Debunking GOP Talking Points

You know how Republicans say that President Obama has decreased our drilling.  They're wrong!  WRONG!  The U.S.A. is now exporting oil.

Chris Hayes of MSNBC found this little graph at the Energy Information Agency that shows the truth---(Rachel Maddow mentioned it.):

The Right is Wrong

* Though Karl Rove might have selective memory, he has forgotten that President George W. Bush had to issue an apology in 2008 (see WashingtonExaminer).

*  Oh.  According to several news reports, Republican Josh Mandel announced his intent to run for the Senate (see Cleveland).  Gee.  I thought everyone already knew that he was running for the Senate since he has hardly been at his job as Ohio Treasurer and has traveled from one end of the country to the other collecting campaign contributions.  The guy has been running for the Senate since a few weeks after he took office as Ohio Treasurer!!!!!  Why waste people's time with an uncessary announcement?

*  Did you know that Republican Rep. Steve Stivers (OH-15th) voted to defund Planned Parenthood?  Steve Stivers is another Republican who has gotten involved in a woman's private business.  The Big OH Blog:

...During his tenure as a state senator, Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) was a moderate Republican who expressed support for the preventive health care services offered by Planned Parenthood. As a newly-elected member of the U.S. Congress, one of his first votes was to defund Planned Parenthood (Feb. 18, 2011). Congressman Stivers claims to understand the important preventive health care services that Planned Parenthood provides to an uninsured and underinsured population; but, has he turned his back on the women and teens who rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, annual exams, and life-saving cancer screenings?...

Amazing. Republicans want to do all they can to stop poor women from having health screenings. A recent article in the Plain Dealer shows that nearly 100,000 poor women in Ohio go to Planned Parenthood because they provide  ".... lifesaving services such as cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, sex education and counseling...."  Do Republicans like Stivers just want poor women to die?

Beware of the Romney Tax Plan

Willard Mitt Romney is promising major tax cuts across the board, if he is elected President.  Think about it.  Isn't that how we have a deficit today----because of the Bush tax cuts?

Here are a few opinions on the Romney tax plan:

Businessweek:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax proposal would add $600 billion to the U.S. budget deficit in 2015, according to a study released today by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington....

....The Tax Policy Center’s study doesn’t take into account a $1.2 trillion reduction in spending scheduled to take effect in 2013. Those savings won’t prevent Romney’s proposal from increasing the deficit, Williams said. He said the $600 billion revenue reduction under Romney’s proposal would happen in 2015 while the $1.2 trillion spending cut will be spread out over a decade.

“This goes in the wrong direction,” Williams said. “It still worsens the deficit situation.”

Those Republicans who complain about the deficit probably haven't taken a good look at Romney's tax plan.

Here is another view.

Reuters:

(Romney)....would also raise taxes on poor families with children at home and those going to college. Romney does this by reducing benefits from the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit and by ending the American Opportunity tax credit for college education.

Without these tax breaks, the poorest fifth of taxpayers would pay $157 more in taxes in 2015 than under current policy, the Tax Policy Center says in its analysis of Romney’s plan. The second poorest group would pay $82 more, according to the center, whose past work has been praised by Republicans and Democrats alike.

While Romney would make these two groups — the poorest 125 million Americans — pay higher taxes, the top 60 percent all would get tax cuts. The top tenth of one percent would save, on average, $464,000 a year, the Tax Policy Center’s analysis says....

Romney's plan helps the top 1% ----those that are like himself. As Romney said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor...." His tax plan proves it.

Signs?

* People are in shock following the shootings at Chardon High School, in Ohio.  Two students have died.  The atmosphere in schools today is not even close to what it was in the '50's, '60's, and '70's.  Despite the special training that teachers and students receive, violence still happens in our schools. The only way to stop violence at school is to keep up our vigilance. Students and teachers need to talk to each other.  Parents need to talk with their children.  Keep those lines of communication open.

It doesn't help that Gov. John Kasich's solutions to problems tend to be all show and no action.  Plunderbund:

John Kasich gave a speech at the Highway Patrol Academy announcing a couple of law enforcement initiatives.  The Dispatch obliged with a positive headline:  “State takes aim at drug trafficking.”

According to a longer article in the Dispatch, Kasich is pushing two new law enforcement initiatives:  (1) a new law making it a felony to own a vehicle with concealed compartments; and (2) “severe warning signs” on highways to deter drug dealers.....

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Warning signs as a deterrent?  Really.  When Kasich's budget cut funding to local cities, counties, and schools, firefighters, police, and teachers lost jobs.  Providing funding for the communities and schools would lower crime, and signs will not.

>>>>   What signs has Josh Mandel used to show citizens he hates his job?   Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel continues to spend his time and energy working on his campaign for Senate, even while seeming to be avoiding his day job as Treasurer  With his 14 missed meetings of the Ohio Board of Deposit, citizens are worried that the state monies are not being guarded.  Mandel's lackadaisical attitude about the duties of his job are making lots of citizens worried.

To add more to Mandel's lack of focus, we have evidence that Mandel will be out of state next week and in NYC:

Upcoming events:
Maverick PAC 

Maverick PAC New York

• Breakfast with Josh Mandel

• Monday/
• March 5th/
• 7:30 AM

• Details & RSVP

Does Mandel go to work on Mondays???? I'm just asking!

Republicans Ruining Ohio

Example No. 752:  Ohio Republicans are doing nothing to protect women but continue their war against women.

State Sen. Kris Jordan, the man at the center of his wife's 911 call she made to report domestic violence, now is going after Planned Parenthood.

Here is a reminder about Kris Jordan from the (7/20/1011) Dispatch:

The wife of state Sen. Kris Jordan called 911 after a domestic-violence incident at their home near Powell last week.

Delaware County Recorder Melissa Jordan, 31, called 911 just before 11p.m. on July 11, at first hanging up after reaching a dispatcher. When the dispatcher called back, Mrs. Jordan said breathlessly, "Just, please, get somebody here. ... My husband, please...."

....Mrs. Jordan told the dispatcher that there were guns in the home and that one had been taken from its usual spot but was in a separate room....

The good people over at Plunderbund have quite a lot about Kris Jordan, including his lies about the purpose of the bill (see Plunderbund for all the details):

....After being called to his house in response to a frantic and distressful 911 call in which Jordan’s wife fears for her life and reveals Kris was pushing her around and threatening her with a gun, Jordan told police nothing had really happened and his wife just “got a little upset. Girls do that.”

.....Kris Jordan voted against Domestic Violence legislation. Kris Jordan was the ONLY legislator in Ohio to vote against The Jessica Logan Act, HB 155, a bill designed to protect kids from bullying and named after a young girl who took her own life in response to cyber bullying. And Kris Jordan is now sponsoring a bill with the sole purpose of defunding one of the largest providers of health care for low- to moderate-income women in Ohio.

It’s important to note that less than 3% of the funding Planned Parenthood receives goes to abortion services. And NONE of the money it receives from the state can legally be used for abortion services.....

If Kris Jordan and his other Republican legislators have their way, women in Ohio that cannot afford pap smears, physical exams, screenings, etc., will just go without. Do you think that will make a bully like Republican State Sen. Kris Jordan happy?


Here are some contact numbers/email for Kris Jordan:  
    Phone: (614) 466-8086      Email: SD19@senate.state.oh.us
You can let him know how you feel about his latest attack on women.

How many Cadillacs do you have?

*** In a speech given at the stadium used by the Detroit Lions, Republican candidate for President, Mitt Romney spoke before a small, meager, nearly microscopic crowd.

Think Progress reported "....Romney’s 1,200 person crowd in the 65,000-seat stadium..." was a disaster. As if the small crowd wasn't enough, Mitt Romney made a huge gaffe.

Washington Post:

Addressing the Detroit Economic Club Friday afternoon, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) reprised his familiar line that “the trees are the right height” and “the streets are just right” in his home state.

But he also made another statement that could draw him some unwanted attention: he told the crowd that his wife, Ann Romney, drives “a couple of Cadillacs.”

If you needed another example of how out of touch and a lack of a message, you have it here. How many times can you talk about trees?  With the number of people out of work, Romney has to bring up "a couple of Cadillacs." Add the Cadillacs to his $10,000 bet with Rick Perry, and you have a guy clearly out of touch with the country.

My husband and I have never owned a Cadillac in our almost 38 years of marriage.  As a voter, I find it very difficult to relate to anything that Romney talks about or has addressed in any public statements.

Something that candidate Barack Obama said in 2008 made me realize that he understood what both my husband and I had been through.  In an interview with MTV, Barack Obama revealed that both he and Michelle had taken out student loans for college, and then paid them back.  My husband and I both had student loans which we successfully paid off.  It wasn't easy, but we did it. Obama understands what students and parents face when they have to borrow and then pay back those huge sums of money. 

Mitt Romney just doesn't seem to "get it" about average working families, women, college students, cars, autoworkers, the poor, the unemployed, or anyone else. 

Hot Topic Now?

Sen. Marco Rubio Republican of Florida is supposedly another hot prospect for a GOP vice president pick.  Rubio's politics is far to the right.

There are some new developments about Republican Rubio from  ABC News:

....The young tea party hero most likely on Mitt Romney’s short list of potential running mates was baptized into the Mormon church when he was 8 and “remained active in the faith for a number of years,” attending LDS youth groups and walking to church most Sundays because his mother didn’t drive, the Internet meme and news site BuzzFeed reports.

Rubio left Mormonism to become a Catholic “a few years later,” and he got his first Communion when he was 13, in 1984, the Florida senator’s spokesman told the website....

....BuzzFeed says that its questions to Rubio’s aides about his religion “appear to have sent them into frantic damage-control mode.” The Miami Herald published a blog mentioning Rubio’s Mormon roots just before Rubio’s spokesman called the website to confirm the story. The spokesman said Rubio plans to write about his Mormon faith in a book.

However, an article from the New York Times (Nov. 26, 2010) has something a little different:

Marco Rubio, the charismatic senator-elect from Florida, is in many ways similar to other Cuban-American politicians from his home state: conservative, Republican and a “practicing and devout Roman Catholic,” in the words of his spokesman, one who “regularly attends Catholic Mass” and “was baptized, confirmed and married in the Roman Catholic Church.” 

But while Mr. Rubio, 39, presented himself on his Florida Statehouse Web site and in interviews as a Roman Catholic, bloggers and journalists have noted since his election that he regularly worships at an evangelical megachurch whose theology is plainly at odds with Catholic teaching. 

For much of the last decade, Mr. Rubio has attended Christ Fellowship with his wife and children. He “comes very regularly to worship service” at the church’s Palmetto Bay campus, said Eric Geiger, the executive pastor. According to Mr. Rubio’s campaign Web site, he contributed almost $50,000 to Christ Fellowship from 2005 to 2008.....

Jumping from Mormonism to Catholicism to Christ Fellowship Church is a little strange.  Does he participate in communion in the Fellowship Church?  Catholic Church leaders would frown on that (see answer 2 @CatholicDoors).

Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill that might make most working woman think twice about voting for him.

TPM:

Legislation introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to reverse the Obama administration’s birth control rule would effectively permit any employer to deny contraception coverage in their employee health plans, critics note.

“Any employer could deny birth control coverage under Rubio’s bill and all the employer would have to do is say it’s for a religious reason,” said Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the liberal Center for American Progress. “There is no test to prove eligibility. It’s a loophole you could drive a truck through.”

The Rubio bill, The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, comes in response to a Catholic firestorm over the fact that the administration’s exemption on its birth control rule does not include religious hospitals and universities along with churches. But this bill appears to go far beyond that, permitting any employer to claim the religious exemption without a criteria.....

I guess it doesn't matter to Republican bozos that 99% of all American women have used birth control at one time, and 98% of Catholic women have used birth control. 


Would Romney pick Rubio as a running mate? We should just let the GOP battle it out.

Virginia on My Mind

I can't stand looking at the Republican candidates. They make me ill.

* Virginia has changed the abortion bill they had written from an invasive trans-vaginal ultrasound to a non-invasive ultrasound.  Either way, the Republican dominated legislature in Virginia is still trying to humiliate women. Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been actively campaigning for a role as a Republican vice presidential candidate, probably got his panties knotted up because of the voices of outrage he heard from across the country. 

>>>>  Some students have a petition drive started to take back the invitation for Gov. McDonnell to speak at their graduation ceremonies.
DailyPress:

Christopher Newport University's announcement Wednesday that Gov. Bob McDonnell is this year's graduation speaker sparked petitions to disinvite him within hours of the news.

Student-led petitions were launched on Facebook and on Change.org, both titled "Christopher Newport University: Prevent Gov. Bob McDonnell from speaking at Commencement." Graduation is May 12.....

*** The Ohio GOP feud continues, and this time contributors to the party are getting involved.
Dispatch:

The intraparty feud splitting Ohio Republicans between those loyal to party Chairman Kevin DeWine and those backing Gov. John Kasich might have another prominent player: Secretary of State Jon Husted.

Husted, who is close to DeWine but has avoided criticizing Kasich in the fight for control of the party, participated in a “confidential” meeting called by a Dayton-area Republican donor on Feb. 7 — the same day as Kasich’s State of the State address in Steubenville.

Richard Chernesky, the attorney and Republican donor who called the meeting in Dayton, said in an email to “Eagles Forum” participants that their “support and contributions in the past to Jon Husted and Kevin DeWine helped them to achieve the offices they now hold and to position them for greater service in the future.” 

Although Husted might not mention his political plans for higher office, rumors have him hoping to get the job as governor in the future.

GOP VP Picks???

There seems to be lots of questions about the possible Republican vice president nominees.
Some names on a short list include Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Gov. Chris Christie of Jersey. 

McDonnell and his Republican Party of Virginia are promoting a forced trans-vaginal ultrasound procedure for women who want abortions. This procedure forced upon a woman would be tantamount to rape.   McDonnell has promoted the Confederacy, is against gay couples adopting children, wrote in his college thesis in which "...he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples....." (see Washington Post).

Rubio has several problems.  He claims to be a Catholic, but attends a Christian evangelical church (see Renewamerica). Secondly, Rubio has provided misleading background on how his parents left Cuba (see Miamiherald).  Rubio also wants to allow employers to exempt themselves from offering their women employees certain health care services if they so desire (see HuffPost). People just want the truth, and not different stories depending on his audience.

Gov. Chris Christie is another name that has been heard in the public arena. Chris Christie is a bully. He has degraded public school teachers, voiced his opposition for civil rights for gays, used a state helicopter for his private use, has made drastic cuts to education, but now wants tax cuts for the wealthy (see NJ.com). Christie's health problems are a major concern.

Of course, there are other Republicans that might be chosen as the VP candidate.  These mentioned above have some problems which relate to women, education, and civil rights. Are there any Republicans that care about the health concerns of women, civil rights for everyone, and funding public education?

Better Spent Elsewhere

  If you had an extra $100 million that you didn't need, what would you do with it? I have a few ideas what I'd do, but apparently some people need some guidance.

Forbes:

Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he and his wife began funneling $11 million, with another $10 million injection widely expected, into the former speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich.”

Adelson, the 78-year-old CEO of casino giant Las Vegas Sands,  certainly can afford to: With a net worth of roughly $25 billion, that $11 million, which jolted Gingrich’s flatlining presidential bid back to life, equates to 0.044% of his fortune. For someone with a $1 million net worth, the equivalent would be $440, or a two-night stay at Adelson’s Venetian casino. Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice....

Can you believe that $100 million would be wasted on a buffoon like Newt Gingrich???? Adelson has the right to do whatever he wishes with his money, but instead of giving it to a person, wouldn't it be better to give it to------

- a food bank that benefits unemployed families.
- the surviving families of our American heroes.
- building homes for the homeless in this country.
- helping the elderly.
- supporting scholarships for gifted students.
- helping a community like Joplin, Missouri to rebuild their schools and hospitals.
- starting a job training center for unemployed, unskilled young people.

Mr. Adelson needs some help.

Republicans = Neanderthals

The more that the Republican presidential candidates talk, the more they keep distancing themselves from the views of the typical American woman.  Rick Santorum wants to take funding away from elementary and secondary schools. He'd prefer that children be homeschooled.  (This is just another way for women to stay home. Without having access to birth control, women would once again be having babies every year.) Take a look at the latest bit of idiocy from Rick Santorum.

RawStory:

...The former Pennsylvania senators had told supporters on Saturday that the Affordable Care Act just created the requirement “because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”

“You sound like you’re saying the purpose of prenatal care is to cause to have people to have abortions, to get more abortions in this country,” CBS host Bob Schieffer told Santorum on Sunday. “I think any number of people would say that’s not the purpose at all.”

“That’s simply not true,” Santorum replied. “The bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero, and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions.” 

First, Rick Santorum is not a doctor, and not even a scientist.  He is just pulling another opinion out of his a** and trying to frame it as a fact.

Secondly, Santorum's own personal anecdote doesn't qualify as a scientific fact.

This is from NIH (the National Institute of Health):

Prenatal testing provides information about your baby's health before he or she is born. Some routine tests during pregnancy also check on your health. At your fist prenatal visit, your healthcare provider will test for a number of things, including problems with your blood, signs of infections, and whether you are immune to rubella (German measles) and chickenpox.

Throughout your pregnancy, your healthcare provider may suggest a number of other tests, too. Some tests are suggested for all women, such as screenings for gestational diabetes, Down syndrome, and HIV. Other tests might be offered based on your:

• Age
• Personal or family health history
• Ethnic background
• Results of routine tests...

Some women might be experiencing all the signs of a pregnancy, but might actually have cysts, tumors, or other problems. There are hundreds of reason why a woman might need pre-natal testing.  

Santorum, and the rest of the conservative Republicans that want to deny women health care, which includes birth control, exams, testing, screenings, etc., are determined to set women's health back several hundred years.  Rep. Darrell Issa and his circus of a hearing last week on women's birth control was a waste of time and money because you cannot discuss birth control when women are not even testifying!!!!!!! 

If you are looking for a brighter future for yourself and your children, you might as well take your gaze off of the Republican candidates. Because the Republicans are unable to provide any new solutions for our country's problems, they are waging a culture war. The GOP has become the party of white men that want to have power over women and minorities while their rich buddies get tax cuts.

If the Republicans are so interested in personal freedom, why are they against the rights and freedoms of women?  Women, we need to stick together and fight off the Republican Neanderthal agenda. 

Mitt Romney and the Trees in Michigan

* Does Newt Gingrich speak for all Catholics?  I don't think so.

Does Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and his all male panel of witnesses speak for women on contraceptive issues?  NO!

What do the Republicans hope to gain by bashing women and trying to limit access to birth control?

*  Am I the only one who thinks that Mitt Romney has been showing as much passion as a rock in his campaign?  He might be a very smart man, but his lack of empathy for the poor, the disenfranchised, and others just would not make him an interesting candidate.  Romney's attacks on union members, especially in Michigan, shows he is uninterested in those people and places he visits.  Most of all, Romney's dull, unorganized political speeches are uninspiring and lack details.  He thinks he should get the Republican nomination just because it is his turn. 

Mitt Romney likes trees. (You Tube)


****  N.J. Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would permit gay marriage in the state (see Businessweek).