Sunday, October 10, 2010

The View From The Deck - Week Ending 10/10/10

The "Bear Your Rapist's Baby Caucus" currently consists of five teabagging Republican nominees for the senate, but according to Raw Story, at least 78 GOP candidates for the House would qualify for this extreme voting bloc as well. The GOP has always pandered to the right-wing base by promising to strip women of the right to control their own bodies. In the interest of not alienating sane people though, many Republican lawmakers make an exception in cases of incest and rape, and when a mother's life is in danger. Here are five freedom lovers who think they should get to decide what a rape victim does with her body:

1. Rand Paul (Kentucky) - Believes the federal government should have the power and the duty to intrude on women's reproductive choices. I thought libertarians were supposed to be small government, fiscal conservatives, but socially liberal?
2. Christine O'Donnell (Delaware) - Too much nuttiness to list with this one.
3. Sharron Angle (Nevada) - A quote: "If dealt a lemon, make lemonade." WTF!!!
4. Ken Buck (Colorado) - Also supports a Colorado amendment that would bestow fertilized eggs with “personhood” status, essentially outlawing not just abortion but many contraceptives like the IUD and the birth control pill.  Because Colorado needs more unintended kids?
5. Joe Miller (Alaska) - Unequivocally pro-life, including cases of rape or incest, but supports death penalty.  How does that actually make any sense?
Bottom line, if you don't believe in abortion, don't get one. Let other women make that choice. This has been going on for at least 2010 years, but has only been allowed in a controlled environment in our country for 37 years. If a woman really needs to terminate the pregnancy, do you really want to see wire coat hangers come back in fashion?

Gene Cranick, a rural homeowner in Obion County, Tennessee who hadn’t paid the $75 for the subscription fire protection service offered to the county’s rural residents got to watch his local fire department watch his house burn to the ground...literally.  Firefighters came to the scene and just stood there, with their equipment on the trucks, while Cranick’s house with 3 dogs and a cat inside burned to the ground. According to the local NBC TV affiliate, Cranick said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told no. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning. Thanks to 30 years of right-wing demagoguery about the evils of “collectivism” and the treachery of “big government” we’re getting a peek at a grim nightmare that may be in our not-too-distant future if the teabaggers really get a foothold in our government.  It’s a picture of a society in which “rugged individualism” run amok means every man for himself. This law abiding, tax paying citizen should've been afforded the basics --- like fire and police protection with no questions asked. Is this really the America that our founders and sane-thinking individuals pictured for us?

MSNBC, which has become the favorite news channel of cable-loving lefty's thanks to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, is finally getting to declare itself the progressive antidote to Fox. With the new slogan, “Lean Forward” and new promotional videos directed by Spike Lee, the news network is branding itself as the spot for progressive, forward-thinking viewers. And by extension it’s branding its competition–Fox News–as being left in the dust, looking backwards. MSNBC has shot past CNN in key timeslots, but public awareness of the network is lagging behind its rivals. The new campaign is a “coming-out of sorts” following the example of Fox News, its ideological competition, by marketing to a specific niche. MSNBC’s left leaning niche began growing with viewers tuning in to hear discontent from Olbermann and to a lesser extent, Chris Matthews (who supported the invasion initially) over the war in Iraq, but was solidified when Maddow, a popular guest on the channel, got her own show in the fall of 2008. “It’s an umbrella that’s pretty wide, but that does have a progressive sensibility,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC told the Times of his audience. “We’re confident. We’re strong. Let’s not live in the past, let’s not live by fear.” In addition to Maddow and Olbermann, MSNBC hosts Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell round up the progressive-friendly lineup.  In addition to the new TV ads which will run on other NBC Universal stations starting this week, the network will run a print campaign for buses, kiosks, and both web and online publications targeted towards potential viewers. All I can say is, it's about time!