The SoapBoxers

Thursday we gathered with our families and friends giving thanks for the blessings we have, so I thought I’d share one of mine with you here. This year I am thankful that Mitt Romney is not going to be the next President of the United States of America. Sorry if you have just been crawling out from under a rock the past few weeks and I just broke this news to you.

The next day when I went to work you could literally see whose parents were all worked up by the events of the previous night. Just like all conservatives around the country they were filled with anger, outrage and disbelief that a Kenyan-born Muslim Socialist Antichrist was reelected with relative ease. The final tally for the electoral college was Obama 332 Romney 206, the only battle ground state that Romney picked up was North Carolina and the popular vote margin currently stands at right around a three percent win for Obama as well.

It just was not a good night for the Republican party. They lost the Senate even more with Democrats and the caucusing independents accounting for 55 members of the body. If it was not for a lot of gerrymandering in various states in redrawing those district lines they very well could have lost control of the house as well. It just was not a good night for Republicans. Now it is on to the blame game. Every thing under the sun has been thrown out to why they lost. The plain and simple answer is that appealing only to racists, religious zealots and rich people is not enough of a consensus to win as a national party.

My favorite though was the man himself Romney bringing his 47% comments back to life again with a post election discussion with donors that he lost only because the people that did not vote did so because they wanted to recieve gifts. Like I said this Thanksgiving I am happy that this man is not going to be the next President and it was quite funny that his popular vote tally came to 47 percent.

It seems that Republicans can’t keep putting their foot in their mouth about rape and abortion these days. The latest on their greatest hits album when it comes to this topic is from Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. Yesterday during a debate with his Democratic opponent Rep. Joe Donnelly when the topic of abortion in the case of rape or incest Mourdock had this to say. “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is a gift from God. And I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Now, unlike Akin, who said his now infamous discussion on legitimate rape and magical lady parts on a local TV show, Mourdock said these comments during a senate race debate. Candidates actually prepare for debates, you knew this topic was bound to come up. So the excuse of not being prepared for the topic to come up and misspeaking is clearly not valid here. So what is the next line of action? Oh but of course, the my comments were taken out of context. No sir, your comments are being quoted fully and accurately and their meaning is quite clear. You said that you have struggled with this for a long time, you said that rape is horrible, but you said that the baby created out of that is God’s intent. So if you want to take what you said about this that even though it was horrible the rape itself must have been God’s intent. That’s just wrong – a fine argument for you to make is that every life is God’s gift, but that is not what you said. You said that your view was it was God’s intent. Just like Akin you got caught speaking your actual beliefs in public. Just fess up to it, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how moronically wrong it may be, but at least stand by what you really meant to say after you said it.

Now after the Akin comments were made you had conservative politicians trying to force him out of the race and the party even withdrew its financial backing. However conservative voters stuck with him after that, and that is why I feel that the Republican politicians are going to tread lightly on this, this is especially true for Romney. He is not going to want to outrage the hard conservative base that actually believes this crap on the eve of the election. In such a close race you need your base to turn out in mass effect, and as such it would be devastating if some of them decided to say cast their vote the way of say a Gary Johnson instead. Although I feel their hatred of President Obama would trump just about anything, but that is besides the point.

As I was saying, Romney is not going to want to upset the base at this late stage in the game, but it is a fine line to walk. He also needs to make sure he does not upset independent voters. So here we have Mittens walking on eggs. His campaign has released a statement saying the candidate does not share the views of Mourdock on this issue. Then again how are we to really know what Mitt Romney believes in, it changes so much, it is kind of like Kansas weather, but once again I am getting off topic. On the other hand though you have the campaign standing by the lone campaign ad for a Senate candidate featuring Mitt Romney himself in it that was debuted the day before the comments. Saying that Mourdock and his principles are still the best for the job. So as with everything else in this campaign, Romney is all over the place on what he actually stands for and believes in. Then again all he really cares about is being President and in the end that means that Obama will not have the job anymore and for them that is all that matters, even if their candidate actually believes in what they do after getting the job or not.

Well that is all from me this month. Not much need to do a Bad Nut of the Month as Mourdock clearly takes the prize, but if there was a second place it would be for Ann Coulter and her multiple tweets referring to the President as a retard and her mocking and ridicule of the deaths of Arlen Specter and George McGovern. We now stand just a mere dozen days until election day, so how do you think it is going to go? It is time to play some Fantasy Politics predictions. Now I think Obama will win the popular vote by a slim margin and will win the Electoral College 288-252. I also think that the Democrats will continue to control the Senate.

In some of the high profile races McCaskill will hold on to defeat Akin in Missouri, Mourdock who was in a tight race to begin with is going to lose to Donnelly in Indiana, Murphy will beat McMahon in Connecticut, Nelson is going to defeat Mack in Florida and I also think that Elizabeth Warren will take out Scott Brown in Massachusetts. On the house side things will be likely to look much the same I hate to say, as I see the Democrats getting probably just a net gain of a seat or two, three tops. One race involving one of my favorite people to rant about is going to be mighty close. In Minnesota’s 6th district former Presidential Candidate and three term Congresswoman Michele Bachman is in her tightest race yet and in a district that was fine tuned to her chances this time around to boot. Now while I am not going to come out and say that Bachman is going to lose to Jim Graves there, I am willing to bet that the margin of victory for either candidate will be from one to two percent. Well there you have some of my predictions laid out before you and you can play along to. I don’t have much to give out in the way of prizes, but feel free to post in the comments and we can have a little fantasy political prediction game going into election day

Todd Akin

Akin; adjective. Of similar character. It is such a perfect last name for that new pariah of the Republican party, Missouri Congressman and Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin. That is despite all their faux outrage at his comments this week on legitimate rape and the magical woman parts during it, they really posses the exact same thoughts on the ideas expressed and have so for a while now. So why all the outrage then? Well Congressman Akin violated the first rule of idiot club, don’t express our batshit ideas to the public during a general election. That is the plain and simple reason. Just this past year and Akin along with current Republican Vice Presidential choice Paul Ryan (and 186 others) put forth a bill that would set the limitation for exceptions in an abortion bill to “forcible” or as it can be put by their terminology, real rape. Just like legitimate, just using a different word.

Now however in the aftermath of the Akin comments Ryan is all saying well rape is rape. Nice to know Congressman Ryan, but that is not how you felt the other day, and how am I to think this will be your opinion again when the heat is down on these recent comments. Shoot Mitt Romney even sought the endorsement of one of those doctors akin was talking about that try to peddle his pillow pants theory of special lady parts during rape, well real rape. If you got pregnant you weren’t actually raped is what one is made to believe by their misplaced and ridiculous “science” there.

Sure Akin has came out to apologize and I find it very heartfelt, at least in the since that he is sorry that there was the outrage over his comments, but I don’t find the man very sorry about what he said as it is still what he believes. In fact though I find his apology ad he is running quite humorous. I mean I keep on envisioning I am watching a disgraced televangelist crying “I have sinned” into the camera when I am watching the thing. I don’t really believe the apology, just like I don’t believe the outrage from the politicians on the right. Akin is sorry that he spoke what he thought and the politicians in charge are upset that it hurts their chances at winning, plain and simple. Listening to conservative radio the past couple days you find plenty of nuts defending him and even those trying to defend his theory on how not to get pregnant while being actually raped. It only seems to be the talking heads and politicians on the right that are upset, the evangelicals are standing up for the man. Give them their credit though, at least they are sticking to their beliefs there, no matter how misguided and inaccurate they are.

I am happy to see that Akin has did not bow to the pressure and drop out of the race (well yet that is) as he shouldn’t have to. Now your going to say of course you feel that way you are a liberal. Well him being the worse candidate now has nothing to do with my opinion on this matter, that part is just a bonus. Why I feel this is because he is who the voters wanted. He was selected by Missouri Republican voters who clearly knew who they were voting for in this race, this is why Democrats funnelled money into ads against his opponents in the primary.

Akin has notoriety for speaking his true thoughts and beliefs quite often and usually are pretty crass and out there. I mean the man said that if you are liberal you hate God. He also compared student loans to cancer, said there should not be a minimum wage and so forth. Get the picture? It is not like this is the first time he has put his foot in his mouth, its just this is the first time there was enough outrage and spotlight on them to make him have to “apologize” for it.

Now though the party bosses and talking heads seeing a chance at a Senate seat turn falling from their grasp and possibly even the electoral votes from a state they had locked down that they need to shun and outcast him, for now that is. He stayed in the race and for now at least they are promising not to put any money into his campaign from here on out. Which is fine, but they have no right to overturn the will of the party voters in the primary that was just held. They will try to distance themselves as the election draws near from both Akin and his comments, heck they even have forbade him from coming to Tampa for the convention now. I wonder if they will blame Hurricane Isaac on him as well?

Judge Tom Head

Well outside of Akin who obviously is a bad nut, my bad nut of the month is Lubbock County, TX Judge Tom Head, the epitome of why judges should not be elected. Head stated that if Obama is reelected he foresees civil war because Obama is gonna hand over the country to the United Nations and they are going to go out and try to put down resistance to them and he said him and the sheriff down there are gonna stand their ground in front of their UN vehicles and tell them they ain’t gonna have it. I hear and see this kind of nutbag conspiracy all the time on a pretty daily basis these days so it is not like the judge here is alone in his ideology here. Shoot if Romney though the general election crowd would believe it he would be spouting this off as talking points. I do wonder though now if Judge Head does not bow to pressure to resign, which I don’t foresee him doing, can those who go in front of him as for a mistrial on the grounds the judge is mentally ill?

As we get closer now to convention time, when the Presidential candidates will officially start the race for the White House it is time to look at the landscape that is actually going to determine the outcome of the election. That landscape is the Electoral College, where 270 is the number you need to achieve to win the election. So who has the best shot to win the election? There are certainly at this point in time the certain locked up states for each side, so you can tell from there what ground needs to be made up to get to the magical number.

Let’s take a look at The Rombot’s locked up states and how many electors they hold for him. You might as well chalk up Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia for the Republican nominee. So that is 186 electors in those 22 states that Mitt has in the bag right now.

Now let’s take a look at Obama’s locked up vote. You can count on Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C. for the Democratic nominee at this time. This accounts for 227 electors for Obama in these 18 states and one Federal District that is onboard with the reelection bid.

So that brings us to what is going to determine the election and all the coverage we will continue to see from now until election day, the battleground states. Now some of what is left is more likely to go to one candidate or the other but they are close enough at this point to describe them as where the battle will be waged in this election. There is one state in particular that four electors are with the Republicans already. That state is Nebraska, one of two states that divided their electors by congressional districts. So right now figuring that in Romney’s current number is 190. So going into the battleground states Romney needs to compile at least 80 more electors to win the election. The President on the other hand needs just 43 more electors to get a second term.

So lets look At this battleground with the electoral votes for each state in parentheses. We have the one elector available in Nebraska that I mentioned already, then we have Nevada (6), Colorado (9), Iowa (6), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20), New Hampshire (4), Virginia (13), North Carolina (15) and Florida (29). Obviously with only 43 electors needed to win, the President has the easiest road to get to the victory here, but lets break it down state by state with the current polling info from Real Clear Politics.

Nevada: RCP Average 5/22-7/18 Obama 48.8 Romney 44.3
Colorado RCP Average 6/6-7/13 Obama 46.5 Romney 43.5
Iowa: RCP Average 5/22-7/15 Obama 45.8 Romney 44.5
Ohio: RCP Average 6/19-7/18 Obama 47.3 Romney 43.0
Pennsylvania: RCP Average 6/19-7/23 Obama 47.3 Romney 41.5
New Hampshire: RCP Average 6/20-7/15 Obama 47.3 Romney 44.3
Virginia: RCP Average 6/25-7/17 Obama 46.0 Romney 44.8
North Carolina: RCP Average 6/24-7/18 Romney 47.0 Obama 46.6
Florida: RCP Average 6/19-7/19 Obama 45.8 Romney 44.7

I could not find any real polling data on the Nebraska 2nd District electoral vote up for grabs, but if I were to make a guess it is pretty much a complete toss up. So as you see in the current polling landscape of the battleground, Obama leads in all but one state. The leads are stronger in others but at this point with needing only 43 electoral votes to get the win it is a nice situation to be in. So lets break things down from how I think things will go on the battleground states. I am going to go out on a limb and say that Romney’s pretty much complete lack of support from the latino community not named Marco Rubio that Nevada and its six electors will go to Obama. So that makes it 233-190. Then we have Colorado, I think Obama will win Colorado but it is close, so for argument’s sake here I will put that as well as Iowa, which I also feel Obama will squeak out a win to Romney. That makes the updated tally 233-205. Now it is considered a battleground, but I do not think it really will be, I say chalk up Pennsylvania for Obama. That makes it 253-205.

Now I think Obama will take Virginia and Romney will take North Carolina when all is said and done, so that makes it 266-220. That means Obama is a mere four electors away from wrapping up his reelection bid. You take into consideration that my own previous express sentiments that Obama will win in Colorado and Iowa and he would already have the election wrapped up here with three more battle states still left here to discuss. We will play on for the sake of things with the current count being 266-220. In the end I feel Florida goes to Romney 266-249. So at this point we have Ohio and New Hampshire left and winning just New Hampshire would give Obama the win I think Obama wins there and will win in Ohio as well. I think Obama will take the NE 2nd so one more vote there. So there you have it in my scenario here it is a pretty nice path right now to reelection for President Obama on the Electoral College landscape with a 289-249 victory.

There are also many ways that this things comes down to a tie, and they could be very likely. The outcome of that could bring you President Romney and Vice President Biden. Let’s pray for the best though that it does not need to come down to that, but in my humble opinion that will be the only way that Mittens will become President is that if the House has to appoint him. We will see how things go there still are a few more months left of this seemingly never ending campaign.

Chief Justice John Roberts, author of the majority opinion.

Don’t spike the ball. This is what the Crying Man and his cohorts in Congress focused on leading up to today’s decision by the Supreme court on the Affordable Care Act or more commonly known as Obamacare. They did not want to upset the common folk and possible voters in the upcoming elections by having too joyous of a reaction to what they felt was going to be a Supreme Court ruling in the favor of their ideals. Man, they must have really been blindsided when the ruling came down today in favor of upholding Obamacare, especially when the deciding vote ended up being one of their own. So it has already been a pretty chipper beginning to a day for me, but should I have this good of a feeling. Oh what the hell, screw this I am spiking the ball. IT’S CONSTITUTIONAL.
BITCHES!

Actually that was a tweet this morning from the DNC executive director when the ruling came out, but its sums up my sentiments exactly. A man the Republicans thought they had in the palm of their hand ended up being the deciding vote against them and Kennedy sided with them. Oh the irony. Granted in his opinion on the ruling Chief Justice John Roberts was pretty political with his rhetoric about the President, but did uphold the right of Congress to mandate people having healthcare coverage as it is in ways a tax. I bet Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito are now no longer on speaking terms with the Chief Justice after his ruling. I mean the same Court that brought you the personhood of Corporate America and unlimited secret campaign spending to buy elections, just saved Obamacare. Oh the agony!

The ruling was pretty much a sweep across the board in favor of upholding all of what was before the court. The ability for 26 year olds to be on their parents’ insurance was upheld. The ability for Congress to regulate that people with pre-existing conditions to be able to be covered by insurance was upheld. Most importantly and the most debated part of the decision is that the individual mandate was upheld as a taxing mechanism. Now I do not really like the wording with the ruling there as it just added more fuel to the fire for the illogical right. The only down part in the ruling was that the Medicaid expansion was struck down, but would be upheld if Congress were to take out the clause punishing states by withholding current Medicaid funds if they did not comply with the expansion. I agree that that part should be taken out and if it were not for the Congress that don’t do anything (sorry my kids have been watching Veggietales a bit much lately) it would be able to be remedied quickly.

Well that is about it for this month. Ah what a feeling. I will open up the comments section to discussion on the SCOTUS ruling. I will try to answer comments as soon as I see them. I’d love to see some discussion on this. Certainly a phrase I would never have thought I’d say. Thank you Chief Justice Roberts for making my day and slightly restoring my view of the Supreme Court if only just for one ruling.

Cory Booker at an Obama rally

I am in a state of disbelief.  On Monday the Republican National Comittee publically announced its support for the reelection of President Obama. Now the RNC might not have known what they were doing, it woudn’t be the first time afterall. In effect though, that is what they did with the launching of their”I Stand with Cory” campaign. This was after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker was on Meet the Press and while talking about how he is sick of both sides and negative campaigning and manipulating truths and amongst other things included talking about private equity and Bain Capital. Booker got some fack for his comments from the left, but the RNC rushed to his aid saying that they stood with him.

Now Booker talked about much more than just Bain, but the Republicans must have stuck their heads up their asses and only took it out to hear about the Bain comments and then ran with putting that ad nauseuam into their talking points since. I know it is just weird for them to see someone speaking with an independent mind and not being a mindless Republican drone. Now I can understand where Booker is coming from on being sick of negative camaigning, but on the issue of Bain I think he is dead wrong. I can’t blame him though for throwing a few kind words their way, afterall they did hep him with campaign donations before. He must have been just returning the favor.

Since the RNC’s campaign started Booker has come back on TV and attacked them for the same things he was metioning on Meet the Press and taking the soundbite that peased them and running ads with it for negative campaigning. He also said that he fully supports Obama for his reelection. Now after this did the Repubican Party stop their “I Stand with Cory” campaign? Nope, they doubled down on it. So thank you to the Republican National Committe for ending this election cyce early by coming out in full support of President Obama for his second term. I wonder what Mitt will think?

Only one GOP candidate will reach the finish line.

Well folks if it was already pretty much clear after Rick Santorum decided his cause was not worth it after all and called it quits, the results from Tuesday’s primaries made it resoundingly clear that the General Election has arrived. Yippie! Well not really, for me at least. I am now kind of burnt out and disappointed in the whole thing. Without anyone that matter campaigning against him Romney swept the primaries on Tuesday and made it clear that he will get to that magical number of delegates at some point to claim the nomination officially – something that would have been more difficult had Santorum stayed in the race. Sure he still would have had the most delegates and Santorum was never going to get to that point before the convention either, but that is what made it so entertaining. The convention was going to be actually worth paying attention to, now it will just be the standard rubber stamped coronation of the nominee.

So now its time to move on to the next thing to talk about. Who will Romney choose to be his running mate? It is really to early to tell and tons of names get thrown around on a daily basis, but one thing is abundantly clear is that it will be someone well to the right of Romney. Whoever it is I just want it to get announced soon so we have all the players in the General Election revealed and I can start caring about following things again.

And now for the Bad Nuts of the Month, in no particular order…

Rep. Allen West

Does Allen West want a McCarthy-era witch hunt?

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? Florida Congressman Allen West seems to think many members of the Democratic party in Congress are. Earlier this month at a town hall meeting, West asserted that he has heard that at 78-81 Democrats in Congress are members of the Communist party. 81! Now why does that number sound familiar to me. Oh yeah it’s the same number that the guy he is trying to copy with this insanity, Joseph McCarthy said were loyalty risks in the State Department in 1950. Welcome to the return of McCarthyism! Next thing you know we are going to hear that the master of pointless Congressional hearings, Darrell Issa is going to do a remake of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

It’s the age old tactic of the Republican Party, fear, brought back in its vintage Cold War wrapping. The assertion is quite absurd, but then again so is the Republican Party. Calling anyone who is progressive a Communist is like calling members of the Tea Party a Nazi, a hard core conservative a Fascist or saying that all evangelical Christians wanting to bring about a theocracy. Did West give any names, or say who he heard this from? Of course not. Like most Republicans these days, West doesn’t worry about those troublesome things called facts.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant

This week on a radio interview discussion on the TRAP (Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers) bill he said the following referring to everyone on the left. “Their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb.” Actually if I did have a mission in life it would be to not have vile pieces of trash like you in political office. As far as abortion goes I just support CHOICE. It’s not my choice, but it’s also not my position to put my own choice upon others.

Brian Fischer

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is going berserk over Mitt Romney choosing an openly gay man as his foreign policy and national security spokesman. Stating that “Gay men have hundreds, if not thousands, of random, frequent, and anonymous sexual encounters and that becomes a significant issue when we’re talking about appointing somebody to a post as sensitive as a spokesman for national security and foreign policy” and then going on to correlate this selection with the Secret Service prostitution fiasco and calling for him to fire his spokesman to “contain the collateral damage from this spectacularly misbegotten decision”

With the case of Florida vs. Department of Health and Human Services, the circus came to Washington this week in and outside of the Supreme Court. Now that the arguments are over we will sit back and debate over things ad nausea until the opinion of the court is released, which is not expected until sometime in June. It basically will come down to how Justice Kennedy will decide upon the issue of the individual mandate. It is going to be a 5-4 decision either way, and I am really unsure at this point how things will fall in the end.

On one hand you had Kennedy discussing an analogy of burial insurance on the arguments over the individual mandate. Would you go up to a young person and say that you are going to die one day so you must buy this burial insurance policy from me to cover your expenses. Now I liked this analogy, at least in the fact that it was original, unlike that partisan hack Justice Scalia and his talking points handed broccoli analogy. Then on the other hand, later in his talks Kennedy talked about maybe healthcare being different.

Like I said at this point I have no idea how his vote is going to sway. I do know though that depending on how the majority opinion gets worded and whether they go all Bush v. Gore and state that this cannot be used in any other case, it is going to have a profound effect on many things if it is a 5-4 decision striking down the individual mandate.

Like I said it all depends on how the opinion comes out, but after decades of trying to do so, the Republicans have backed into a way of getting rid of Social Security and Medicare. Based on the Justices’ line of thinking on those obviously voting to get rid of the mandate both Social Security and Medicare can be deemed unconstitutional. What gives the government the right to come to me as a young worker and say you must put side this money for later on in life for you and to pay those older workers currently receiving the benefits of this if I choose not to. Hey I’m young I can do that later, if I really want to. Hell even the Republicans tired old private accounts argument would be unconstitutional. So you are going to force me to put my money into the market? What gives you the right? Then the same applies on to Medicare as well. What gives the Government the right to force me to put money forth for older people’s medical coverage now and mine in the future if I really don’t want to? Under the argument set forth in the Justices’ line of questioning this rational would be the same for these as well.

Another effect that a ruling that strikes down the law would have is disturbing as well. If you don’t like something the opposition party writes into law, have it brought to the court to strike down. Say Mittens or Santorum by some evil joke of God wins the election. A state with liberal control will just bring its argument against the law before the court. It’s a long shot in any circumstance to succeed, but right now it’s a 4-4 split of hard conservative to moderate liberal on the Supreme Court. Then with Kennedy and is usual swing vote there is a shot you can get things done and with this precedent set try and try again will constantly be the partisan fight from now on to get rid of whatever is passed that you don’t like.

Maybe Gingrich is right. Did I just say those words; I am throwing up in my mouth just a little. Anyways, I have been thinking this all day in hearing the arguments on what the Justices felt on different parts of the law if the individual mandate was struck down. We really do need to just arrest these partisan Judges from legislating from the bench. Your job in my opinion is over with you striking down the individual mandate, you don’t have the authority on which legislation is worthy to be kept or not, or what can be salvaged for cost reasons. That is Congress’ job, not the Judicial branch’s

job.

Now that Rick Santorum won his trifecta of Colorado, Minnesota and a non-binding primary in Missouri, the race for the Republican nomination stays heated up and unsettled. However there is one thing that has seemed to return to the forefront, the so-called culture wars. My question is did they really leave? Sure, the Republicans tried to focus on the economy, but without offering any real plans they have returned to their bread and butter, forcing their views upon society. A big government intrusion into your life that they fully support and agree with. The “return of the culture wars might have been brought to the forefront by recent actions with healthcare access and the rise of Santorum in the race, but they have been there the whole time.

After taking over many statehouses this past election cycle on changing the economy, what was the first action of the legislatures in each of these states? Was it something to create jobs or balance budgets? No it was not. It was creating personhood amendments to their constitution to make life defined at conception.

Then you have issues like the recent proposals in Virginia that require anyone seeking to get an abortion to have a medically unneccessary transvaginal ultrasound without the womans consent and against any dissent from her own doctor. Yes Virginia, your state really wants to rape you! Granted now that the national spotlight has shined down on him and more importantly his ambitions to be a Vice Presidential candidate, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has said the law should be amended to require consent. However it does not appear that the GOP in the legislature will consider such an amendment as the Senate has already has said no to such amendment. Going as far to say they would rather not pass the bill than require consent in it. Also there is no word if McDonnell and the GOP would retake up old measures they had in the past of require the investigation of a woman’s moral views and sexual history before an abortion. In the end though if they want to take up this I really do think they should take the other medically unneccessary exam that has been proposed for men. In order to get a Viagra prescription, men must undergo an involuntary rectal prostate exam and cardiac stress test. It brings gender equality into the stupidity and after all if God intended for you to have an erection, wouldn’t you have one without medicinal help?

Then you have the same bill from Virginia now being introduced in committee in Illinois. However, the anti-abortion Democrat (pretty much in name only) has decided that women must be animals or something. The committee he brought the bill before is the Agriculture committee. Mainly because of the conservative makeup of that committee, but I think it is a huge statement on what conservatives really think of women and their issues. It has passed that committee, but will thankfully will likely fail going forward from here.

It’s not just probing vaginas and abortion that the conservatives are getting all fired up for. Now birth control, something an overwhelming number of people in the country use or support is now under attack as well. Granted I get the issues the Catholic Church had with a mandate causing them to pay for something they did not believe in, but with the valid compromise that issue is a moot point. Not to them and conservatives and their new champion Rick Santorum that is 100% opposed to all birth control. It should not be allowed for anyone to have is what they are now clamoring. Now if I was a Jehovah’s witness and I don’t believe in blood transfusions as a matter of principle under my religion, should I deny any of my employees coverage for such healthcare as a matter of my own religious principle? With what the “We are all Catholics now” crowd is shouting at the moment that should be exactly the case.

Then you have a couple of pieces of legislation in my own new state of Tennessee. First you have one law being touted as the “Right to Bully” law which redefines the anti-bullying statute of schools to protect people from it being enforced if the bullying resulted from their own religious or political beliefs. Mainly if you hate gay people because your religion tells you so, then you are free to bully the crap out of them without fear of punishment for your actions. However it can be taken many ways, I have a deep down political hatred of Republicans, so if my kid took up my views and bullied some conservatives kid then heck he is rightfully free to do so under their new proposed law. The other piece of legislation to note here is a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits teachers from teaching about the existence of gay people in K-8. Granted I really don’t know of much that is ever taught in those grades about homosexuality before this law, but I doubt it was even a blip. However with the new law it prohibits the teacher from any discussion about any material inconsistent with natural human reproduction, so you can’t even talk about gay people. Afterall in conservative world they do not exist, they are just all evil fornicating demons.

Speaking of things that do not exist, Santorum’s recent remarks on things have brought back things he has said in the past. He has had some missteps in discussing the theology of Obama. Back in 2008 Santorum said that there is no such thing as a liberal Christian. That the two do not exist together, as you can’t pick and choose which doctrines you choose to follow. So being a liberal and a Christian are not two things that can go together. Well Rick isn’t that what you do on a regular basis? Don’t you yourself pick and choose what parts of scripture you abide by and which you choose not to pretend exist. I am sure I have seen some picture of Santorum with a pork product in his hand and aiming towards his mouth.

As the figment of Rick’s imagination I must be, in being a liberal Christian myself. I take big offense to things like this that Rick and the “real” Christians like his spew out. I can have my own beliefs without thinking I need to force them upon others. Rick, if you actually followed those biblical passages I “pick and choose” the nation would be a much better place. As clearly one of my favorite passages such as Matthew 25 clearly have absolutely no value to a “real” Christian and the conservative movement.

The times, they are a changin’ 

Boy, what a difference a month makes. Going into Iowa we were not quite certain how things were going to go. Would Ron “I know I am not going to get the nomination” Paul’s organization and ground game carry him to a victory? Would Mitt “I am the .006%!” Romney be able to surprise with a win in conservative Iowa? Would Newt “Searching for my fourth wife” Gingrich be able to matter again? Or would the late surge by Rick “I want to ban all forms of contraceptive” Santorum’s late surge help im succeed in Iowa. I would include talk about the others still in the race at the time, but Bachmann, Perry and Huntsman were not going to matter going in anyways and they are all out a month later, so who cares.

Anyways, At the end of a long night it was determined that good ole Mittens got the “victory” by a mere eight votes. If only the 50 or so people that voted for Herman Cain no longer in the race had chosen Santorum instead, Romney would have taken the loss. Oh well. The race then rolled into New Hampshire with a yawn and Romney took an easy victory in a pretty much give in for him audience wise. So after two contests Romney took was eyeying the knockout punch in South Carolina.

We headed into the south and suddenly just as it seemed Santorum was fading away in support despite being the new chosen one of the religious right he got a “boost” by Iowa declaring that it was he and not Romn-bot that had won there. Nevermind that the delegates are not really locked into voting that way right now anyways and that there were some missing votes, but hey they are Republicans when have they cared if an election result looked fishy? Romney was on the defense now. Once up 2-0 in the contests so far he was suddenly 1-1 and a big chance he would drop another in the Palmetto State. With Newt pushing all the right buttons of the conservative southerner he came out and handed Mittens a resounding defeat that he was not expecting. So after the first three contests we went from a non incumbent candidate winning the first two races for the first time in history, to a different candidate winning all three first contests for the first time in history.

Florida on the horizon

As the race heads into Florida it has come to a four man race, but by the debate Monday night it is clearly really only a two person race at this point. Santorum is going to be getting the votes he is right now, but will stick around I am sure just in case Newt does his usual and messes up somewhere along the line so he can take the nomination since it is clear that the electorate does not want Romney and now that the field is thinning numbers wise it can become crystal clear. Paul will be there as well and likely picks up some more delegates in those caucus states his movement and ground game can capitalize on, but just as it was going into Iowa it was clear as day he was not going to be nominated, heck he can’t even imagine what it would be like for him to be President. So you have Newt vs. Romney, The serial adulterer versus The unemployed guy who made $45 million over the last two years and paid around 14% in taxes.

I am looking forward to tonight’s debate in Florida.  While I enjoy debates on NBC that try to have the audience act respectful and professional, I really enjoying when it is on CNN and the moderators allow the candidates to interact with the Republican crowd – with the crowd egging them on and the candidates showing the American people the exact message they stand for. The list is getting long and I am sure it is just going to continue to grow. We will see how it goes going into Tuesday, but right now I put Newt as the favorite to take all of Florida’s reduced number of delegates in the first winner take all contest and send Romney’s candidacy into a tailspin.

The day after the last debate we had the State of the Union address. It was a good speech, had some specifics, while I am optomistic after the speech I’ll still wait and see if anything gets done by a Congress bent on not doing anything that could benifit his status. They did vote unanimously today on a border control issue proposed by departing Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but I do not see anything like that happening on any issue going forth.

Speaking of Giffords departure, it was a quite touching moment, but all I could think was how she is leaving the house with admiration and good will, but the current front leader of the GOP race left there in disgrace. Dammit there I go agreeing with Mittens, oh well that won’t happen on many things, so I guess I am all good.

Bad Nut of the Month

I’ll leave you this month as the race for the person to lose to Obama in November marches on with a very current Bad Nut of the Month. On his trip to Arizona today President Obama was met by Gov. Jan Brewer who invited him to meet with her. He responded by saying that would be fine, but she could depict the meeting accurately this time around.

Brewer evidently took great offense to this as it can be seen that she started to argue and lecture the President, getting in his face and wagging her finger in front of it. While it is kind of trivial on its surface it does represent a greater issue of Brewer and the Republican base in general have no respect at all for this President as a person or the office he holds. And for that, Gov. Jan Brewer you are January 2012’s Bat Nut of the Month!