Education:
Obama for America is out today with a new TV spot titled “Children” that highlights the clear choice for voters between Mitt Romney and President Obama’s vision for public education. “Children” will air in Virginia and Ohio on Thursday: http://bit.ly/QYw7Io
· This joins the new digital calculator from the Obama Campaign, which shows how President Obama’s policies have helped college graduates who responsibly pay their student loans get on their feet after graduation with more affordable monthly payments, and the devastating impact the Romney-Ryan plan would have on the wallets of students and families: http://www.barackobama.com/education-calculator
· Melody Barnes writes in the Las Vegas Sun “Romney’s idea will not only divert some funds to private-school vouchers — undermining public schools that always will serve the majority of students — but it won’t be nearly enough for a parent to pay for private school or produce the results our most vulnerable children deserve.” http://bit.ly/Nl6Jvu
RNC Platform Final:
· The NY Times is brutal about The RNC platform: “The mean-spirited and intolerant platform represents the face of Republican politics in 2012. And unless he makes changes, it is the current face of the shape-shifting Mitt Romney.” http://nyti.ms/O50uge
Romney – Ryan’s abysmal promise for women
· Paul Ryan gave an interview on Pittsburgh TV station this morning. He refused to explain his attempt to narrow the definition of rape, working with Todd Akin, and he labelled the issue of women’s health as a “distraction.” http://politi.co/STBwlK
Delano: “Should abortions to be available to women who are raped?”
Ryan: “Well, look, I’m proud of my pro-life record. And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”
Think Progress has the video: http://bit.ly/STBryn
Carolyn Maloney writes “From a woman’s right to choose, to a woman’s right to receive equal pay for equal work, the differences between the two presidential candidates are stark indeed. Consider the following.” http://bit.ly/Sn53Xr
This nifty chart from Think Progress breaks downhow Akin’s Views On Women’s Health Are In Line With GOP: http://bit.ly/Rf7Ulj
Mother Jones points out: Paul Ryan Cosponsored All the Most Extreme Anti-Abortion Bills http://bit.ly/NI2Xhj
Andy Sullivan’s The Dish: Akin’s Position Is The GOP’s TRUTH HERE!
“That’s the truth whatever Romney now wants to say. 150 Republican congressman voted for a bill that would allow abortions only for “forcible rape”, as if there were some other kind. (Mercifully, the language was later stripped from the bill.) The distinction is designed to prevent women citing rape as a reason for abortion when there is no sign of physical trauma. It’s a disgusting form of contempt for women’s autonomy and integrity – and a truly despicable soft tolerance of all other kinds of sexual coercion. Remember the words of the mainstream pro-life figure John C Willke:
When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase “forcible rape” or “assault rape,” for that specifies what we’re talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we’re not addressing that her.
Here’s what Romney said about Willke in 2007: “I am proud to have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement in our country.” Someone should ask Mitt: is he still proud that his party platform is basing its social policy on the views of a man who thinks “statutory rape can be consensual”?
But in many ways, these nuances are just helpful signs of how the fundamentalist psyche thinks – it is always trying to tidy up the messy realities of human experience to conform to its eternal diktats. The real point is that the GOP platform would make all abortions, including those caused by rape and incest, illegal in every state by constitutional amendment. It would not just allow the states to decide, but insist on a national ban. As on gay rights, and medical marijuana, the GOP has total contempt for federalism.
Until this incarnation of the Republican party is destroyed at the polls, we live in its thrall. We have in this election an opportunity not just to re-elect a president capable of making the Grand Bargain we all need; but to punish and humiliate the most extreme, irrational, hateful version of Republicanism that now stalks the land, led by a brazen liar and fathomless cynic.
Medicare:
The NY Times reports on how despite Romney and Ryan’s claims otherwise, current seniors will pay more under the Romney-Ryan Medicare voucher plan: http://nyti.ms/QqUkX7
There’s no escaping the wingnuts, Mitt Romney. You’ve jumped into the clown car, thinking you were going to DRIVE IT. Now you, Ryan and the GOP are going for a ride straight off the cliff. ADIOS, MOFOS!
THEY’RE BACK!
My Vagina Has Legitimate Concerns About Electing Republicans
Posted by: Helen Philpot | August 22, 2012
Margaret, I am aware that some people may call me a single issue voter. Not true. What is true is that the Republicans have become a single issue party.
What Akin actually said was, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” And then in his apology he stated, “I made that statement in error. Rape is never legitimate. It is an evil act.”
There are just so many things wrong with that statement that I don’t even know where to begin. I do know, however, that my legitimate foot is going to meet a certain illegitimate ass if I ever run into this Akin fella.
Rape is never legitimate? So that means that rape is illegitimate? And I guess illegitimate rape is when the woman enjoys the attack so much that she gets pregnant? Even in his apology there is no awareness of the real issue. He gives absolutely no thought to the woman – just the man and the “child”? And where does Akin get his opinion on the reproductive system of a woman, or as he calls it “that whole thing”. Clearly he’s a few credits shy of being a gynecologist, but he does have a degree in management engineering. I guess on the weekends, he manages to hang out with doctors and discuss how that whole female reproductive system thing has been engineered to protect itself against rape. Honestly, Margaret, where do they find these asshats? Is it just me, or is there a different Republican each week with his head up my whole thing? What exactly are they looking for up there – a tax refund?
Read the rest here: http://margaretandhelen.com/
Ryan backed more than one ‘forcible rape’ abortion bill
By NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell
While Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan’s national public identity has been more fiscal hawk than culture warrior, Ryan has long been a strong opponent of abortion rights, who believes that life begins at conception.
And he has pursued and supported legislation that backs up those socially conservative view.
The Todd Akin episode invited a closer look at Ryan’s record on abortion and social issues. While Ryan has flatly rejected Akin’s reference to “legitimate rape,” Ryan’s name and his vote are tied to instances where the term “forcible rape” appeared in legislation. The bills sought to place limits on access to abortion or health insurance coverage for an abortion
Three years ago, the then-39-year-old congressman, co-sponsored an abortion-related amendment called, “Limitations on Abortion Mandates.”
That proposed amendment was blocked in what was a Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. Ryan and only one co-sponsor, Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas, proposed a change to health-care legislation that would have required health insurance cover abortion services.
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/22/13416844-ryan-backed-more-than-one-forcible-rape-abortion-bill?lite
Paul Ryan: ‘I’m proud of my record’ on abortion
By Felicia Sonmez, Updated: Wednesday, August 22, 12:07 PMThe Washington Post
ABOARD THE RYAN PLANE – Facing a mounting effort by Democrats to tie him to the Todd Akin controversy, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he is proud of his record on abortion rights and maintained that Mitt Romney is the one who will set the GOP ticket’s policy.
“Well, you know, look. I’m proud of my record,” Ryan said to reporters aboard his plane en route to Raleigh, N.C., when asked about differences between he and Romney regarding abortion.
Romney supports abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is endangered; Ryan does not.
“Mitt Romney’s going to be the president,” Ryan said. “The president sets the policy. His policy is exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. I’m comfortable with it because it’s a good step in the right direction. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Romney campaign has stated that Romney’s policy will be the one followed by a Romney administration. But as the controversy surrounding Akin, the Missouri congressman who is running for the Senate, and his comments about “legitimate rape” has ramped up, Democrats have sought to put the political spotlight on Ryan’s staunchly conservative views on social issues.
Asked about his co-sponsorship of legislation that tightened restrictions on abortion— and initially used the term “forcible rape” — Ryan told reporters, “That bill passed I think by 251 votes. It was bipartisan. . . .I’m proud of my pro-life record.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paul-ryan-takes-aim-at-obama-for-you-didnt-build-that-in-roanoke/2012/08/22/b7e019f0-ec65-11e1-aca7-272630dfd152_story.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Fox, meet henhouse. Paul Ryan, meet Medicare.
By Jamelle Bouie
At this point, you can safely assume each new ad released by the Romney campaign will be rife with dishonesty. Today, it’s another ad on Medicare, which claims Romney and Ryan — and not Obama — can be trusted to defend the program. It’s full of distortions. But the larger point here may be this: Why would you trust someone who is on record attacking entitlements for ideological reasons to guard entitlements?
First, the facts. Called “Nothing’s Free,” the ad attacks Obama for “raiding $716 billion from Medicare and changing the program forever,” “taxing wheelchairs and pacemakers,” and “raising taxes on families making less than $120,000.” In crafting Medicare reforms for the health law, the Obama administration did find savings that — over ten years — add up to $716 billion. Those were used to pay the cost of health insurance subsidies for low-income Americans, shore up the Medicare trust fund, close the prescription drug “donut hole,” and provide preventative care for seniors. So this “cut” has benefitted the program.
The health law does include an excise tax on medical devices — seemingly the source of “taxing wheelchairs and pacemakers.” But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explained, the excise tax will have a “minimal effect on consumers.” Spinning this as directly harmful to seniors is misleading, although perhaps par for the course in politics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line