Todd Akins triggers some good writing, at least

You’ve heard about Todd Akins, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, right? The guy who actually said:

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Obviously there’s been a big reaction to that douchebaggery all over the internet, and dude has since tried to walk back his comments, so I don’t need to go into that noise.

Here’s some cool writing that has come out of this “discussion” about rape, though.

Eve Ensler: Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine…

Jessica Valenti: The Seven Stages of Feminist Grief (Todd Akin edition)

Mallory Ortberg at The Awl: Other Things Missouri Representative Todd Akin Believes To Be True About The Uterus, Besides Its Ability To “Shut Down” A Legitimate Rape

Anne Gerhart, Washington Post: Rep. Akin’s comments just the latest attempt to define rape — and women

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com: A guide to “legitimate” rape — This is a nice spelling out of what rape laws around the country are for the uninformed.

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Republicans derail talks with infighting

I want to hear a debate tonight. If McCain flew to Washington to fuck up talks about the bailout and to drag Obama into the weeds with him, he better stand up in front of me and explain himself.

If if he’s too much of a chicken to do so, then Obama should appear without him.

According to MSNBC:

Harsh Republican Party in-fighting sidetracked the Bush administration’s $700 billion plan to bail out the battered financial services industry, and it’s uncertain how many GOP lawmakers will even take part in Friday’s resumption of closed-door negotiations in Congress.

Even for a party whose president suffers dismal approval ratings, whose legislative wing lost control of Congress and whose presidential nominee trails in the polls, Thursday was a remarkably bad day for Republicans.

A White House summit meeting called principally with the purpose to seal the deal that President Bush has argued is indispensable to stabilizing frenzied markets and reassuring the nervous American public descended into arguments — mostly among Republicans.

The meeting revealed that Bush’s proposal to combat the worst financial crisis in decades had been suddenly sidetracked by fellow Republicans in the House, who refused to embrace a plan that appeared close to acceptance by the Senate and most House Democrats.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson begged Democratic participants not to disclose how badly the meeting had gone, dropping to one knee in a teasing way before U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make his point according to witnesses.

Paulson reportedly pleaded Pelosi not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the financial rescue package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, according to a report in the New York Times, making a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, adding that “it’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

When Paulson hastily tried to revive talks in a nighttime meeting near the Senate chamber, the House’s top Republican refused to send a negotiator.

“This is the president’s own party,” said Rep. Barney Frank, a top Democratic negotiator who attended both meetings. “I don’t think a president has been repudiated so strongly by the congressional wing of his own party in a long time.”

By midnight, it was hard to tell who had suffered a worse evening, Bush or McCain. McCain, eager to shore up his image as a leader who rises above partisanship, was undercut by a fierce political squabble within his own party’s ranks.

Emphasis mine.

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Rachel Maddow on the Bailout

My favorite part of this is the Bush quote “now is not the time to be partisan. We need to come together…”

I disagree. I think this is a GREAT time to be partisan. The best possible time, actually. The Republicans FUCKED UP. There’s just no other way to see this. The fuck-ups don’t get to make decisions now. You’re done.

Someone somewhere made the analogy about the Iraq War rebuilding efforts — if someone breaks into your house, loots and steals all your stuff and kills your pets, you sure don’t want THEM to be the ones to try to help you sort everything out and help you get back on your feet afterwards.

The same holds true of this economic crisis.

Continue ReadingRachel Maddow on the Bailout

Democracy Now producer Nicole Salazar films her own arrest

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Minneapolis police arrested journalist Amy Goodman outside the Republican National Convention when she came outside from the floor of the convention after hearing that her producers had been arrested while reporting on the protests outside. This was reported widely in the mainstream press — here is an interview she did with the L.A. Times.

Here is video of the arrest of one of those producers, Nicole Salazar, who had press credentials and clearly identifies herself to the police as they are illegally arresting her.

Continue ReadingDemocracy Now producer Nicole Salazar films her own arrest

Republican Wealth and the Economic Struggle of Ordinary Americans

This was an interesting juxtaposition of articles that came through my feedreader today. Via Metafilter, I learned that Vanity Fair did a breakdown of dollar value of the clothes the women of the Republican National Convention were wearing:

One of the persistent memes in the Republican line of attack against Barack Obama is the notion that he is an elitist, whereas the G.O.P. represent real working Americans like Levi “F-in’ Redneck” Johnston.

It caught our attention, then, when First Lady Laura Bush and would-be First Lady Cindy McCain took the stage Tuesday night wearing some rather fancy designer clothes. So we asked our fashion department to price out their outfits.

Laura Bush
Oscar de la Renta suit: $2,500
Stuart Weitzman heels: $325
Pearl stud earrings: $600-$1,500
Total: Between $3,425 and $4,325

Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500

Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

Note that Cindy McCain’s earrings COST MORE THAN MY HOUSE. As Vanity Fair notes: “No wonder McCain has so many houses: his wife has the price of a Scottsdale split-level hanging from her ears.”

On the same day, Heather Armstrong asks her readers to rethink some of the Republican talking points in light of the economic realities facing regular citizens:

Any time I engage with one of my conservative friends or family members, or sometimes the conservative commenters on this website, it usually devolves into them screaming about WELFARE! and TAXES! and THE GOVERNMENT IS TAKING MY MONEY AND GIVING IT TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK! And what they don’t understand is that this is not the issue at all. What I and many of my more liberal friends want is to HELP people, not give them a free ride, but also not to ignore those who would benefit from us tossing them a life jacket.

Case in point: Because Leta was diagnosed with plagiocephaly when she was two months old, she cannot qualify for private insurance until she is thirteen years old. So the only insurance we can get her is high-risk insurance that costs us upwards of $300 a month. Just for her alone. And even then that insurance won’t cover anything until she has reached a $3000 deductible. I am fortunate enough to have grown up in a white, middle class family who could afford to send me to college, as did my husband, and we have enough work experience to run a business that makes it so that we can afford this insurance for our daughter. We don’t have to make the choice between buying food or insuring our daughter. We are really fucking lucky.

But what about the family who cannot afford that insurance for their child? The family who can barely make rent, and if they stretch the budget they can eat three meals a day all week, let’s hope nothing bad happens to their kids because then they’re screwed. Kids, go hug your father, he’s off to one of his three jobs, none of which provide him insurance. And it’s not because he’s lazy or unwilling to work, it’s that his family couldn’t afford to send him to college, or he came from a family that didn’t know they should encourage him to go to college because they were busy trying to survive. If giving up more of my paycheck could help get this family adequate healthcare, then PLEASE. TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY.

Continue ReadingRepublican Wealth and the Economic Struggle of Ordinary Americans