akin.    The fact that Brown continues to remain close shows me that Warren should at least consider making the race about Republicans other than Scott Brown, and should do so sooner rather than later.

Akin And Pains

So the bottom line is that Rep. Todd Akin has until 5 PM central this afternoon to drop out of the Missouri Senate race under the state law.  After that, things get much more complex.  Republicans are desperately trying to get Akin to drop out of the race, but not because they think what he said was wrong, but because they'll cost the GOP a Senate seat they'll basically have to have in order to take control of the upper chamber in January.   Many in the GOP are calling for Akin to leave the race.  Nobody in the GOP is calling for him to leave the House as well, which is why I call hypocrisy on basically the entire party.  If what he said was as "indefensible" as the lip service suggests, then he shouldn't be in Congress, period, right?

Anthony Weiner was driven out for less.

But it seems there are plenty of Missourians who really don't care if Akin is an awful human being.  Republicans will vote for him anyway.  Only winning matters to them, as the latest PPP poll shows:

Missouri voters strongly disagree with the comments Todd Akin made about abortion over the weekend, but it hasn't moved the numbers a whole lot in the Senate race. Akin leads Claire McCaskill by a single point, 44-43. That's basically identical to our last poll of the contest in late May, which found Akin ahead by a 45-44 spread.

It's not that Missouri voters are ok with or supportive of Akin's comments. 75% of voters, including even 64% of Republicans, say they were inappropriate to only 9% who consider them to have been appropriate. 79% of voters say they disagree with what Akin said, including 65% who express 'strong' disagreement with him. 51% of GOP voters say they strongly disagree with him.

All of that is taking a toll on Akin's image. Only 24% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 58% with a negative one. He's pretty universally disliked by Democrats (3/85) and independents (21/61) and even with Republicans (43/34) he's on only narrowly positive ground.

But for all of that the overall numbers in the race have moved very little. When we polled in May McCaskill was getting only 8% of the Republican vote, and even with the controversy around Akin she's only pushed up to 10% of it. GOP voters dislike McCaskill so much they're not going to vote for her no matter what their nominee does. Independent voters haven't moved at all either. In May they supported Akin 45-41, and even though they don't like him on tonight's poll we still found him leading 45-41 with them.

There's your Republican Party, folks.  Even with such awful favorability numbers, even with these massively ignorant comments, even with his long record of being a far-right lunatic...there's a good chance that Missourians are going to vote the asshole into the Senate anyhow, effectively giving him a promotion.

What could Todd Akin do to lose support of Republicans in the state?  Act like a human being with a functioning soul, I guess.  Treat women, gays, and racial minorities with respect, that would lose him plenty of support among the troglodytes.

We'll see how the day unfolds.  My guess is Akin stays, and McCaskill remains in the toughest election battle of her career.  All that motivates Republicans in 2012 is hatred of Democrats.  Akin could eat a kitten on live TV and he'd still be within the margin of polling error because he doesn't have (D) after his name.

He'd get 27% of the vote if he clubbed a baby seal.  Minimum.

StupidiNews!

• After weeks of speculation about his health, Ethiopian Prime Minister Menes Zenawi is dead at the age of 57 according to state television.
• Japan Press reporter Mika Yamamoto becomes the latest journalist killed covering the Syrian civil war, the 45-year-old was caught in the crossfire of a gun battle in Aleppo.
• At a press conference yesterday, President Obama warned the Syrian al-Assad regime that US military intervention remains very much on the table if Syria uses chemical weapons.
• Augusta National Golf Club, home of the sport's prestigious Masters Tournament, has finally offered membership to women, with former Bush Secretary of State Condi Rice among the new members.
• A proof-of-concept experiment could mean quantum computing may be able to be powered by single-molecule magnets.

Last Call

President Obama gave the correct response to Rep. Todd Akin's asinine rape comments.

Speaking to reporters during Monday’s daily press briefing, President Barack Obama admonished Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) for suggesting that women do not get pregnant in cases of “legitimate rape,” seizing on the comments as a chance to rebuke Republicans for repeatedly pursuing legislation that would ban all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest.

“The views are offensive,” he said. “Rape is rape. The idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we’re talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people, and it certainly doesn’t make sense to me.”

The president added that Akin is an example of “why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.”

Any questions about which party respects women and which one doesn't?

Good.

A Second Take On Todd Akin

Zandar covered it well, but there are just a couple of things I'd like to say.

Please, Missouri... please be smarter than this.  We should not consider a man who tells an outright lie in his "off-the-cuff" remark for a position of power.  Either way, he is either completely ignorant, thinks we are ignorant, or he is a liar who weasels when called on his untruths.  Some combination (or an all of the above) leads to his statement.  The man tried to say that women who are raped and become pregnant were either participating or enjoyed it.  There is no other way to read the words he used.

I do not want a man who so grossly misunderstands or is willing to lie about women's bodies to make decisions about my rights to health care, my medical rights, or my ability to make choices for myself.  His job is to represent the people, not force them to behave how he wishes.  He clearly does not understand this.

He spewed ignorance and an outright lie, and when people knew better he tried to spin it.  Don't let it work. Either he thought that was the truth or he was lying.  There is no other explanation.  Neither will suffice.  Also, his references to women

As a Missourian with a uterus, and a soul... I am disgusted.  So is his opponent, Claire McCaskill, according to the LA Times.

“Akin previously was the co-sponsor of a bill to redefine rape,” McCaskill said. “And it was recently reported that Akin opposed a state law against spousal rape because it might be used as a tool against husbands in a ‘messy divorce.’ ”

The “redefinition” of rape was contained in a federal bill co-sponsored by Akin in 2011 that would have redefined the conditions under which federal funds may be used to pay for abortion.

Currently, federal money may be used in cases of incest, rape or if the mother’s life is in danger. The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act” was co-sponsored by more than 200 Republicans, including Mitt Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul D. Ryan. It would have changed the word “rape” to “forcible rape,” which abortion rights supporters feared would rule out paying for abortions in cases of statutory rape or when a victim is drugged or verbally coerced.

So yeah, this wasn't misspeaking.  This was getting called out on some major issues, and failing.  Victims of rape shouldn't be denied medical options because they are unable to afford them.  But oh yeah, if you get pregnant you were either willing or enjoyed it.

He promises victims of rape the justice they "deserve"... the problem is he doesn't think they deserve any.

In Which Dave Mustaine Sets Us All Straight

Before I post this, I just want to say that Barack Obama has class and grace.  Great big heaps of the stuff, because I cannot imagine how someone could ever grow to tolerate hearing such amazing lies about who they are.  To work so hard and do so much right, and have it dismissed and twisted and forgotten.

And now, the best and worst example of political ignorance I have seen in a long time, I present Dave Mustaine.

Dave Mustaine -- the lead singer of Megadeth -- believes Barack Obama"staged" the massacre in Aurora, CO in a sick, twisted plot to pass a gun ban. 

Mustaine made the comments on stage at an August 7 performance in Singapore ... when he told the crowd, "Back in my country, my president ... he's trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders, like the 'Fast And Furious' thing down at the border ... Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there ... and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple."

Obviously, Mustaine is not an Obama fan ... and recently bashed the President during an interview with Alex Jones ... saying, "With all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake. And you see the signs in Kenya that say 'the birthplace of Barack Obama.' Hello?! C'mon, guys. How stupid are we right now?"

Now that he's cleared that up, I feel better.  Don't you?  And if you think that's bad, take in Pat Boone's pitiful attempt at looking hip.

I understand that people are going to have different opinions.  But let's try rooting them in fact, mmkay?

How To CH_AT at Scrabble

Well, you hide blank tiles on yourself, of course.  Just like a card cheat stuffs aces... well, wherever one can stuff aces.

The young male, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found in possession of two blank tiles, rumbled when he accidentally dropped them on the floor, at the 350-player event.

Any hardcore Scrabble player will know that a blank tile is essentially gold dust in the word-making world.

According to the report by the Daily Mail, executive director of the National Scrabble Association John D. Williams Jr said cheating is known to happen but at smaller, regional events and it has never happened at national level before.

That is a large event, and cheating in major Scrabble events has been a concern but rarely proven.  I know, because I watch it on ESPN2 (much to my husband's pain, that's the only connection I have to the network).  It would make sense for hosts to color or mark tiles to prevent such a thing, and I bet that is what they do in light of this.

Cheating at Scrabble is like cheating at golf.  There is a hidden code, a bar that has been set for players, that says they are better than the average competitor.  At times like this, we are reminded that anyone can fall from grace if they want to win too much.

LeBeouf Whines About Work

26-year-old Shia spoke with The Hollywood Reporter recently, swearing off studio flicks for the rest of his life ... in favor of a career in indie films -- saying, "I'm done ... There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist."

Shia said, "You give Terrence Malick a movie like 'Transformers', and he's f**ked. There's no way for him to exist in that world."

Shia then gushed about the people behind his new movie "Lawless" -- saying, "These dudes are a miracle ... They give you the money, and they trust you -- [unlike the studios, which] give you the money, then get on a plane and come to the set and stick a finger up your ass and chase you around for five months."

You know, if they paid me as much as they paid him... I could put up with some aggravation.  Filming movies is hard work, but for those who haven't noticed (you listening, LeBeouf?) just about everyone has complications at work.  We just don't get paid millions for our inconvenience.

Good luck with indie films, kid.  We could use a break from you anyway.

The Mask Slips Again

..and Republicans accidentally tell the truth.  This time it's Franklin County, Ohio GOP chairman Doug Priesse, on the recent decision by Ohio's GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted to equalize early voting hours for all Ohio counties, but to eliminate early weekend voting completely:

“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine,” said Doug Preisse, chairman of the county Republican Party and elections board member who voted against weekend hours, in an email to The Dispatch. “Let’s be fair and reasonable.”

Black people won't vote for Republicans for any number of valid reasons.  Why should Republicans make it easier for black people to vote, right?

Still, one argument to restore early voting hours in Ohio keeps reoccurring: They worked in 2008, so what’s the rationale for removing them?

“As a result of historical discrimination against African-American voters, in addition to the recent wave of suppressive voter laws being enacted in statehouses across the country, African-American voters are skeptical of any laws aimed at limiting the opportunity to vote,” said NAACP Ohio Conference President Sybil Edwards McNabb. She and other black leaders have asked to meet with Husted.

A study by Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates says that even after Husted’s directive last week, the hours when more than 200,000 Ohioans voted in 2008 have been wiped out. The group and others such as the League of Women Voters are calling on Husted to restore voting on at least two weekends in late October.

President Obama won Ohio by 263,000 votes in 2008.  The election is expected to be somewhat closer this year.  Eliminate 200,000 voters from the turnout, well...you do the math.

Dig Him Up And Shake His Hand, Appreciate The Man

Paul Ryan, meet Paul Ryan.

Long before he became one of the right’s most vocal critics of the idea that government spending could help boost the flagging economy, Rep. Paul Ryan offered a forceful, full-throated defense of stimulus spending — when then-President George W. Bush wanted it in 2002.

Ryan has denounced the 2009 Recovery Act signed by President Obama as “a wasteful spending spree” and “failed neo-Keynesian experiment,” and – as The Huffington Post pointed out this morning — dismissed as “sugar-high economics” the idea that government spending, through measures like payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits, can help shore up a faltering economy.

But in 2002, when then-President Bush was seeking a roughly $120 billion package of tax cuts, tax incentives for business and unemployment benefits to jump-start the economy, Ryan offered a vigorous defense of the plan. “What we're trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed,” Ryan said in video that aired today on Up w/ Chris Hayes. The remarks came during a House debate on the measure on Feb. 14, 2002.

Perhaps the two of you need to have a discussion. I'm sure Salt Lake City Olympics Chairman Mitt, Governor Mitt, Senate Candidate Mitt, GOP Presidential Hopeful Mitt, and current Mitt will all be of help in finding your way, Paul.

Oh, and I would have seriously considered voting for Ryan on this speech alone in 2002.  I was next door in Minnesota at the time, but still.

Remember when Republicans weren't insane?