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All posts for the day November 1st, 2012

Republican Commandment #6 – Religious Freedom Be Damned

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on November 1, 2012
Posted in: Completely Wrong, My Closing Argument, Politics, Religious Extremism. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Here is a great post from liberalvaluesblog.com to make my closing argument on this Republican Commandment.  The post is based on comments made during the Republican primaries.

I have made it a point to try to keep religion out of political posts on this blog.  I don’t care about anyone’s religion, including Mitt Romney’s!   Religious freedom is why this country was founded and I ask you to think about that as you read the article below.

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Santorum Upset That Obama Agenda Not Based On Bible

February 19, 2012 — Ron Chusid

In a post yesterday I contrasted the false conservative narrative that liberals support a big government to impose their views upon others with the actual fact that a large segment of the conservative movement actually does see the role of government as imposing their religious views on the country. Rick Santorum repeatedly demonstrates this,  doing so again yesterday in attacking Obama for having an agenda which is not “based on Bible.”

Newt Gingrich has made similar arguments with his attacks on Obama as a “secular socialist.” (Besides being wrong in seeing secular as undesirable, he is wrong in calling Obama a socialist.  Gingrich is using the new conservative definition of socialism as supporting a few percentage point increase in the marginal tax rate of multimillionaires and lower tax rates on the middle class, which has nothing to do with any conventional definition of the term.) Ron Paul has also shown a preference for theocracy, while Mitt Romney is willing to take multiple positions on the issue.

Contrast Santorum and Gingrich with a previous Catholic candidate for president, John F. Kennedy:

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish, where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

John Kennedy and Barack Obama are both following in the tradition of the Founding Fathers who understood the importance of creating a secular republic with separation of church and state. Nobody should be able to use the powers of government to impose their religious views upon others.

“The Rape Thing” – More Proof That This Is A Systemic Issue With Republicans

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on November 1, 2012
Posted in: Completely Wrong, Politics, Religious Extremism. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Thanks to the Huffington Post for this article……

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John Koster, GOP House Candidate:

‘The Rape Thing’ Does Not Excuse Abortions

John Koster
John Koster, a Republican congressional candidate in Washington state, said Sunday that “the rape thing” is not a good enough reason for a woman to have an abortion,the Associated Press reported.

Asked at a campaign fundraiser whether he supports abortion rights in some situations, Koster replied that he only supports abortion in cases where a woman’s life is in danger.

“Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare,” he said. “But the rape thing– you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept the child, gave it up for adoption, and she doesn’t regret it.”

He added, “On the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime — how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”

His Democratic opponent, Suzan DelBene, supports abortion rights. Her campaign criticized Koster for trivializing rape.

“Dismissing it as a ‘thing’ is an awfully casual way for him to talk about it, and I think it highlights how little he understands the ramifications and the seriousness of the issue. So that’s very problematic,” DelBene spokesperson Viet Shelton told TPM. “And the way he approaches the issue and the policy conclusions he comes to, it just highlights the serious problem we have when politicians are trying to dictate women’s health care decisions.”

In response to the controversy over his comments, Koster campaign manager Larry Stickney told the AP that Koster clearly takes rape seriously because he has strongly advocated cracking down on sex offenders.

Republican lawmakers and congressional candidates have made headlines several times over the past few months for their comments about rape and abortion. Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancy from rape is “something God intended,” Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said victims of “legitimate rape” almost never become pregnant, and Rep. Tom Smith (R-Pa.) compared pregnancy as a result of rape to “having a baby out of wedlock.”