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After saying that "the female body has ways" to "shut down" pregnancies caused by "legitimate rape," Republican Todd Akin's U.S. Senate bid Missouri isn't in good shape. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has told Akin he'll get no support for his race from the national party, and Karl Rove's attack operation has said it'll give up on Missouri, too.
Akin, however, says he's staying in the race. In fact, he's even trying to defend his unique understanding of science -- the RNC called Akin's perspective "biologically stupid" -- by telling Sean Hannity that he'd "heard from medical reports that rape is such a traumatic type of thing that there's a reaction."
Akin's also leaning on the ultimate Republican trump card.
He later invoked 9/11 to explain his pro-life views, saying the first responders didn't ask for identification of those they saved because all lives are important.
"They don't check their ID to see whether they're important or not, they just take them to safety and run back for more," he said. "They, by their lives, speak as Americans of what we think about the value of human beings and how much respect we hold people with."
Hmm. So, Akin thinks rape victims rarely get pregnant, and when they do, women have special powers to "shut down" unwanted pregnancies without an abortion, but people should stop criticizing his stupidity because 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. No, that doesn't seem desperate at all.
Incidentally, at the risk of taking Akin's metaphor too literally, are women exercising their constitutionally-protected reproductive rights supposed to be terrorists in the 9/11 comparison?
For what it's worth, Akin is not without allies -- the religious right seems to be quickly rallying behind the right-wing candidate's campaign, urging him to stay in the race.
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Couldn't be better news for his opponent.
Oh please, christofascists, keep it up. Get yourselves so truly kicked so damn hard that your posterior pops out your mouth. Get yourselves beat and beat so badly it's almost embarrassing everywhere but the Confederacy of Dumbasses, 11 states we really don't need. Then "rebel." Get your little militias out where we can see them and fix them. Let's have it out with you people for good and final.
Run Todd, Run!
I've been checking FoxNation to see how they are going to "spin" this. So far, nothing. I guess even their best "creative writers" can't dress up this pig!!
Tea Party Express (the people who bought us Sharon Angle) have now asked him to go........today just gets better & better.
Excellent. All he needs now is a pulse of nutroot and whackadoodle billionaire money to replace the money the RNC and RSCC says it will be withholding to convince him he's viable.
Seriously, I'm predicting all he has to do is stay off the radar screen for a week, until Limbaugh returns from whatever ugliness he's calling "vacationing" this year, and once the headlines fade the
oligarchsRepublican establishment will quietly let him off the hook and turn the money spigot back back on for him.Where do these fanatics get their sex education? Rush thinks you need a birth control pill every time you have sex--and this guy.
If women had a way to shut these things down--doesn't he think they'd be doing it?
Meanwhile, there's a pool party in the Sea of Galilee...............................
"...the religious right seems to be quickly rallying behind the right-wing candidate's campaign,..."
You've got to love the bible thumpers - they toss their morality & righteous indignation right out of the door for one of their own...."Stupid is as stupid does".
If the religious right is supporting him, then he is likely to stay in the race and get campaign contributions. But this puts the religious right at odds with the Republican party. I can't wait to see how this all shakes out.
Will he resign his House seat?
As an RN who spent most of her career as an obstetrical nurse, I never heard of this form of BC before.. who knew???@@
And what the hell is legitimate rape? Wake up women, no matter your political leanings show your outrage!
What this, like other reports, overlooks is where his idea about forcible/legitimate rape comes from. It's based on a medieval (perhaps even ancient Greek?) idea that a woman can only get pregnant if she, like the man, comes to a sexual climax--i.e., that she's enjoying herself, and therefore it isn't really rape. This folk medical misunderstanding (it isn't true of women *or* men, as many people practicing withdrawal have learned). This idea was so pervasive that laws prevented prosecution for rape if the woman got pregnant, as late as the early 19th century (in England, I think). So beyond the obvious offensiveness of the term "legitimate rape," the real crime here is that someone with such a completely medieval understanding of the mechanics of human reproduction should be a member of the U.S. Congress, should be allowed to serve on the Science subcommittee, and should have the power to propose laws, as he did, based on his stupid and erroneous notion of how women get pregnant. And Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate clearly shares that erroneous notion, or he would never have co-sponsored the legislation based on it. Shouldn't these people have to pass some sort of basic test in understanding the world to get into Congress, or at least hire advisers who could correct the flaws in their work occasioned by their scientific illiteracy?
Me-thinks the Legitimate-Rape-Public-CONs doth protest too much.
;-)
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
Im from Missouri, I hope he stays in the race because it's our best chance of electing Claire McCaskill. If they shut down the Karl Rove attack she has a chance. I bet they are holding their breath at her headquarters til the deadline tomorrow. This is only one of his crazy ideas.
Mr. Akin's comments are straight out of the Dark Ages. Aristotle first postulated that a woman could only conceive if she had an orgasm. This idea became incorporated into English common law through the canonists who received it from Roman Law. During the reign of Justinian his personal physician told him that a woman had to experience violent passion, by which he meant orgasm, in order to conceive. A raped woman could never conceive because the trauma would prevent her from having an orgasm. English judges and treatise writers in the 17th and 18th centuries negated rape charges and vacated convictions if the woman became pregnant because the conception served as proof that she had consented to the act and if she consented, then she had not been raped. American courts abandoned this ancient bit of folklore in 1793, but as the GOP rejects science and holds to long debunked medical and legal fictions, Mr. Akin is in line with his party's worldview - one that is quite in tune with the canon lawyers of the Medieval Era.
Republicans don't want him running, loudly opposing it. I suppose there are those in the party that know this will carry through to bring women out against Rmoney and all down the tickets.
I just saw Megan McCain denouncing Akin and saying she is with the top of the ticket, She is pro life, but Rmoney told Huckabee he believes life begins at conception and supports personhood, Megan.
And she looked pretty torqued off, but reiterated her support for Rmoney. This is not about Megan McCain, though no need to pick on her.
But there is going to be a Republican battle within itself.
Mr. Akin's "science" is straight out of the Dark Ages and thus in perfect keeping with the Medieval mentality of the GOP. Aristotle posited that a woman could not conceive unless she had an orgasm. This notion made its way into English canon lawyers who lifted it from Roman law. The personal physician to Justinian told the emperor that in order to beget a child a woman had experience violent passion, by which he meant an orgasm. Conversly, the doctor stated that a woman who had truly been raped would never have an orgasm and therefore could never get pregnant. English common law authorities espoused this ancient folkloric notion and English judges negated rape charges and vacated rape convictions throughout the 17th and 18th centuries on grounds that the female's pregnancy served as proof that she had consented to the sex that she had later called rape. If she consented to the sex, then she had falsely accused an innocnet man. Mr. Akin, like the ancient natural philosophers he invoked, is effectively asserting that women who claim to have been raped, but then conceive, are liars.
Not only that, but women who are raped can have an orgasm, it is by it's nature involuntary, and having an orgasm does actually increase the chances that a woman will become pregnant by making it easier for sperm to enter the cervix.
This buffoon is just wrong and dumb on so many levels, it really boggles the mind. He's instructively wrong about every detail.
And on most matters of this sort, Paul Ryan is in the same mold as Todd Akins.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/19/712251/how-todd-akin-and-paul-ryan-partnered-to-redefine-rape/
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/08/20/six-reasons-why-todd-akins-legitimate-rape-remark-could-haunt-the-gop/
http://www.politicususa.com/devil-paul-ryan-todd-akins-redefinition-rape.html
I am so ashamed to be from MO. Isn't Rush more than enough?
Perhaps we need to find the fathers of the zygotes and demand they pay for the prenatal care, medical procedures, substantial child support as well as provide for a college education. Perhaps we need to get government involved in making males responsible for their choices too! It would only be fair! It takes two right or is it just the woman's fault Todd.
There is a good chance this is the doctor referenced by Todd Akin. He is your standard issue posionous voice on FM 97.1 Fox News Radio in St. Louis. Dr. Randy Tobler is also an OB/GYN. Both Todd Akin and Randy Tobler are from St. Louis. I believe Dr. Tobler has moved to a smaller town in Missouri ... possibly Memphis, Missouri
http://www.971talk.com/airstaff/tobler.aspx
Here is a link to a Fox News Radio (FM 97.1) Interview with Dr. Tobler on May 17, 2012. In this interview Tobler states "If welfare is taken from them, Blacks will revolt."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh1OQSK1gDk
... Dishwater Tea
Check out the the look on Mr. Akins wifes face while he is spouting. She can't believe he said that either.
Rachel - I think you are the BEST thing since sliced bread but PLEASE oh PLEASE...as a fellow feminist, refer to it as ANTI-choice; not pro-abortion. No one is PRO-abortion. We just want/deserve the right to choose. You know words matter.
Keep up the fantastic job!! xxoo!!!
Akin is my congressman. I've often thought he looks like he was embalmed early in preparation for a day like today. He didn't disappoint me. Tomorrow the GOP buries him?
Wow. If it hadn't been written first for the film Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does" surely would have been written for Mr. Akin.
Again the Republicans gave a problem with Aikins comments. Again Rush Limbaugh brings up racial issues or very controversial issues to deflect. Stay on the connection between Aikin and Ryan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!