Displaying 1,681 To 1,710 Of 3,237 Comments Women and the GOP Men That Hate Them Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) spiritual mentor Reverend D. James Kennedy harbored extreme and sometimes flatly misogynistic views about rape and abortion. Kennedy, who the Anti-Defamation League has termed a “Christian supremacist,” repeatedly railed against legalized abortion, calling it the “American Holocaust” and suggesting that it would lead inevitably to genocide in the United States. But Kennedy’s discussions of rape and abortion in particular betray extraordinarily disturbing views about rape victims: 1. Kennedy believed that rape victims who chose abortion are “hysterical.” Given that Akin’s rhetoric and policy views bear clear marks of Kennedy’s influence, it’s perhaps no surprise that Akin co-sponsored (with Paul Ryan) a bill that could, by limiting federal funding of abortion to cases of “forcible rape,” make rape survivors give birth to their rapist’s child. Full text at: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/20/713571/akins-spiritual-mento Bio of Rev. D. James Kennedy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._James_Kennedy » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 21, 2012 @ 6:12 pm Lifelong Republican Leaves Party I will copy, archive, and paste this in several blogs. It is terrific. The comparative list at the end is especially well done. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 22, 2012 @ 3:18 pm How Republicans Are Trying to Sell Dying Younger to Voters Ad Lib….well done. Powerful summary. Clear and disconcerting. Remember Alan Grayson’s Poster Card Presentation on the floor of the house? http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/grayson-gop-health-plan-youre-sick-die-quic It’s a very simple plan. Here it is. The Republican health care plan for America: Don’t get sick. That’s right, don’t get sick. If you have insurance, don’t get sick. If you don’t have insurance, don’t get sick. If you’re sick, don’t get sick. If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly. That’s right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 17, 2012 @ 6:22 am 17 Ryan Factoids – unlike Eddie Munster, really scary KT…I do not know if I have shared this with you before, but I refer to myself as am Eisenhower Republican (which is so in many areas and not true in others but it captures some of my political profile). It is for that reason that I regard your assessment as absolutely true. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 16, 2012 @ 11:09 am I preferred the Adams Family but Pugsley was clear not the workout fiend Paul is. The nun who is making the rounds is Simone Campbell who I have met and I know a couple of others in their leadership. Your admonition that the Dems need to be careful that they do not become overconfident and overplay their hands is very appropriate. I heard too much of the “Ryan is the best VP offering WE Democrats could have hoped for.” meme. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 5:25 am KT…you would think that the makeup of the electorate in Ohio would pretty much make the state a solid Obama state but I worry about the power of propaganda on the uninformed, the misinformed and the malinformed. And I also worry that our focus will be too tight on the Presidency and the Congress will go solid red (not to mention state governments). » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 5:21 am Older and Wiser…. Both men at the top of the ticket are men of myth…. You have outline Paul Ryan’s well. Mitt’s is that of the hard working, afraid of being fired, made it on his own, young entrepreneur who stood in rapt admiration of his Dad and has walked in his footsteps with the Book of Mormon to guide him is moral decision making. He was a spoiled rich kid who had all of the advantages that came with living in a family with wealth and power who went to the best schools on his Dad’s dime, had a cushy missionary experience which also got him out of the draft (while protesting in support of the Vietnam War), went to work at a top level consulting firm and then was commissioned to found an investment company without any risk to himself at all. It is all image making and pr and it is mostly a lie. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 5:18 am Sue….had a “burp in the force” and a partial of this comment posted….sorry. Here it is. When Social Security was originally proposed it was far different than the annuity for all that it quickly became. Franklin Roosevelt put together the Commission on Economic Security. Frances Perkins Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Homer Cummings Henry Wallace Harry Hopkins Professor Edwin Witte Their charge from FDR was: “. . . I am looking for a sound means which I can recommend to provide at once security against several of the great disturbing factors in life–especially those which relate to unemployment and old age.” In June of 1934, 50 percent of those 65 or older were living in poverty. In addition there was no support for children in families that lost their wage earner, and for the disabled. Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD) were the primary movers of the legislation in the House. Although its reach was very limited (initially minorities, women, farmers, domestic workers, part time employees were all excluded) it was expanded to its present coverage over the remainder of the Roosevelt administration and into the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. What was quickly lost was the idea that the program was Social Security INSURANCE, not a Social Security ANNUITY. As imagined by the Commission, payments into the trust fund would be small, provided by everyone who might be eligible for it, and ONLY be provided to those who qualified for it- i.e. those who needed it. Bottom line for me is this: From what I have read, that would extend the program almost indefinitely. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 5:11 am Sue….When Social Security was originally proposed it was far different than the annuity for all that it quickly became. Franklin Roosevelt put together the Economic Security Commission composed of Frances Perkins Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Harry Hopkins Professor Edwin Witte Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); unknown person in shadow; Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD). » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 4:47 am WoW…..Bricker….forgot all about him. SO, are you proposing that Ryan might carry Wi. and that the GOP was assuming they had Ohio? My guess is “no”. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 11:31 am I posted this elsewhere and think it might have been the reasoning: Romney was correct when he said Ryans was the Presidential Nominee Both internal and external polls are indicating that Romney will not be able to cobble together a coalition to defeat Obama. SO a radical choice who can actual speak, is well informed, and has the confidence of the right MIGHT be a game changer. And if not, then that voice WILL be a better representative of the agenda the Right wants to put into place. Ryan will also be the point of the spear emphasizing the importance of turn the Senate Red and keeping the House Red no matter what. Further it pushes Ryan forward as the real GOP national leader. Romney knows this which is why I think he declared that Ryan would be the next President of the United States. I REGARD MOST OF THIS AS UNLIKELY BUT I THINK THAT WAS THE RATIONALE. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 10:47 am High compliment. Thank you. Doncha luv the Munsters? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 10:45 am Ayn Rand’s Ryan and the Creed of the Elite Hey cat…..very good point. The GOP are far more likely to be herd creatures…like the elephant that represents their party. Donkeys, on the other hand, while they hang together tend to be stubbornly individualistic, ask any mule skinner. Yep. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 2:24 pm Choice….a very fine addition to my effort. I knew nothing of Rose Wilder Lane. I will copy and paste your contribution into my archive for integration into my Rand file later. What is particularly valuable is your critique of the myth of rugged individualism and making it on one’s own. The concept of the American Frontier as something conquered by the solitary figure is nonsense. I once read that the town council of Dodge City instructed the sheriff to detain and question any man who came into town by themselves or just in the company of other men unless they were known. It was assumed that those who were ok traveled in the company of others, especially women and children. Community was the saving place then and now. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 5:35 am I was sort of joking but now that you mention it….the libertarian admiration for Ayn is extraordinary- has Ron Paul ever embraced her publicly, in a metaphoric sense of course…. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 11:33 am Nice hybrid. A bouncy castle. Lacks gravitas but it represents searing truth. Overstretched until the seams separate or punctured, it deflates. I find Carnegie believed inherited wealth spoiled the heirs. “I should as soon leave to my son a curse as the almighty dollar,” he said. In all, Carnegie’s donations totaled $350 million. The continuation of his broad interests was put under the general charge of the Carnegie Corporation, with a donation of $125 million. He left his one child, a daughter, $1 million. Margaret was a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grant-making foundation. The foundation was established by her father in 1911. From 1973 until her death she was an honorary lifetime trustee. She received an annual stipend of $150,000. Nice but pennies on the dollar given Carnegie’s wealth. The Carnegie Foundation remains active today in the cause of educational support and reform. Good overview at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Corporation#Vartan_Gregorian Your reference to Titanic is interesting. In the earlier versions of the story on film the emphasis was always on the those in the 1st class with those in steerage shown as backdrop and props in the catastrophe. I think that the plutocrats would like to return to those days when the story always focused on them. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 8:25 am I have been doing some reading this morning about Ryan and his family. He grew up in a staunchly anti-progressive, GOP family. This reflects the deep divide in the GOP where the progressive reform was regarded as a betrayal of the business-Republican alliance forged after the Civil War. This explains a lot about him and about how he has filtered out the social justice themes in his own Catholicism. His ties to the Koch’s, Americans for Prosperity, and the Tea Party are well laid out at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/us/politics/paul-ryan-has-kept-close-ties-to-conservative-and-libertarian-donors.html?pagewanted=all demonstrate how deeply embedded he is in the anti-moderate movement in his own party. His opposition to Boehner and his efforts to sabotage his leadership are put into perspective. I do hope you are correct about the electorate knowing where its best interest lie. I continue to say that reelecting Barack will not be enough. The neocon Right controls 29 governerships. Likewise In the 2010 election, the Republican Party took control of a majority of the state legislative bodies, in which a net of 19 of the 49 partisan legislative bodies changed from Democratic Party control to Republican Party control. We have a House which is solidly GOP and a Senate that is hobbled by a GOP minority. That is a lot to overcome. The public’s mood which gave the Dems the victories of 2008 turned on a dime in 2010 and may do so again but its very volatility makes predicting very risky. In order to turn the tide we need to win on many fronts to change the course of the nation. Obama’s reelection without legislative victories will be hollow. I believe the GOP will be willing to put the country through 4 more years of obfuscation and obstruction because its masters will demand it. The GOP is making a huge effort to control the convention. The speaker lineup, the neutralizing of the Paulistas, the staging of the events are all meant to create a convention bump. The money is pouring into the big media markets. The news media are playing the ratings game and the economy remains weak (with the uninformed holding the ridiculous expectation that the President can act alone). The efforts to block the vote in key states continues. Ad Lib, come November, your optimism may be borne out. I hope it is. But all of our hopes depend on an electorate willing to throw off the shackles of the propaganda that plays on anger, anxiety and fear. Such emotion is hard to overcome. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 14, 2012 @ 8:01 am KQ…agreed. Obama is in all things a centrist- something that is rather galling to me at times. But I understand why he is and salute him for taking the via media. We have the most radical GOP ticket in history. Goldwater comes close but he was balanced by Miller. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 8:35 pm KQ, her letters in reply to the rejection she experienced are very Hitlerian – condemning those who were critical of her work as unworthy and jealous of real art. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 8:31 pm Olderandwiser55…thank you for your comments. Your reference to the Gospel reminds of what Andrew Carnegie wrote in “The Gospel of Wealth”. Carnegie examines the modes of distributing accumulated wealth and capital to the communities it originates from making it clear that the wealthy need to see that redistribution as an obligation and to oversee its use for the betterment of the community. He preached that ostentatious living and amassing private treasures was wrong. He praised the high British taxes on the estates of dead millionaires, remarking that “By taxing estates heavily at death the State marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire’s unworthy life. It is desirable that nations should go much further in this direction.”Imagine that being said today by our own elites- by the two outstanding Christians heading the GOP ticket? Not likely. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 8:29 pm KQ…thank you for the kudo and my appreciation for your thoughts expanding the discussion here. Newt Gingrich (of all people) said it very well. On Meet the Press he told David Gregory that replacing Medicare with a voucher system was too “radical” an approach. His words were by far the harshest of any major presidential candidate towards Paul Ryan’s proposal on entitlements. “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” Gingrich said, calling the plan “too big a jump” for the country. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.” Consider the words of Andrew Carnegie, self made man, industrialist, mega millionaire, and philanthropist: “”…The amassing of wealth is one of the worse species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money…Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.” (Personal Memos from the Carnegie Libary Foundation) Your rubber band image is compelling and one I will hold on to. I use the model of the pyramid. The people on the top are absolutely dependent on those below them. The sounder the tiers below, the more stable the pinnacle. Hollow out the core of the pyramid, weaken the base and while the structure may seem to have integrity, a strong storm will threaten it. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 8:22 pm I value this bit of wordsmithing very much: “the atheistic selfishness, greed and class warfare of Ayn Rand and the materialism, dictatorial authority and oppressive conformity of The Mormon Church.” I am going to archive and use this with your kind permission.It really captures something. What further reinforces it is that both Romney and Ryan are far more than just acolytes in their “faiths.” Ryan has been a high profile advocate and first class missionary for Rand’s individualism and objectivism. Romney was a Bishop and a Stakeholder. It is so bizarre that the Bishop has put his arms around the follower of the atheist who said that no one who is intelligent can believe in a God and who has been accused by his own bishops of misrepresenting his own church. Just as the public turned away from the Ryan budget once before, they will turn away from the creator of that budget if the Obama/Dem team sell it and sell it hard. I continue to be dismayed at how many are willing to vote (and with some ardency) against their own interests. The MSM is hard at work crafting the selection as a “smart choice, a turning point, a game change, a sign of how serious the campaign is becoming, the embracing of the key economic questions in a careful way” when none of that is true. As you so often say…it is all about the bottom line. Generating interesting is essential and a blow up flat lines the moneymaking. I wrote in several places that I thought the reasoning behind the choice of Ryan looks like this within the party: “Romney was correct when he said Ryan was the Presidential Nominee Both internal and external polls are indicating that Romney will not be able to cobble together a coalition to defeat Obama. SO a radical choice who can actually speak, is well informed, and has the confidence of the right MIGHT be a game changer. And if not, then that voice WILL be a better representative of the agenda the Right wants to put into place. Ryan will also be the point of the spear emphasizing the importance of turning the Senate Red and keeping the House Red no matter what. Further it pushes Ryan forward as the real GOP national leader. Romney knows this which is why I think he declared that Ryan would be the next President of the United States.” Of course, I think this is generally wrong headed and bad thinking on Romney’s part, on his campaign’s part, and on their backers’ parts. Romney does seem headed for defeat, but Ryan will attract no additional voters to the ticket. He will become the poster boy for the GOP’s elitist thinking in legislation and be seen as the kind of legislator who do the bidding of Big Money (and even have some of that Big Money in their own families). I had not thought about his negative impact on the House races but I think you are correct.His run for reelection will become a calling card for those opposing the GOP in their districts. Now that could be a game changer! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 7:56 pm KT…thank you for this. Fascinating. Rand was highly intolerant of the opinions of others. Buckley’s rejection by her for having published a critical review of her writing is typical. She was even critical of the writing of those who were in her camp declaring that little of it was as exacting in standards as her own efforts. Buckley was a great believer in the necessity of serious, honest and respectful interchanges of ideas…something Rand found tedious. I have added this video to my reference list for the topic. Appreciated. Side note. Do you think Ron Paul named his son for her? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 7:30 pm And yet the right finds it very important to remind us that Obama has the loosest of connections with the radical Ayers and his former church’s occasionally over the top pastor Wright. Oh, I do not expect the right to be moved by this argument. If evangelicals and welling to set aside generations of condemnation of Mmormon “heresy” then there is little they will not excuse. Still, when your philosphy is so wound up in someone whose disdain for the have nots is this intense while professing to be a person of faith, the hypocrisy is worth noting. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 13, 2012 @ 5:33 am Saving Privatizing Ryan…As A Last Desperate Resort Ad Lib, thanks for your analysis and thoughtful response…I have applied your think to two other state findings and judge it to be on the mark. More media trumpeting of the scenario that generates the most interaction and therefore the most marketing appeal. Thanks. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 16, 2012 @ 11:02 am I have a friend who lives in Janesville and has said for years that the guy is slickly oil teflon- he has had huge employment losses in his district and has done nothing in respons. Still he gets reelected every time. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 2:18 pm Of course that poll was run in the first two days after the announcement. I wonder how the tracking polls will look in a couple of weeks. That is what will tell the tale. Post GOP convention. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 2:15 pm Yes. Good news but what does it mean against other data? I would love your thoughts on this HP page. A one time a couple of weeks back Obama was at 290 Elector Votes and is far down now. I have my thoughts but wonder if your eagle eye can spot some trends. http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/romney-vs-obama-electoral-map » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 15, 2012 @ 2:12 pm President X – Will Americans Really Elect a Man in Hiding? AdLib..I thought you might find this of value. Please feel free to use it- maybe here in some way. I have not seen the info before today. HOW MITT’S DAD DECIDED TO RELEASE 12 YEARS OF RETURNS George Romney’s biographer,T. George Harris, described the process that led to the release of a dozen years of returns. “He balked when I badgered him for a copy of his latest Form 1040, the Federal Individual Income Tax Return,” Harris wrote. “Release of the document, while it might serve a political purpose, would not prove very much, he argued. One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show, and what mattered in personal finance was how a man conducted himself over the long haul.” After some thought Romney called Harris back and surprised him. “Stumped by this argument, I was not prepared for the move that it eventually led him to make: He ordered up all the Form 1040’s that he and Mrs. Romney had filed over the past twelve years — including those profitable ones from when he saved the American Motors Company from bankruptcy and became a millionaire on the company’s stock options.” George was an Eisenhower Republican. He understood what openness, transparency and disclosure were all about. Too bad the apple of his eye, Mitt, has fallen so far from the tree. http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/why-george-romney-released-his-tax-returns » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2012 @ 12:11 pm The Right Wing Case Against Obama 1. For the corporatists, Obama represents fiscal and regulatory policy they oppose. 2. For the social conservatives, Obama has supported the liberalization of laws and practices that recognize LGBT equality, access to the full range of reproductive services, and health care reform. 3. For the nativists, Obama stands for the browning of America- the passing away of white dominance. 4. For the religious fundamentalists, Obama embraces a branch of Protestant Christianity emphasizing contextual interpretation of Scripture, churches in line with the time, and the centrality the social justice agenda. 5. For the militarists, Obama is developing alternative military strategies that downplay the Big Military, nation invading, profile. 6. For the crazies, Obama is the prop in a long term liberal conspiracy that has placed a non-citizen, radical, Muslim in the Oval Office. FOR THESE GROUPS “ANYONE BUT OBAMA” (AND HIS DEMOCRATIC ALLIES, EVEN THE LUKEWARM ONES) IS HOLY WRIT. They will look past every concern you raise by saying: The only thing we have to know about Mitt is that he is opposed to everything Obama is for AND he will take orders. They are zealous in their beliefs and will do whatever it takes to “set the country on the RIGHT path.” One of my ongoing fears is that there is not a corresponding zeal on the Left. The “Independents”? The unconnected, the unengaged, the uninformed, are so easily swayed by propaganda and so unwilling to really dig into anything will decide the elections, a source of great discomfort for me. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2012 @ 5:53 amComments Posted By MurphTheSurf3
2. Kennedy suggests rape victims can be responsible for being raped.
3. Kennedy held that the Bible should set our laws about rape and abortion.
4. Kennedy thought husbands should determine if their wives can have abortions.
Secretary of Labor
Chair of CES
Secretary of the Treasury
Attorney General
Secretary of Agriculture
Administrator of FERA
Executive Staff Director
a) The level of payroll taxable income needs to be raised from $109,000 to $200,000.
b) Means testing should be applied to those applying for it.
Secretary of Labor
Chair of CES
Secretary of the Treasury
Homer Cummings
Attorney General
Henry Wallace
Secretary of Agriculture
Administrator of FERA
Executive Staff Director
Mitt claims his father, Gov. George Romney, is his inspiration and role model Dad said: What mattered in personal finance was how a man conducted himself over the long haul.
«« Back To Stats Page
Home Stats