Mr. Vila – I so enjoy reading your comments. You have a keen grasp of what is going on in this country and an absolutely spot -on eloquence in getting your thoughts out here for all to see…shame that you’re basically preaching to the choir, as those that should be comprehending what you write will only argue for their side with their limited gray matter and all-consuming prejudice. Run for President Sir – you’d have my vote.

Well, I’m disappointed with the Memo.

Akin made a lot of crazy statement in the St. Louis Fox 2 video interview.

Here’s a few more: Repeal the 17th Amendment. States should be able to decide what votes get counted and he references, of all things, Florida 2000, where Bush/Reagan/Nixon appointees carried out a coup de etat, taking the decision making away from Florida. Regulations and taxes are unnecessary and bad for business.

But the Memo also goofs: The Club for Growth (or as Mike Huckabee termed it, “The Club for Greed”) is not exactly “Manhattan based.” It is a Koch front, along with many others, i.e., Forward America, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Tea Party and a hundred Koch supported propaganda factories which they claim are “think tanks.” Just because David H. Koch’s major domicile is on Park Avenue, they are Kansas boys, born and bred. Their dad, Fred Sr., bankrolled the John Birch Society, which claimed fellow Kansan Eisenhower was a “conscious agent of the communist conspiracy” and “reds” were trying to poison our “precious bodily fluids.” (See Dr. Strangelove)

Akin’s weird notions are not unique. The imagined “protection” from conception as a result of forcible rape is just one of many widely-held delusions they harbor: “Abstinence only” sex education works. Evolution is a satanic plot. The world is only 7,000 years old. Hispanics are sneaking into the country by the millions to steal the identity of white people and elect those who would restore “Aztlan.” There’s no such thing as global warming.

The Kochs are billionaire secularists who find that the fundies are easily affordable conscripted tools to deregulate, disenfranchise, privatize, and absolve from paying all and any taxes. They are, for instance, not specifically anti-education. They attack K-12 because they don’t want to pay property or other taxes to support them, they want to destroy teachers’ unions, they want to resegregate society, but on an economic, rather than an exclusively racial basis.

These purported “constitutionalists” such as Akin (for the 17th Amendment repeal effort, see the case of banker/railroad/mining magnate William A. Clark, who bought himself a US Senate seat in 1899), also want to get rid of or modify other amendments, including the 16th, of course, and parts at least of the 1st, 4th, and 14th.

“You can look it up!”

I expect the National Memo might find the time to do just that.

It seems that the extreme right wing of the Republican Party wants government in our lives and controlling them. When a Republican says that they want smaller government and they want government out of our lives, they are bold facedly lieing. The old saying about politics has changed to: “the Republicans want the rich to get richer and the middle class to be gone”. The facts prove that so why would we want to give these people any power over our lives. I think they are seeking their own form of Sharia law in this country, so we don’t have to worry about the muslims taking over. Head scars for every woman and a vaginal probe ordered by the government! Sure scares me.

Well heeled intellectuals have always found a home in the GOP. William F Buckley was the champion of conservative causes but did so elequently stating why the rich should be praised and railed against the womens movement, kinda a George Will type. The current crop of neanderthals are nothing like the conservatives of old, with their wacky ideas, and their limited grip on reality. The difference is this group was created by cynical 1% ers who have realized that we are not really a lot of smart people once you move away from the coasts and deeper into the heartland, and south. Not all of America has more than a high school education and are easily manipulated by catchy phrases, and simple jargon. They lack the capacity to undersand the complexity of issues so people like Beck, and Rush play to their fears, and create boogey people for the masses to vent their rage on. They have been convinnced to vote against their own interests by this group at Fox and Friends that have recreatd reality so that while every thinking person knows that the 1% are the job out sourcers Fox turns them into the job creators to be revered. Failing to mention of course the jobs are created in China. These people are angry and F&F have taught them that it is the womens movement, Gays, Latinos, Afro Americans that is really pulling their idea of America down. They say even that guy who is in the White house has a muslim name, so now can he be one of us?
The Tea Party was created byDick Armey a shamed former congressman. He was always a reactionary that voted to the extreme right. He never met a regulation that he didn’t like and called Rep Barny Frank, Barney Fag because he was gay. He was a promoter of the super rich since he came from Texas oil people. He fostered an enviornment where extreme prople had a microphone and used them effectively to shut down the debate on Health care. The Tea party is in his image. Wacky people side track debate on important issues by making outlandish claims. It’s all part of the plan of pitting one group against another. It works though. Where else but the tea party can you get a senior citizen to wear a tee shirt that demands that the government keep their hands off my medicare!
Need I say more?

For those spilling hatred towards republicans here – because of 1 person’s stupid comments – I welcome and love the idea of us Americans discussing and exchanging views – no matter what views you may hold, you are able to express it because of the freedom this country offers you; but to live a more fulfilling life by expressing your ideas with others – especially with those you may disagree with……you really have to enrich yourself with the same level of education that democrats like Obama, Biden, Gore, and the rest of them have enjoyed with you taxes. But you don’t need their money to do this; simply spend more time researching and reading on topics that you want to express your opinion on, and then you’ll even the playing field. I’ll leave you with this thought to ask yourselves: “why do democrats always criticize the rich republicans, but fail to tell you that they too are rich; that they too invest money in the same companies the republicans do; Romney is bad because he’s rich? Oh! Then what about Nancy Polouzi, the Kennedys, Al Gore, Obama, Biden? Even worst, at least Romney got rich working in a private business. The democrats I mentioned above have all gotten rich with the payroll checks you have paid them with taxes. Educate – Think – Research yourselves. America will be better for it. Good luck on your journey.

“The greatest threat to the liberal/democratic party is not another republican or conservative, but an educated minority (especially a black or hispanic, the base of the party)”

Good article and so true. The quality of the tea party and rightwing candidates is so lacking. Paul Ryan drafted a bill with Akin and now they all run from Akin’s statements like it is new and out there when the truth is so many believe it. They don’t accept global warming and think like hillbillies. This new ignorant, bigoted, stubborn rightwing coalition of tea party politicians are like a disease on the USA system. Many rightwing fanatics still question if President Obama was born here. They think he is a Muslim while their own candidates are the true loons. The rightwing fanatic politicians want power for big money and the rich and corporate power; they want more loon judges and to own the Supreme Court. We need to fight these zombies and not let them give tax breaks to the filthy rich while taking down the middle class and urinating on the poor.

this is what the GOP does the repubilcans love to put their foot in their mouth now let’s see how many more they will do it , the GOP have foot in mouth Syndrome

wow as if the democrats don’t have loons speaking.

Anyone remember the congressman that was against more troops going to Guam because he thought the island would tip over from the weight.

How about the congressman who put thousands in bags and put them in his freezer, his comments were hilarious.

how about “spread the wealth”

“you didn’t build it”

visiting 57 states.
and the list goes on.

I believe I said this in my sleep and you printed it. Thanks.

Even though I am not at all in Aikins camp, I am uncomfortable with the language used to discredit him. I doesn’t lead to any dialog. The history of a fear of education in many parts of our country and among our Christian fundmentalist neighbors are a root cause. States which continue to underfund education become partners with a fundamentalism which refuses to give science its proper place (as I believe) in understanding how evolution can actually be “The Language of God”. (Title of a book by Francis Collins, Drector of the National Institute of Health) It’s no wonder that people who have little to hope for turn to religion which promises a great life in some future. I believe that any country which gives more than lip service to “feeding the hungry”, “clothing the naked”,”accepting the unacceptable” ,”welcoming the outcast” is not only getting rid of a blight in our country, but doing the will of the founder of Christianity. So in some ways I contend that some portions of fundamentalism border on a heretical Christianit as it fights against funding for the least of our neighbors, many of whom would be recipients of our help.

“All Dark Wizards Come From Slytherin.”–Ronald Bilius Weasely.

They didn’t.

Michele is just as bad, if not worse in that she never stops.

DARWIN PRIZE for all who believe in CREATIONISM !

Seems like we’re living in a Twilight Zone dystopia where fools like this are elected to Congress. There does seem to be a move afoot in the Republican Party that wants to control the most intimate lives of women. Even if they were to get their wish and pass a “personhood” bill, just how would they enforce. Chain unwilling women up in egg hatcheries for 9 months until they gave birth to an unwanted child? It is indeed a nightmare to think that this is the face of one of our national parties.

I know Republicans have their share of less than top notch politicians, but the Democrats have had their fair share as well. I can’t say that there are any outstanding ones on either side of the aisle. I can’t get myself to trust any of them any more. No matter what one says, the opposite political party says they are lying. The electorate has become unable to determine the truth any longer; even the media (both print and television) has become so biased that one can no longer believe what is written in a newspaper or magazine or what’s said on the television.

It is a sorry state that we are in right now, and I believe that all these “PACs” have made the situation even worse. Shame on the Supreme Court for ruling that they can exist with unlimited money to spend as they see fit for or against candidates or for forcing their own views down our throats.

The overwhelming shock of the Akin comment is not it’s sexism, but it’s incredible ignorance of simple fact. As your article implies, ignorance, is indeed, the great hope of the
Republican party, and it’s absurd subsidiary, the Tea Party.
That Mitt Romney, himself no intellectual heavy weight (unlike our President) should be running within 20% of Barack Obama speaks ill for our country’s future, especially considering that the smartest President in 100 years will almost certainly face another 4 years of Republican obstructionism in the House.
That the American Middle Class should vote itself into servitude to Wall Street, Big Pharma,
and the Burgeoning Health Care Profit Machine is a fact of history unparalleled since the
free election of Adolf Hitler, by the most sophisticated electorate in the world at the time.

What the hell are you talking about?? Do you or do you not go along with Akins remark, who, by the way, is echoing Ryans thoughts that he just won’t say out loud!

EL – well said!

Jay Biz – I don’t care who started the tea party! The fact remains that what started out to be maybe a good thing has morphed to something unrecognizable! They have lost their original intent and purpose! Power corrupts!!

hey berry opps my bad. barry have you look in the mirror

>Yet those same leaders insist they were shocked – yes, shocked and appalled – by Akin’s “legitimate rape” utterance, as if other Republican figures don’t blurt bizarre, nonsensical, and dumb comments

They insist that they were shocked just enough to go on and complain that any Democrat or liberal who dwells on the outrage is a particularly low sort of opportunist.

They might have a point if the statement were a moment of random gibberish. But this one is entirely consistent with the extreme opposition to abortion touted by many Republicans, including Romney’s VP pick, and written into the platform. If such loony ideas are behind the proposed policies even implicitly, they need to be exposed for what they are. If they are not behind the proposed policies, then let’s hear some better ones.

I still say you can’t fix idiots.