Moonhowlings

Rick Santorum has a serious problem that has no answer.  He must appeal to the conservative base.  He must strike a chord with the values people.  He needs to appeal to those who are known as the 3 G’s”  God, guns, and gay (anti).  That should not be difficult for Santorum.  His reputation in the U.S. Senate definitely fits the bill as he was very anti-gay rights, pro gun, wanted school vouchers, school prayer and those sorts of things.  He opposed anything having to do with reproductive rights.  He was anti abortion, even the hard cases.  He eschewed contraception and anything that smacked of Title X to include Planned Parenthood. 

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Rick Perry has decided that he was been wrong about abortion.  After watching Mike Huckabee’s video on abortion, he has decided that the government does have a right to force a woman to bear a child that was conceived from rapeand/ or incest.  He was unclear about whether life of the mother should be discarded in favor of the fetus.

 My question is, when is it going to end?   If the new Perry position isn’t extreme enough, perhaps one of the big Ron Paul supporters is.  IN fact, the Ron Paul campaign is doing nothing to distance itself from this YoYo, reported  by outsidethebeltway.com :

Four years ago, the Ron Paul campaign generated controversy by not repudiating the endorsement of the neo-Nazi group Stormfront, but at least back then they didn’t actually promote the fact that they had received the endorsement. This time, though, they seem pretty proud about getting the support of a Nebraska Pastor who has made some pretty vile comments:

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I actually feel sorry for Peter Candland and I will tell you why.  Apparently, his M.O. now is to attack Ann Wheeler for  her statement “I am not an ideologue”.  From the blog he is promoting on his official facebook page:

This is a candidate that does not want to be associated with any political ideology, particularly the Democratic platform.

Let me share why I feel sorry for Mr. Candland.  I have had the privilege of working with people from many different perspectives in Prince William County on various issues, from land use, to power lines, to parks, to Silver Lake, to public school issues, et al.  I have built friendships with people that do not share the exact same political belief system as I do.  You know what, I am proud to call them friends. 

Ann Wheeler is telling Gainesville citizens that she is interested in solving problems based on best solutions not based on whether you have an R or a D by your name.  Isn’t that what we all want, people interested in coming together to solve problems! 

Does Peter Candland believe that Prince William County residents want our local government to emulate the  dysfunction we see happening the National level?  I for one do not.   Is Peter Candland’s message to the Gainesville District one of divisiveness? 

Does Mr. Candland understand that in order for a Democracy to be healthy, we must have differing opinions, and vigorous debate?  Mr. Candland being a Republican is no more unacceptable than Ann Wheeler being a Democrat.

Peter Candland clearly prefers to have a very small and myopic circle of friends and associates, ones that only share his point of view on all issues.

As an elected leader, it is critical that one have the ability and interest to reach out to those  with whom you may have differing opinions in order to find the best solutions.

The much discussed Iowa Marriage Vow Pledge also known as the “Family Leader Pledge”  has the signatures of two presidential hopefuls– Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.   Both candidates are now back-pedaling like crazy because of some controversial language contained in the pledge that appears to sanction slavery. 

According to the Des Moines Register:

The leader of an Iowa conservative organization Monday defended a statement about black children and slavery that it distributed in asking presidential candidates to vow their allegiance to one man/one woman marriage.

At least one presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, condemned the suggestion in the vow’s preamble that black children were better off during slave times. Also Monday, the think tank cited as the basis for the slavery statement denied saying anything like that.

The fact that two candidates, Bachmann and Rick Santorum, quickly signed the 14-point “candidate vow,” then later said they hadn’t read the entire four-page pledge document, highlights the pressure on candidates to prove their social conservative credentials to Iowa voters, politics watchers said.

The Iowa Marriage Vow Pledge can be downloaded here.

Both candidates  claim to have not read the verbiage.  Bachmann  further denounced slavery and argued that the statement was not part of the pledge, only background material. 

“I did not see that language. That was not a part of the vow,” Bachmann told reporters during a campaign stop Monday in Indianola.

Traditional marriage is the bedrock of society, Bachmann said. “Children need a mom and a dad in their life, and that’s why I signed it,” she said.

Slavery was a dark time in American history, and “certainly it would be absurd for anyone to think that a child would be better off raised in slavery than not,” Bachmann said. “That’s a terrible thing to say. I’m pleased that this has been taken care of.”

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The Richmond Federal Reserve is flying the rainbow flag to acknowledge gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender  pride month.  The request was made by PRISM, an advocacy group for the aforementioned groups.   The Fed is a private establishment.  Its first vice president, Sally Green acknowledged:

“We are flying the pride flag as an example of our commitment to the values of acceptance and inclusion.”

Sounds good to me.  Pretty flag, commitment to inclusion.  Gay people make and have money.  What could anyone find wrong?

Enter side-show Bob Marshall, 13th delegate district who claims  that flying the rainbow flag represents

“…a serious deficiency of judgment by your organization, one not limited to social issues.”

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

In a letter to Richmond Fed President Jeffrey M. Lacker, Marshall says the homosexual behavior “celebrated” by the bank “undermines the American economy” and is a class six felony in Virginia.

“The Richmond Fed’s endorsement of costly, anti-social, immoral behavior is rejected by 6,000 years of Western Religious and moral teaching,” writes Marshall, who is among the General Assembly’s most conservative members and has long been outspoken on gay-rights issues. “You want the American people to trust your [judgment] in economic matters when your spokesperson celebrates an attack on public morals?”

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From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama will call this week for a broad plan to raise revenues and cut deficits, as the battle over fiscal issues moves past this weekend’s budget deal and into a broader and more consequential debate over the nation’s long-term fiscal health. 

In a speech to be delivered at a university here on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will call on Congress to join him in writing a multiyear debt-reduction plan that would depart significantly from the one proposed by House Republicans, administration officials said.

The Republican plan includes an overhaul of Medicare and trillions of dollars in tax cuts, while sparing defense spending. Mr. Obama, by contrast, envisions a comprehensive plan that would include tax increases for the richest taxpayers and military spending cuts as well as savings in Medicare and Medicaid, along with changes to Social Security that the administration says will ensure its solvency for decades — much like his fiscal commission recommended in December.

The Radical Republicans will have their targets still, like Planned Parenthood, PBS, NPR and other government subsidized entities and will go after them with a vengeance.  Education will also be targeted.  Mental health and substance abuse programs have already been targeted.  HCR will also have a nuke aimed at it. 

Before the 2012 budget is considered, Congress must raise the debt ceiling.  Failure to do so will ruin any chance of recovery and in all probability will limit our ability to borrow at low interest rates.  Congressmen who try to play political reindeer games with the debt ceiling will pay for it at election time.

It is not known if the President will assume the same mediator role as he did for 2011 budget.  Little is known how the Democrats will respond.  What will be that target from either group?  

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

Rachel Maddow finds herself in the middle of an over-reach by a conservative group.  She has found that she is the subject of a FOIA request at 3 state universities. 

Maddow is quoted in the  Huffington Post:

The latest incarnation of this breed of conservatism weirdly involves this show,” Maddow said. As she described it, a conservative think tank in Michigan called the Mackinac Center submitted a FOIA request seeking any emails from labor professors at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University. The center demanded any email that includes the words “Scott Walker,” “Wisconsin,” “Madison,” and “Maddow.”

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George Harris

Guest poster

From News and Messenger:

Del. Bob Marshall is at it once again. In a recent diatribe before the Virginia General Assembly, Marshall chose to compare scientists doing stem cell research with World War II Nazi “doctors” who performed “experiments” on hapless Holocaust victims.

Marshall’s conduct in this case is reprehensible and to make things even worse, it has been learned that Mr.

Marshall has never been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington to see what really took place. He invokes the Holocaust and Nazism when it fulfills his need for publicity.

Shame on him for using a Nazi comparison to impugn the good works of honest scientists seeking cure to horrible diseases and conditions.

Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration

M-H 

Since when was ‘human life begins at conception’ implanted into the Virginia curriculum? Didn’t see that one coming.

More to the point, Bob ‘Sideshow’ Marshall is shown comparing scientists who conduct and study stem cell research to Nazi war criminals during WWII. Bobby, that is just too cultural warrior for the floor of the General Assembly. No, he didn’t say the words but he painted the picture. You might want to ask your local, state and national legislators if they support Sideshow’s proposed ban on stem cell research.

Stem Cell Information from NIH

Often PBS Television comes into the sights of some Republicans for defunding.  This year is no exception.  Already the speeches are being made with various people holding Kermit and Big Bird puppets.  TV commercials are beginning to pop up on shows on PBS.  What disturbs me is why PBS.  I can’t see what’s not to like.

Most people don’t give a rat’s ass about the politics of PBS, if there are any.  Most people just like NOVA, Antiques Road Show, Masterpiece, and American Experience.  There are numerous kids shows, some entertainment and some educational.  At least 2 or 3 generations grew up on shows like  Sesame Street and the Electric Company.  These shows were on the airwaves.  No cable was needed.  Poor kids got some solid education, even if their parents didn’t have cable or if there were no satellite TV. 

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Indiana Congressman Mike Pence has declared a personal war on Planned Parenthood in hopes of ending abortion.  For the past three legislative sessions,  he has  targeted Planned Parenthood by introducing legislation that would deny Title X funds to any organization providing abortions.  According to Politico:

Rep. Pence remains the darling of social conservatives. Many supported him for the presidential race in 2012, despite the fact he has said he will not run. Pence has not ruled out the possibility of running for Indiana governor.

Alert!  Update: 

Minutes ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood from all federal funding for any purpose whatsoever. That means no funding to Planned Parenthood health centers for birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other essential care.

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The Washington Post:

“Misinformation is dangerous when it metastasizes,” Rabin-Havt says. “Fox is going to lie with impunity. Rush Limbaugh is going to lie. The problem is when a story jumps from Fox News to CNN or the New York Times or The Washington Post. Our job is the head these things off at the pass.”

Rabin-Havt is the Vice President of Media Matters.  The CEO, David Brock, was a conservative before he was a liberal.

Media Matters is the watch dog group that loves to hate Fox News. . 

Fighting Fox is what Media Matters does, relentlessly and obsessively. In the six years since its founding, the watchdog group has evolved from an all-purpose scourge of the conservative media into Fox News Channel’s veritable shadow and constant irritant. From well before sunrise to long after it each day, teams of young researchers sift through video clips and transcripts of programs hosted by Fox stars such as Glenn Beckand Bill O’Reilly to find dubious facts, logical contradictions and poisonous – at least to Media Matters’ liberal sensibilities – rhetoric.

Brock further explains:

The dogged pursuit of Fox, says Media Matters’ founder David Brock, reflects not just the cable network’s popularity among conservatives but its power to set, and perhaps distort, the political agenda. Brock and his staff say they regard Fox as something more than just the televised equivalent of talk radio; they describe it as a de facto political operation, with a leading role in disseminating conservative messages, supporting conservative candidates and mobilizing voters.

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With Boehner’s chief of staff, after the election.

If Nancy Pelosi met with a known terrorist with a criminal record, there would be a hue and cry.  Apparently soon-to -be Speaker John Boehner isn’t being held to the same standard.  According to Right Wing Watch:

And Terry apparently  issued some big demands for Boehner and the Republicans now that they have taken control of the House – the complete end of abortion in America:

We must demand that Republicans who won the House of Representatives hasten the end of legalized child killing in America. Their victory could be a strong step forward for the babies, but it also might be yet another set back after 50,000,000 dead babies.

We must not delude ourselves! The landslide the Republicans enjoyed in the House of Reps was a repudiation of President Obama’s overall agenda; it was about the economy, about jobs, corporate bailouts, the debt, and about his health care bill.

Yet we already see pro-life fundraising letters and petitions heralding this GOP victory as an automatic victory for the babies’ lives. This is simply not true!

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For the past several days I have been seeing and hearing a Gerry Connolly campaign commercial that paints Candidate Keith Fimian as an extremist.  Most campaign ads are background noise to me so it went in one ear and out the other.  Besides, most campaign ads are full of hyperbole and exaggeration.  Then I perked up my ears.  The ad said that Fimian supported the rights of pharmacists to not dispense contraception.  Now THAT IS extremist. 

I have tried researching this allegation, without much luck.  I even went to the  Legatuswebsite.  Fimian is a member of Legatus, which is a Catholic organization, founded by Dominos Pizza Magnet Tom Monaghan for very wealthy Catholic business folks and their spouses.  I didn’t find out much there either.  Maybe it’s me.  However, I haven’t heard anything which disputes this claim.  This makes me nervous. 

There has been somewhat of an uproar the past several years about pharmacists with religious objections being forced to dispense contraception, in particular, the morning after pill.  NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia  has this to say:

In addition to lack of contraceptive equity, Virginia’s so-called “conscience clause” allows pharmacists to decide which prescriptions they will and will not provide. This means that a pharmacist could legally refuse to fill a doctor’s prescription for birth control or stock or distribute emergency contraception. Since when do pharmacists get to step inside the doctor-patient relationship and refuse to fill necessary prescriptions?

 

Conscience Clause?  Where did that come from?  Someone slipped that one by me.  The more I google, the more I unearth and the angrier I get.  This thread needs to be a work in progress.  First of all, anyone who has knowledge of Fimian’s position on allowing pharmacists to cherry pick what prescriptions they will fill, please let us know.  I don’t have a bone to pick with private pharmacies who post, in clear view on their door that they do not sell or dispense contraception.  However, other stores open to the public without disclaimers should really not be involved in type of exclusionary behavior.  I consider it equivalent to the Muslim cab driver who wouldn’t let bottles of liquor in his cab.  Find another job. 

Secondly, what kinds of legislation have been passed that allow ‘conscience clauses and require pharmacist counselling?  How offensive.  If one works for a pharmacy, the job is to fill prescriptions, not chime in with a moral opinion.  If that is an issue, go work for a private religious hospital or pharmacy. 

I would especially welcome and appreciate word from the Fimian campaign that this information is indeed false.  This is the year 2010, in the United States of America.  Griswald was decided 45 years ago.