I Hope Rep. Phil Gingrey Isn't Your Doctor

If you thought that, along with Mitt Romney and Allen West, the GOP rape comments made during the 2012 election cycle would slip into obscurity, never to return, you were so very wrong.

Enter congressman Phil Gingrey. Truthfully, I hadn't heard of this guy until I read about his attempt to "explain" away Todd Akin's comments about rape. You remember the whole "legitimate rape, women's bodies can shut that whole thing down" thing. Congressman Gingrey went before the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce this week to discuss a plethora of topics, but somehow ended up at Akin and Murdock's rape comments. Here's the ironic kicker about Gingrey - he has Dr. in front of his name. Yes, someone though it was smart to give this man a medical degree and license. And worst than that, he's an obstetrician/gynecologist. No, this isn't from The Onion.

To the women of Georgia who might have this guy as their doctor, I highly suggest you seek out someone else who doesn't put politics and ideology above your safety and well being.

Ready for this? Says Dr. Gingrey:

“And in Missouri, Todd Akin … was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, ‘Look, in a legitimate rape situation’ — and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that’s pretty tough and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape. I don’t find anything so horrible about that. But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He’s partly right on that.”

Really? A young girl who claims to have been raped probably was just messing around with her boyfriend, and is now scared and pregnant? THIS MAN IS A DOCTOR! Plus, there's nothing more detrimental to curbing violence against women then to suggest we're always making it up. No wonder congress can't pass the Violence Against Women Act. And no, there is no "partly right" because Akin was fully wrong.

Gingrey goes on to say:

"And I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart."

A medical doctor considers getting women tipsy on wine, medical advice. Remember ladies, this doctor's advice is to just try to ovulate before you're sexually assaulted, so you won't have any rape babies! Makes perfect sense! The fact that Gingrey is even trying to bring these comments back to the forefront is disturbing to say the least. But on the flip side of the coin, it's a great chance to once again remind American's how far behind the times the right-wing is on women's issues. We can't even get congress to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and really how can they? They have congressman running around trying to re-define sexual violence, deny rights to some (remember, Eric Cantor does NOT believe Native American women deserve protection from violence) suggesting that scared teenagers are lying about their assaults, and want to use their medical degree to try and save their side from never winning an election again. Here's some advice from me:

Dear GOP,
It's 2013. Feel free to evolve and join the rest of the sane, free thinking world at any time.

If I were a member of the The Georgia Composite Medical Board, I would be asking some serious questions regarding Dr. Gingrey and whether or not he's able to practice medicine in a safe and productive manner.

Who Knew Missouri Was So Important?

If Missouri truly is the center of the universe, we better get Todd Akin out of there pronto! 

Paul Ryan Need's This Man

Indiana's U.S. Senate seat is up for grab this year, far right extremist Republican candidate Richard Mourdock was in a debate recently and he let his true republican colors come to light!

"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God," Mourdock said. "And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

Luckily for the people of Indiana, there are some sane people in the state, including his opponent Democratic challenger Joe Donnelly.   

Democrats immediately pounced on his comments, and Donnelly -- who is also pro-life but who supports exceptions for rape and incest -- released a statement questioning the notion that God would "intend for rape to happen."

"The God I believe in and the God I know most Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen -- ever," Donnelly said. "What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape.

Hmmm sound eerily similar to the views on rape and abortion of Todd Akin and Paul Ryan!    Let's check in and see what Paul Ryan(R-forcible rape) thinks of Mr. Mourdock, and his views on God Given Rape Gifts:

Republican Insanity

Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, put into video what we brought you yesterday right here at Cog Dis! 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Abortion

Many of our friends on the right like to ignore the abortion debate and call it "distraction". There is a reason for that of course, they have a plan to end abortion and would prefer to "drop that boimb" after they are elected, instead of discuss it while they are attempting to get elected(deja vu?).

While they run from the topic as often as possible, they occasionally let the truth slip.  Lets take a look.

First Mitt Romney has pivoted on abortion more times this week than a small guard caught in the paint:

Speaking to reporters in Ohio today, Mitt Romney emphasized his opposition to abortion after pivoting away from that position in a recent interview.

“I think I’ve said time and again that I’m a pro-life candidate and I’ll be a pro-life president,” Romney said. “The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I’ve indicated that I will reverse the Mexico City position of the president. I will reinstate the Mexico City policy which keeps us from using foreign aid for abortions overseas.”

Speaking to the Des Moines Register editorial board Tuesday, Romney said that “there’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

In that interview, Romney mentioned the Mexico City policy — which would prevent NGOs that receive federal funding from promoting or performing abortions. He explained that the change would be “done by executive order and not by legislation.”(they were for executive orders before they were against them, but that's another story). 

Then of course there is the fact that Mitt would love to appoint more Scalia's to the Supreme Court to allow them overturn "Roe V Wade":

 Romney Said He Would Appoint Supreme Court Justice Who Would “Hopefully Reverse Roe V. Wade.” Romney: “I’m in favor of a pro-life policy. The legislation that relates to abortion which is something that is going to have to be approved by the Supreme Court and the key decisions I’ll take as the president will be number one, stopping funding for Planned Parenthood, re-instituting the Mexico City policy which says our funds can’t be used for abortion around the world and appointing justices to the Supreme Court that will follow the Constitution, hopefully reverse Roe v. Wade, and return to the states, the authority for making law with regards to abortion.”

Then we look at his running mate in the Vice Presidential debate and he could not speak when asked to reassure women that they would not make abortion illegal:

Please do not forget that Paul Ryan (R - Wall St.) also authored a bill with Crazy Todd Akin to redefine rape!   

Finally we let the weasel Reince Priebus weigh in and get smacked down by Soledad O Brien!

If you care about keeping the big government white male republican party out of your uterus, womb and body.  Pay attention, tell your friends and VOTE!!!  

Quote of the Day!

Today's Quote of the Day comes from Missouri republican and Senate hopeful, and very good friend of Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.) Todd Akin.

When asked the best way to contact your congressman:

“I’ll tell you, it sounds sort of self-serving to say it but if you go out and somebody is working on campaigns and you find out that you like them, you think they’re a good person, you go help on their campaign, that gets their attention,” he continued.

“I’m in a three way primary for the U.S. Senate. I’ve gone to people and asked for their support, their help, or their endorsement and some people say yes. They write me a decent check. I remember that… You remember who’s helping you. That’s one way that people get to know Congressmen and Senators.” Todd Akin.

Claire McKaskil is his opponent!   

The Shadows That Loom Over The RNC

So the Republican National Convention goes on like a grotesque calliope, building up with a crescendo for the grand finale on Thursday when Mitt Romney is to give his speech and opening up the flood gates for the din and cacophony coming at us for the next sixty-some days.

Like any staged production, which this convention is, there are a lot of bright lights, special effects and choreographed stunts. But once one looks past the bright lights and past the smoke and the mirrors, and start looking at the things the Republicans don't want you to see, you see that their show is nothing more than an expensive facade. And as any stagehand could tell you, behind those bright lights, there are shadows.

The shadows which loom over the RNC are larger than life and have the Republicans terrified. ;Oh, they would never admit it, but their behaviors give them away.

The first shadows over the RNC came in the form of Hurricane Isaac.

The Republicans gave themselves away on the days leading up to the convention, when there was concern that Tampa might be in the storms path. All one heard was that the Republicans were afraid that the news of the hurricane might upstage their own production. Not one fret was given for the people that might be hurt or killed in the storm, but only on how it would impact them and their agenda. This was the ultimate White Whine.

It turned out that Isaac was the shadow which was cast by George W. Bush and his date from several years ago, Katrina. Ironically, Isaac hit New Orleans and the gulf on the anniversary of Katrina's landfall. And like those seven years ago, the conventioneers echoed Bush by not giving a damn about the victims, but just wanted to keep on partying.

And related to and mingling with George's and Katrina's shadows, there is the shadow of Jim Crow and all the racism he brings with him. Do you think it's mere coincidence that the Republicans don't care about the people in the hurricane's paths, then or now? Let's not forget that these are the same people that are trumpeting their false concern of voter fraud in order to justify their voter suppression.

We have already seen that the Republicans will be playing the race card as one of their major planks, by the behaviors of their nominee and of their party leader. With leadership like that, it's not at all surprising that the rank and file felt that it was appropriate to start throwing nuts at African American camerawoman working for CNN and yelling, "This is the way we feed animals."?

The next shadow, and one of the two biggest ones, is being cast by Todd Akin. Akin, of course, is the buffoon who made the moronic comment about how women can't get pregnant from rape because their bodies automatically stop the fertilization process. It didn't take long for there to be many examples of the misogyny of the right, including their vice-presidential nominee, Paul Ryan.

I found it laughable how the Republicans were taking great pains to show just how much they are not a large groups of misogynists and racists by saying how much they just love women and blacks. They did everything short of uttering the phrase, "Some of my best friends are women and/or blacks." The fact is, if they were really friendly to minorities and to women, they wouldn't have to tell people because their behaviors would reflect that. The way they are over-hyping their inclusiveness only serves to point out that there is none.

It is this over-hyping behavior that pointed out another huge shadow over the convention. In fact, the pieces didn't fall together until today, when the usual suspects inadvertently pointed it out by trying to hide it.

The shadow they were trying to hide belonged to our old friend, John Doe.

The GOP mouthpieces disguised as radio squawkers and bloggers were taking great pains to point out how "popular" Scott Walker was at the convention. Charlie Sykes repeatedly pointed out that Walker got two standing ovations. Every radio personality and/or journalist for the Walker-loving Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and/or blogger has been swooning about the "Cheddarhead" movement which included Walker, Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan.

Like I said, their overextension of Walker's supposed popularity made me wonder what they were trying to keep people from seeing.

That answer came shortly when Sykes attacked Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm, twice even, regarding the John Doe investigation into former Supervisor Johnny Thomas and trying to tie it into Walkergate, the John Doe investigation into Walker, his campaign and his former staffers. This attack was repeated by Jeff Wagner, who only revealed either a gross misunderstanding of the law and/or that he is just a plain, flat out liar.

That's when things started to click together.

First, look at their hype of Walker's supposed popularity and his status as a rising star and rock star of the Republicans.

Walker, as he is fond of repeatedly pointing out, is the only governor in the history of the nation to survive a recall attempt. (We'll discuss the legitimacy of either of his election victories at another time.) He became the darling of the teahadists when he was able to tank the state's economy by removing a large amount of the state's money from circulation and redistributing it among his wealthiest campaign donors. No wonder he's so popular, right?

Yet, despite his alleged popularity, he was given only seven minutes on an off night when everyone's attention was on the keynote speakers of Governor Chris Christie and Ann Romney. Heck, they didn't even announce his appearance until days after the keynote speakers had been named. When Walker was finally announced, it was with a lot of other minor players.

Not exactly the way one would treat a superstar, is it?

By all accounts on the left and right, Walker's speech was pedestrian and barely functional. Many described him as flat and not very inspirational at all. I had heard some opine that it was because he wasn't the center of attention and that he's not much of a team player.

But what if Walker's poor showing was because there was something else occupying his mind and making him worried? And I don't think that something was his failings as a job creator or his failure to reduce the deficit, balance the budget or keep taxes down.

Now, let's not forget that Tim Russell had to get himself a public defender, and it appeared that a plea bargain might be in the works for that case. Could it be that such a deal is imminent or even already made?

I haven't heard or seen anything that would confirm that something else is about to pop in the ongoing Walkergate investigation. But judging by the increased level of worrying by Walker and his supporters and their need to lay the ground work for a defense of Walker by making him seem more popular than his is and libeling the investigation, and the obvious attempts by the Republicans to separate themselves from Walker, it would seem like there is a good chance of something coming down and coming soon.

Now wouldn't that make a lovey Labor Day present?

How Do You Spell Misogynist? R-Y-A-N

My colleagues Jeff and Meg pointed out the ways that Paul Ryan has utter disdain for women. (Meg actually did it twice.)

Now there is a comprehensive list of the misogynistic laws support and/or sponsored by Ryan. The list was compiled by Sandra Fluke, the woman who Rush Limbaugh called a slut and only apologized after enough companies pulled out their advertising money from his show. The list reads thus:

Maybe that’s not surprising: Ryan’s record on women’s issues is so far outside the mainstream that many find it unbelievable.  Here are just a few of the anti-women votes Ryan has cast: 

 • Ryan voted for a bill referred to as the “Let Women Die Bill” because it proposed to allow hospitals to refuse a woman emergency abortion care, even if her life was in immediate danger. Currently, a federally funded hospital is required to provide at least enough care for a patient to be stabilized so that she doesn’t die and can be transferred to another hospital. The bill Ryan voted for meant that hospitals wouldn’t even have had to do that.  

• Ryan co-sponsored a federal personhood bill. That bill declared a fertilized egg that hasn’t even resulted in a pregnancy to be the equivalent of a living person, with all of the rights of federal law. As a result, aspects of in vitro fertilization procedures and some forms of contraception would be criminalized, as would operations to save a woman’s life in the case of dangerous ectopic pregnancies that cannot be carried to term.

• Ryan repeatedly over several years voted against bills to ensure women equal pay for equal work, even voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.  

• Ryan voted to cut off Title X family planning programs that ensure impoverished and low-wage women affordable access to contraception as well as mammograms and cancer-screenings. 

• Ryan’s budget attacks on Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and a broad range of social services (including child care, Head Start, job training, Pell Grants, housing and energy assistance) would disproportionately harm women’s economic wellbeing. That’s because the majority of beneficiaries of these programs are women, due to their longer life spans and greater likelihood of being impoverished. 

• Ryan repeatedly voted over several years to end all funding for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services. Like Susan G. Komen’s defunding, voting to cut off funding of Planned Parenthood would rob women of access to breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, and the other life-saving services Planned Parenthood provides.  By law, federal funding of Planned Parenthood already excludes all abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger. 

• Ryan co-sponsored a bill that would deny many rape victims on Medicaid access to abortion. That bill proposed to cut off access through federally-funded programs for victims who were drugged or threatened, some victims of incest, and victims of statutory rape. 

• Ryan voted repeatedly to prevent our female military service-members from using their own private money to pay for abortion at a military hospital. He also voted for legislation to allow bans on abortion coverage in the new state health-insurance exchanges, even for women paying with their own money.

It's no wonder that he and Todd Akin are such close friends.

Is Paul Ryan Legitimate???

Time to look at the Akin/Ryan/Romney/Abortion ties/fiasco in-depth. Todd Akin started the mess by saying that a woman’s body has a defense mechanism that keeps her from getting pregnant if she was the victim of “legitimate rape”, this only drew outrage because most people have not heard anything else he has said. After Akin said his disgusting comments, the right wing went into full defense mode.

 The problem they ran into, was that the rest of the country had some free time on Sunday afternoon and paid attention to his disgusting statements and were outraged. This led to the right wing quickly changing course and condemning Akin. For the first time in his life, Wisconsin's Junior Senator Ron Johnson took a leadership role. He was one of the first to call for Akin's resignation.

"Todd Akin's statements are reprehensible and inexcusable," said Johnson, who endorsed Akin rival John Brunner in the three-way primary. "Gaining a Republican majority in the US Senate and fixing the huge challenges that face our nation is more important than any one individual's political ambitions. Todd Akin should do the right thing for the nation and step aside today, so Missouri Republicans can put forth a candidate that can win in November."

Senator RoJo was not upset by what Akin said, he was upset that other people were upset. Akin was not hurting women by what he said, Akin was hurting the republican party, and that can not be.
The problem with the outrage was that people started looking at Todd Akin, and when they did they found he was connected to our very own and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan ( R- Wall St.)
WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports


See the problem is, that paul ryan co sponsored a bill with Todd Akin where they "redefined rape" as having to be "Forcible Rape" as the only kind of rape that gets covered under government assistance.

– Redefinition Of Rape: The bill sponsor Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) faced serious backlash after he tried to narrow the definition rape to “forcible rape.” By narrowing the rape and incest exception in the Hyde Amendment, Smith sought to prevent the following situations from consideration: Women who say no but do not physically fight off the perpetrator, women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped, and minors impregnated by adults.

While some people think this was in no way a gaffe, while others felt the need to also weigh in.

Amongst the outrage column, Eve Ensler weighed in, and so did Shauna White, who became pregnant after being raped.

On the whats so bad side, Iowa Representative Steve King, said that maybe you can get pregnant but he has never heard of such a thing and Mike Huckabee, pointed out that "forcible rape has created admiral human beings."



Amongst all of this scrutiny and outrage, then it turns out that while the RMoney/rAYN ticket was "outraged" they actually put Akin's ideas right into their platform!



While the republican party put that exact language in their platform, no one told Reince! More in depth from Rachel Maddow here:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Finally, How long until Senator Johnson and Paul Ryan call for the resignations of Rebecca Kleefisch??

"I think that the comments made by Todd Akin are abhorrent, they are insulting, they are disgusting, reprehensible, unacceptable," said Lt. Gov. Kleefisch.
Protesters like Dunn say that because of House Resolution 5939, a 2010 piece of legislation designed to ban all taxpayer funded abortions, except in cases of what the authors defined as "forcible rape."
The resolution failed and that language was changed to "rape" in 2011, when the bill was re-introduced as HR 3.
But Lt. Gov. Kleefisch differentiated the language in HR 5939 from the language Akin used in his comments.
"Well, I think there is a way to have a more forcible rape, the same way there are different types of assault," said Lt. Gov. Kleefisch.

If I Were A Conspiracy Theorist...

On Tuesday, Paul Ryan was campaigning in Pittsburgh. While there, he committed a grievous act that only goes to show that he is a traitor to Wisconsin (emphasis mine):

Ryan swung a Terrible Towel as he entered the stage and sported it in his back pocket for the remainder of his speech. He spoke on economic growth, creating jobs, the principles of a good leader and “the American Dream.”

And if you needed further proof, maybe you'll believe your own eyes:

Now I could just leave it at simply pointing out how Ryan is a traitor to the Packer Nation, but as with Scott Walker, there is more. There is always more.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would point out that the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers is Ben Roethlisberger.

And if I were a conspiracy theorist, I would point out that Roethlisberger went to school at Miami University in Ohio, as did Paul Ryan.

Then, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd point out that Roethlisberger has been accused of raping women on at least three occasions.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would point out that Ryan is also very close friends with Representative Todd Akins, who made that repulsive and vile comment trying to say that there was legitimate and illegitimate rape.

Indeed, as a conspiracy theorist, I would then point out to the disbelievers that Ryan and Akins had in fact co-wrote a bill designed to redefine rape and personhood.

Of course, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I would then sum up an article by calling Ryan and anti-Wisconsin, anti-woman, misogynistic bastard worried only about money and power than actually doing the proper thing.

But I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so I won't do any of that.

Paul Ryan Loves Women

As long as they are very rich blondes who have family money and do not have their own opinions.  Other than that, not so much!   

Paul Ryan (R Wall St.)'s good friend, Todd Akin gave an interview recently where he showed off his incredible medical knowledge...


Yeap He rally said that!

“People always try to make that one of those things, ‘Oh, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question,” Akin said. “It seems to me, first of all, what I understand from doctors is that’s really where—if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Wait how do we know Akin is good friends with our very own Paul Ryan? They co sponsored a bill together - “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” (Edit note: of course its already illegal for taxpayer money to be used to fund abortions but that is another post). yes if that bill rings a bell, it is because paul ryan helped redefine abortion as you needed to be "forcibly raped" to consider having been raped.

Under H.R. 3, only victims of “forcible rape” would qualify for federally funded abortions. Victims of statutory rape—say, a 13-year-old girl impregnated by a 30-year-old man—would be on their own. So would victims of incest if they’re over 18. And while “forcible rape” isn’t defined in the criminal code, the addition of the adjective seems certain to exclude acts of rape that don’t involve overt violence—say, cases where a woman is drugged or has a limited mental capacity. “It’s basically putting more restrictions on what was defined historically as rape,” says Keenan.

So for those of you scoring at home:

If your a woman in 2012 America under Paul ryan (R - Ayn Rand), you can have access to needed health care services, as long as your rape was legit imate, and you were forcibly raped. Any other kind of rape and your on your own. Of course that is AFTER you have a transvaginal ultrasound forced upon you.

Lets hear it for the small government conservatives!!