The Extremists Behind the GOP's War on Women

[lakhota]

The Christian Right Extremists Behind the GOP's War on Women

Religious zealotry plays an equal if not more significant role in Tea Party politics than its obsession with budget deficits and government spending.

Last fall, when then-Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida aired a campaign ad calling his Republican opponent Daniel Webster "Taliban Dan," a collective, dismissive groan rumbled from the political commentariat. "Has Alan Grayson gone too far?" pondered Politico. But the question, despite the ad's shortcomings, should have been: Is Dan Webster, an evangelical Christian and staunch social conservative, too radical for the United States Congress?

Whatever the wisdom of using the term "Taliban Dan," Grayson was onto something that should have, if properly examined, provided clues to the Republican-controlled Congress' fixation with cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood. That such a question doesn't get asked is a function of how Congress has already gone too far -- and not in Grayson's direction. The Webster campaign should have given ample evidence that the Tea Party was full of religious zealots bent on undermining the rights of women. By failing to fully interrogate so-called social conservatism and understand its religious motivations, the press and pundits continue to provide cover for candidates with an extreme agenda, which they're far from finished carrying out.

Despite how commonly November's elections were cast as the Tea Party's first electoral victory, they actually represented the dominance not just of Christian-right activists in the Republican base but of Christian-right candidates. Religious zealotry plays an equal if not more significant role in Tea Party politics than its obsession with budget deficits and government spending. After all, an October 2010 survey found that more than 80 percent of Tea Party activists identified as Christian, and 57 percent of those "also consider themselves part of the conservative Christian movement."

Much More: www.alternet.org/teaparty/150758/the_christian_right_extremists_behind_the_gop%27s_war_on_women/?page=entire

This article is seriously scary...

[steff]

This message has been deleted.

[Deleted]

GEE, Lak-- didn't you just post that on the open abortion thread???

[lakhota]

May 5, 2011 23:22:23 GMT -5 @krickitt said:

GEE, Lak-- didn't you just post that on the open abortion thread???

Yes, I did, then I deleted it when I felt it was deserving of a thread.

[Deleted]

You must not have your own personal moderator like some of us do. That thread got a bit hot for you, huh?

[lakhota]

Last fall, when then-Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida aired a campaign ad calling his Republican opponent Daniel Webster "Taliban Dan," a collective, dismissive groan rumbled from the political commentariat. "Has Alan Grayson gone too far?" pondered Politico. But the question, despite the ad's shortcomings, should have been: Is Dan Webster, an evangelical Christian and staunch social conservative, too radical for the United States Congress?

"Taliban Dan" is a label that makes perfect sense to me. It was crystal clear what was coming when Tea Party Republicans took control of the House. What is not yet crystal clear to me is whether a majority of voters will be ready to eject these Puritan zealots in the 2012 elections. I remain hopeful...

[steff]

This message has been deleted.

[lakhota]

Theocratic Tea Party Out of the Closet

atheism.about.com/b/2010/09/04/theocratic-tea-party-out-of-the-closet.htm

[lakhota]

The Christian Taliban

During the Taliban rule of Afghanistan the world got a good look at what happens when religious zealots gain control of a government. Television images of women being beaten forced to wear burkas and banned from schools and the workplace helped build strong public support for the President's decision to invade Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.

But even as President George W. Bush denounced the brutal Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul, he was quietly laying the foundations for his own fundamentalist regime at home. For the first time far right Christian fundamentalists had one of their own in the White House and the opportunity to begin rolling back decades of health and family planning programs they saw as un-Christian, if not downright sinful.

Since 2001 dozens of far-right Christian fundamentalists have been quietly installed in key positions within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration and on commissions and advisory committees where they have made serious progress. Three years later this administration has established one of the most rigid sexual health agendas in the Western world.

Much More: theocracywatch.org/women2.htm

[lakhota]

Scary stuff...

[lakhota]

Monica Goodling Reprimanded By Virginia State Bar

Monica Goodling, a key figure in the politicization of the Justice Department during the Bush administration, has received a public reprimand from the Virginia State Bar, Virginia Lawyers Weekly reports.

The state bar found that Goodling committed "a criminal or deliberately wrongful act" that reflected poorly on her "honesty, trustworthiness or fitness to practice law," the publication reports. The decision was reached in March but was made public Thursday.

Goodling, a former opposition researcher for the Republican National Committee and graduate of Regent University School of Law, arrived at the Justice Department at the start of the Bush administration. Former colleagues said she believed that part of her job was to bring people with conservative and Christian values to DOJ. She admitted to "crossing the line" by running afoul of civil service rules governing hiring decisions.

The bar's decision notes that Goodling is working in the private sector and is not currently practicing law, according to Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Katie Uston, the assistant bar counsel who handled the matter before the subcommittee, told the publication that Goodling is working in market research in Arlington, Va. (just outside Washington, D.C.).

The decision is available here.

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/monica_goodling.php?ref=fpb

[lakhota]

Supreme Court Denies Justice To Texas Cheerleader Who Refused To Cheer Her Alleged Rapist

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court declined to review the case of a recent Texas high school student who was kicked off her school’s cheerleading squad after she refused to chant the name of a basketball player who had allegedly raped her. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative courts in the country, ruled last November that the victim — who is known only as H.S. — had no right to refuse to applaud her attacker because as a cheerleader in uniform, she was an agent of the school. To add insult to injury, the Fifth Circuit dismissed her case as “frivolous” and sanctioned the girl, forcing her family to pay the school district’s $45,000 legal fees.

More: thinkprogress.org/2011/05/06/scotus-texas-cheerleader/

[lakhota]

Allen West: Liberal Women Are ‘Neutering American Men’

Last week, Tea Party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) addressed his base at a Women Impacting Nation (WIN) meeting in Boca Raton, FL. WIN’s mission is to “educate and equip women with knowledge of God’s truth” and “to support those who take a stand for those Judeo-Christian values upon which our country is founded.” West used examples of “historical fiction” to instruct attendees on the proper role for American women — namely, to make strong men.

More: thinkprogress.org/2011/04/25/allen-west-liberal-women/

[lakhota]

Do Red State Republicans Want More Divorces, STDs and Abortions? Their Policies Suggest "Yes"

At the state level, the GOP's attacks on reproductive rights may widen the already huge gulf between red and blue states in health, family stability, and education.

Republicans lost the first battle in their newly invigorated war on contraception and other health services for sexually active people, such as STD testing and treatment, when the Democrats called their bluff in the federal budget standoff. Planned Parenthood avoided the ax, but that doesn’t mean that Republicans are prepared to give up on doing everything in their power to separate women, especially low-income women, from access to contraception services. In lieu of cutting family planning subsidies on the federal level, Republicans have devised a plan to cut them on the state level, where they face fewer meddling pro-choice Democrats.

The strategy remains the same: Say the word “abortion” a lot, and use it to cut funding for contraception and other reproductive health services that aren’t abortion. Indiana kicked off the state-by-state strategy by banning Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding, using the usual abortion excuse, though none of the funding goes to abortion. Despite knowing that anti-discrimination laws would mean that this bill would end all family planning subsidies to the state, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed it anyway. Even though Republicans pretend to be cutting family planning spending more in sorrow than in joy, they still produce results for a right wing fringe that opposes not just abortion, but contraception, STD treatment, and preventing cervical cancer, all in the service of a religious belief that these are holy punishments for fornication.

More: www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/150846/do_red_state_republicans_want_more_divorces%2C_stds_and_abortions_their_policies_suggest_%22yes%22/?page=entire

[lakhota]

Even though Republicans pretend to be cutting family planning spending more in sorrow than in joy, they still produce results for a right wing fringe that opposes not just abortion, but contraception, STD treatment, and preventing cervical cancer, all in the service of a religious belief that these are holy punishments for fornication.

Evil fornicators...

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

[lakhota]

Doomsday Cranks Descend On Washington, Ironies Abound

www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/doomsday-cranks-descend-o_n_858713.html

[Politically_Incorrect12]

An attack thread against Christians...unfortunately I'm not surprised.

[ameiko]

Oh God, please.

(no pun intended... well maybe).

Anyway, I think that Planned Parenthood should receive zero funding from the government. The government has no authority to do so and every dollar you give it is a dollar freed up to perform an abortion which is against many people's moral beliefs. And, again, violates the Constitution which gives the federal government zero power to fund such things.

If the left things it's every woman's right to have an abortion regardless of ability to pay, well then YOU PAY FOR IT!!!

Go into your wallet and take out the money. Let Hollywierd have an abortion dinner. I really don't care. Otherwise this "private" matter should not be given "public" funding. Your body, your choice? Well my money, my choice!

[ameiko]

Read up a little more. So what if the GOP wants to cut funding for contraceptives? It's not our job to pay for it! Heck, we're looking to cuy alot out of that bloated and wasteful budget and I hope that includes military as we draw down and bring our soldiers home from other nations if they don't pay for our protection of them.

Now if the GOP tried to stop private groups from funding contraceptives, I might actually agree with you but they aren't: they just don't want our tax payer funded government to pay for someone else's brith control. Keep government out of our bedrooms, remember that?!?!?!

[ameiko]

I've said several times that the Religious Right isn't that much different than the Muslims they are so terrified of. What's the first thing the religious right went after? Women and allowing them to control their own bodies. Women and 'redefining' rape....only a hop, skip and a jump away from Muslim women being held responsible and stoned to death for being raped.

Anyone silly person...

Personally, I believe in full equality. No, really!

A woman should be able to control her body just as much as a man can. Therefore:

They can both have the same power to consent to sex and accept the consequences thereof.

OR

They have the ability to decide whether or not to accept the consequences of the pregnancy. If she wants to adopt, abort, or keep the child she can. If he wants to use his body to work and support that child he can or if he wants to use his body to flip her off when she demands child support, he can do that as well.

Equality;ain't it grand?

[lakhota]

Addicted Babies, Unwanted Babies and the Question: Is Abortion Always Wrong?

How many of those who insist that a woman's privacy and self-determination be denied in order to "save" the life of a baby would be willing to take that baby into their own lives, raise it despite challenges, and do so unconditionally? What if that baby were blind? brain-damaged? infected with AIDS? What if that baby grew up into a child who was violent? catatonic? uncontrollable? abusive towards others? Could you do it? I couldn't. Few could...or would.

If we believe the lives of the unwanted unborn are so crucial that we would pass laws to force their birth, why don't we regard the lives of unwanted children as equally worthy of protection and nurturing? Why are important, necessary programs like child protective services, foster care, supplemental food programs, child support enforcement, child nutrition, and aid to families with dependent children underfunded and even eliminated?

Why is it that we stigmatize poor women and children living in poverty when those same women might have recognized their inability to raise a family and sought an abortion but were denied access? Why does concern for the baby and the mother seem to end once childbirth takes place? If you force her to have that baby, will you take responsibility for it and raise it? If not, then what gives you the right to tell her she must?

More: womensissues.about.com/b/2011/05/03/addicted-babies-unwanted-babies-and-the-question-is-abortion-always-wrong.htm

[Deleted]

I don't agree with the religious right on the religious aspect of their goals. I will vote for them though because they are the only option out there other than socialism.

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

This message has been deleted (duplicate).

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

An attack thread against Christians

Thin skinned or have hallucinations of seeing halos on top their heads?

every dollar you give it is a dollar freed up to perform an abortion

So 100% of PP's money goes to abortion? Tell us all about how Ameikoland's Planned Parenthood functions. Do they all have Snidely Whiplash moustaches and run around giving women involuntary abortions by tying them to train tracks?

So what if the GOP wants to cut funding for contraceptives?

Now put on thinking cap and concentrate! Would you rather pay for a $5 condom or thousands in welfare? Or is it another aspect of Ameikoland is that if you don't supply condoms people will just not have sex?

Well my money, my choice!

Oh look, another aspect in Ameikoland is you decide where your taxes go. Are there unicorns there too?

Keep government out of our bedrooms, remember that

In our reality, it's totally voluntary. Planned Parenthood isn't forcing anyone to wear condoms.

Personally, I believe in full equality. No, really!

They can both have the same power to consent to sex and accept the consequences thereof.

So in Ameikoland, "men" and "women" are both hermaphrodites and they both get pregnant? That's the only way there would be full equality. No, really!

if he wants to use his body to flip her off when she demands child support, he can do that as well.

Is he going to flip off the judge when he's hauled off to court? And how "equal" for you to make the woman care for the child while the man can just flip her off. Luckily we don't live where you do.

I will vote for them though because they are the only option out there other than socialism.

In this board, it's assumed we're talking about the United States, not Oldtexland. Let me guess, that Socialist party has more Snidelys and tie people to taxpayer paid train tracks when they're not kicking puppies or kittens.

Could you Conservatives do us a favor and post things relevent to the United States and not your little fantasy land? Thnx in advance.

[ed1066]

May 5, 2011 23:36:01 GMT -5 @krickitt said:

You must not have your own personal moderator like some of us do.