Alexa Shrugged

Back from the Post-Election Apocalypse

2013-02-22T22:35:00.000-05:00

Wow. I can't believe I haven't blogged since October. This blog has been frozen in time. Frozen in a much happier time, when we didn't know the election results yet and there was still hope and excitement for a Romney-Ryan win.

Take a look at my election countdown on the top right column: "Time Left to Save the Country: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes" - couldn't be more true. November 6th was our last chance. And we blew it.

That election hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been like a zombie walking through a post-election apocalypse. I'm still not recovered. Will I (and the country) ever recover? Too soon to tell.

When Rush said the other day this sequester business was the first time in his life he's been ashamed of his country, I was shocked. I've been ashamed of my country since Obama was elected in 2008. 2012 went beyond even that. I don't know that I can ever forgive the American electorate and its idiot (excuse me, "low, low information") voters for betraying me for a second time.

I've been meaning to blog the last couple months, but I've just been so bitter, cynical, and jaded. I haven't even wanted to think about politics lately, it just brings up feelings of pain and hopelessness.

I have several partially written posts, including one titled "Blame Blaming Bush" about how we as conservatives should have defended Bush's economic policies more instead of running away from him. We let our concession that Obama inherited a terrible economy turn into the idea that all 8 years of Bush were terrible economic times, instead of the just last two when Democrats controlled Congress (another point we should have hammered home) to the extent that an exit poll said 53% of voters blamed Bush for the bad economy while only 38% blamed Obama. That whole "It took Bush 8 years to ruin the economy, it's going to take more than 4 for Obama to bring it back" really sunk in and we shouldn't have let that happen.

But I haven't had the time or the energy to sit down and write about politics. And as the months passed, I felt like I needed to come up with some really grand comeback post and the pressure held me back from blogging. But really I just needed to break the ice.

So now I'm breaking it. And I'm back. For better or for worse.

Developing ...

Not Optimal

2012-10-21T16:58:00.001-04:00

Source

Paul Ryan VP Debate Bingo Cards!

2012-10-10T22:26:00.000-04:00

Featuring the many expressive faces of Paul Ryan!

Print them out and play with your friends - mark off each time Paul Ryan makes one of these faces during the Vice Presidential Debate!

And Ryan was his name-O!

STFU and Let's Get This Done!

2012-09-18T14:21:00.001-04:00

UPDATE: 9/27 Special bonus uncensored 40 days until the election audio version of this piece! Thanks to Thomas LaDuke and others at FTR Radio for helping me do this:

If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element

or MP3 link

I've gotta get blatantly partisan and maybe ruffle a few feathers, but hopefully wake some people up. We are 48 days away from the election. This is do or die, the fate of our country is at stake. The infighting is over, the circular fire-squad must end, the criticisms of our candidate must be held until after the election, the Reagan 11th commandment must be adhered to - this may be controversial to say, but it must be said and must be done if we are to win.

President Obama has been an utter failure and the focus right now should be on the Middle East which is on fire - and a US ambassador was ASSASSINATED!!!! for the first time since the Iran hostage crisis - plus the economy is in the toilet. If you have concerns about the optics of things Romney says - his press conference on Egypt was too early, it shouldn't have blamed Obama, the 47% quote is bad - even if you truly believe this stuff, even if you think these issues are of Romney's own making and he is a bad candidate, I must say to you right now: STFU!!!!!

You are being a useful idiot by providing cover for the left and MSM to make this into a huge story instead of the actual things going on in the world that matter you are giving Obama further campaign ads - "Romney sucks - even X conservative says so!" The fact that you have qualms about Romney "gaffes" ONLY hurt us, there is no possible positive outcome for you saying it. Don't give me the "I'm just being objective, I'm maintaining my independence and integrity," etc. I don't care about your self-centered righteous indignation - forget you and your personal vanity - this isn't about YOU, we have a country to save. So, STFU!!!!!

You can easily find things in what Romney has said to agree with - if you can't get over the 47% number of people who don't pay income taxes, then turn the discussion into a broader point of big government dependence vs. individual independence and the American creed - what kind of country do we really want to be? Or focus on his truth on Israel and the Palestinians not wanting peace from that same donor video. Or attack Obama and his administration for ignoring warnings about the September 11th embassy attacks. Or the fact that Brownshirts took in a film maker in the middle of the night because he exercised his free speech rights to criticize a religion.

There is so much material, you should not be wasting one second going after Romney for supposed "gaffes."

Get in line, defend Romney, or at the very least focus every breath on attacking Obama as if your life depended on it - because it does, if not literally, then at least the quality of your life and all future generations. This is desperation time, do or die, leave it all on the field.

"Let's get this done. We can do this." - Paul Ryan. WE MUST DO THIS!

Thank you.

Signed,

A die-hard conservative who cannot live under another 4 years of Obama and will do ANYTHING to win in November
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The Obama Presidency In One Photo

2012-09-14T15:03:00.000-04:00

Empty suit.
Empty chair.
Empty podium.

Previous:

The Obama Presidency in One Picture

This Looks Familiar

2012-09-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

U.S. Embassy in Cairo, 2012

U.S. Embassy in Tehran, 1979

UPDATE: I will not juxtapose images of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens' body being dragged through the streets in Libya, but this reminds of another foreign policy disaster - Black Hawk Down. When American bodies were dragged through the streets in Mogadishu. In response, Clinton pulled our troops out of Somalia. This cowardice led Osama bin Laden to declare the U.S. a "paper tiger." This MUST NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!

Also,"Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979."
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Remembering Mildred Rose Naiman from AA Flight 11 on the 11th Anniversary of 9/11

2012-09-11T09:56:00.000-04:00

Every year since 2007, I have posted this Project 2,996* September 11th tribute to Mildred Rose Naiman. Gives me chills rereading every year. The following is the text from my original 2007 post on the sixth anniversary of 9/11:

My September 11th tribute as part of Project 2,996 is to Mildred Rose Naiman, 81, from Andover, MA, the town next to my hometown. According to WBZ Boston, over 200 people with ties to Massachusetts died on 9-11-01.

"Millie," as she was known to her loved ones, was on her way to California to visit her 2 sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren when she was killed. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to be hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center.

Born on March 24, 1920, Mildred Naiman worked at Western Electric Co. as a tester. In her later years, she lived in a self-proclaimed "bachelorette pad" - her apartment in a retirement community - where she was active in planning and organizing events with her friends.

In a profile published on January 6, 2002, her daughter-in-law, Carol Naiman, told the New York Times, "She had a little bit of a lead foot. She had been stopped for speeding and was totally insulted the officer would give an old woman a ticket."

Although the feisty great-grandmother had had several knee replacement surgeries, cataracts, and other health problems, she still loved to travel. Her son Russ said, "If something was wrong with her, she'd go to the doctor and say, 'Fix me up; I've got a lot of traveling to do.' "

While she needed the help of a wheelchair at the airport, she still managed to visit her family twice a year. The Sunday before her fatal flight, a family member had asked if she was afraid of flying; her granddaughter, Hope, remembers her reply: "No, I've gone everywhere already--to Germany, the Bahamas. I'm not afraid to fly."

Incredibly, on July 24, 2004, the New York Post reported that the medical examiner's office had identified her remains. Many 9-11 victims are still unaccounted for. I hope her family gained some sense of closure with this discovery and was able to finally put her body to rest.

Today, on the sixth anniversary of her death, we celebrate the life of Mildred Rose Naiman.

May she, and the other 2,995 tragically murdered on that day, rest in peace.

9-11: NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET

____________________________________________
*Project 2,996 is an important online initiative to keep the memory of those who died on 9/11 alive and to honor them each through individual memorials. For those of us who were fortunate to not have lost anyone on that day, it really personalizes and brings home each loss. Their individual lives can get lost in the intolerable and overwhelming number killed on 9/11, so we owe it to each of them to make them more than just one of 3,000. Because links have gotten old and broken, there are thousands of 9/11 victims who no longer have a memorial blog post - please go to Project 2,996 to learn more and participate on your own blog.

Holy Grail Found: Paul Ryan Shirtless Pic!

2012-08-17T12:08:00.000-04:00

MOST IMPORTANT UPDATE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS WEBSITE: PAUL RYAN SHIRTLESS PIC FOUND:

As you may recall, Paul Ryan was in my July 2012 post Top 10 Hottest Conservative Congressmen,
here are the images I used back then:

Since then, I've submitted some pretty great pics to the Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan Tumblr:

See the rest of the hot congressmen here:

Top 10 Hottest Conservative Congressmen

(A lot of this is tongue-in-cheek, Paul Ryan is an awesome conservative intellectual, too. It's all in good fun!)
P.S. Welcome, Ace fans!

UPDATE 1:30PM - And then there's THIS
I can't even!

Also, this is pretty great.
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A New Low: Shameful Smear Ad Blames Romney for Woman's Death

2012-08-07T14:17:00.000-04:00

So Obama’s former staffer Bill Burton’s Super PAC Priorities USA has a disgusting attack ad out today that pretty much accuses Mitt Romney of killing a woman. They imply that after a man loses his job, he lost his health insurance, and shortly after his wife got sick and died. Alas, the timeline doesn’t add up: Romney left Bain in 1999, the man lost his job in 2001, and his wife died in 2006.

But pretty much, using this twisted logic, if any family member has died of the millions of people who’ve lost their jobs and thus health insurance in the last 3 ½ years under the Obama economy and 8.3% unemployment it’s Obama’s fault. (And who can forget that it is his fault that Brian Terry, U.S. Border Patrol Agent, died because of his administration’s “Fast and Furious” gun running scheme.)

To defend his indefensible ad, Burton told Politico,

“We’re illustrating how long it took for communities and individuals to recover from the closing of these businesses. Families and individuals had to find new jobs, new sources of health insurance and a way to make up for the pensions they lost. Mitt Romney has had an enduring impact on the lives of thousands of men and women and for many of them, that impact has been devastating.”

Well, Bill Burton, how long will it take “for communities and individuals to recover from” the devastating policies of the Obama administration? Just like you accuse Romney, “families and individuals have had to find new jobs, new sources of health insurance and a way to make up for the pensions they lost” because of Obamanomics. It is obvious that Obama has “had an enduring impact on the lives of thousands of men and women and for many of them, that impact has been devastating.”

This is a shameful, despicable smear ad that makes me sick to my stomach.

Between Dirty Harry Reid smearing Romney with lies saying he didn't pay taxes for 10 years and that his dead father should be ashamed of him, as well as attacks on Ann Romney, the Obama campaign's scorched earth politics of personal destruction has begun. We are only at the beginning of August, is there nothing Obama and his allies won't do? Any despicable attack or vicious lie they won't spread? How much longer can we bare to live in Obama's sick, twisted, disgusting, unconscionable, heinous, political world? November can't come soon enough!

P.S. Don’t forget - Romney has literally saved lives.

UPDATE: RedState's Erick Erickson has additional details on just how spurious the claims of the ad are (emphasis my own):

Mitt Romney and Bain Capital bought GST Steel at some point. Romney left day to day operations of Bain in 1999. Thereafter, Bain offered Joe Soptic a buy out and he refused. Eventually the steel plant went out of business and Joe went on the unemployment line. That happened in 2001.

In 2002 or 2003, Mrs. Soptic injured her rotator cuff and left her job. She lost her insurance. In 2006, she was diagnosed with cancer and died a few days later. It is a terrible tragedy that Mitt Romney had nothing to do with.

It seems Mr. Soptic chose poorly on the buy out offer, lost his job, and would prefer to blame Mitt Romney than anyone else. Priorities USA has set a new standard — Mitt Romney killed a woman, despite being removed from both time of death and decision making.

UPDATE II: Politico catches Team Obama lying about their knowledge of the man in the disgusting ad:

When President Obama’s aides said they weren’t familiar with former Missouri steelworker Joe Soptic’s life story, all they had to do was check their own campaign archives.

Soptic, laid off from Bain Capital-owned GST Steel, stars in a Priorities USA Action spot this week in which he tells of how his wife died without health insurance after he lost his job. Soptic also appeared, wearing what appears to be an identical shirt, in a May television ad for the Obama campaign.

Asked about the Priorities spot on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Robert Gibbs said he doesn’t “know the specifics” while Stephanie Cutter said on CNN: “I don’t know the facts about when Mr. Soptic’s wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance.”

And Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One that “we don't' have any knowledge of the story of the family,” according to Yahoo! News.

But Cutter hosted an Obama campaign conference call in May in which Soptic told reporters the very story featured in the Priorities spot.

So, is this a new new low?

UPDATE III: Obama Team admits knowing the story. Gotta love the opening sentence:

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged Thursday that the campaign was no longer pleading ignorance about the story of a man who has appeared in both a super PAC ad and a campaign ad.

"No one is denying he was in one of our campaign ads. He was on a conference call telling his story," Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.

...yesterday on Air Force One, Psaki said, "we don’t have any knowledge of the story of the family."

Pure, sweet schadenfreude!
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Obama's Polish Gaffes

2012-07-30T16:46:00.001-04:00

Following up on last week's post Olympic Gaffe Games: Comparing Romney and Obama
which listed Obama's foreign policy gaffes with Great Britain, there's a damning article out today on his gaffes and outright disrespect of Poland, a country that threw off communism and is very pro-America.

The Washington Free Beacon has the story, here are the most striking quotes:

Last week’s surprise announcement of U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein’s retirement highlighted a string of policy missteps by the Obama administration that have left many in the Polish government and population questioning Obama’s commitment to the two nations’ alliance. ...

“To put it plainly, on Obama’s list of priorities, Poland is obviously lower than whale shit,” said one Polish defense industry official. “We are further down that list than that stuff laying at the bottom of the ocean.” ...

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said in a nationally televised address that “yesterday’s words by President Obama offended all Poles—we always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, in a country which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II.”

Other Poles were less restrained. Foreign Minister Sikorski tweeted, “It’s a shame that such a momentous ceremony has been overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence.” ...

“When Obama first came into office, the opinion polls about Polish impressions of the U.S. were 70-plus percent favorable,” said the Polish defense industry official. “But with all that has happened this figure is now somewhere in the mid-30s range.” ...

Dropping from 70% to 30% favorability is astounding! Remember this the next time someone tries to claim Obama has raised America's standing in the world. Actually, tell Obama himself - last week he said:

"Because we're leading around the world, people have a new attitude toward America. There’s more confidence in our leadership. We see it everywhere we go," President Obama said at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno.

The Poles certainly have a new attitude toward America, and it is not good. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney visited Poland to pledge “U.S. support of Poland as a captive nation during the Cold War.” The choice in November couldn't be more clear.

Freedom fighter and former Polish President Lech Walesa has endorsed Romney:

"I wish you to be successful because this success is needed to the United States, of course, but to Europe and the rest of the world, too. Gov Romney, get your success -- be successful!"

Olympic Gaffe Games: Comparing Romney and Obama

2012-07-27T14:01:00.001-04:00

The hubbub surrounding Mitt Romney's Olympic comments in response to Brian Williams' question asking if Britain seemed ready "to your experienced eye?" is utterly ridiculous.

Romney responded to Williams innocuously, "You know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the-- private security firm not having enough people-- supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging..."

The British press and American leftists jumped on this comment as a "gaffe," which is absurd for a multitude of reasons.

Mitt Romney is an Olympics expert. He went in to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and saved it from bankruptcy and security disaster. God forbid the man who saved the post-9/11 Olympics security nightmare comment on today's Olympic security nightmare! One London resident laughably responded to Romney's comment, "What would he know?" I'm left to wonder if Britons even know that Romney ran an Olympic Games - perhaps they just think he's just another loudmouth American politician with no knowledge of the situation.

London's Olympic problems have been all over the news and such a source of criticism within the country itself that they've coined the phrase "omnishambles, a word first applied to government screw-ups that has been used to describe the crisis-prone buildup to the games." In this context the hashtag some used yesterday #RomneyShambles to mock Romney doesn't seem like such a bad thing - Romney simply commented on the shambles of the "crisis-prone buildup to the games." British Labour lawmaker David Winnick used the word when he demanded of the CEO of the security group that failed to provide enough security workers, "It’s a humiliating shambles for the country, isn’t it?"

Heck, Piers Morgan even defended Romney, saying, "It’s no secret over here that for the last three weeks the security around the Olympics has been a shambles." Piers continued:

“The outside firm they got in to run it has been all over the place – they didn’t have enough people and the army had to be drafted in. So, Mitt Romney was only saying exactly what has been happening.”
“He’s run an Olympics, so I thought he was perfectly entitled to be critical,” Morgan continued. He said that the English press jumped on him because they wanted Romney to “talk us up a bit,” but the substance of Romney’s critique was on point.
“I thought it was a bit of a fuss about nothing,” said Morgan. “He was just speaking the truth which can sometimes be rather unpalatable.”

Now, if Great Britain was honest, they'd agree that Romney just said what everyone in their country has been saying. As Joshua Trevino said yesterday on Twitter, "Romney has accomplished what was unthinkable 24 hours ago: Londoners will now proudly defend their Olympics."

The only reason they are upset is because of the whole idea of "You can't complain about my country, only I can complain about my country!" Winnick, who noted complaining was a British national sport, even said, "There is a feeling, and I’m sure it applies in the United States, that … families can quarrel bitterly in private, but should anyone from the outside have a go, the family is united. In other words: 'Mind your own business.'"

This is understandable, but hardly enough reason to consider this a ghastly gaffe that will lead to a rift between the two country or resonate with the American public. Especially now that it's becoming a tit-for-tat with David Cameron making a dig at America, specifically Utah, with the remark, "Of course, it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." This is simply a silly issue that will die out quickly.

Of course, no conversation is complete without talking about Obama's numerous Great Britain gaffes. As I wrote in 2009, the UK Telegraph had a devastating article on how the Obama Administration is neglecting foreign policy, especially our special relationship with Britain. Some highlights from the article entitled Barack Obama 'too tired' to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown:

Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister. ...

A British official conceded that the furore surrounding the apparent snub to Mr Brown had come as a shock to the White House... "A number of our US interlocutors said they couldn't quite understand the British concerns and didn't get what that was all about." ...

Mr Brown handed over carefully selected gifts, including a pen holder made from the wood of a warship that helped stamp out the slave trade - a sister ship of the vessel from which timbers were taken to build Mr Obama's Oval Office desk. Mr Obama's gift in return, a collection of Hollywood film DVDs that could have been bought from any high street store, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state. ...

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment." ...

The next day I had a follow up post on Obama's embarrassing foreign policy gaffes with links to the following articles:

Obama's blockbuster gift for Brown: 25 classic films

No10 had tried to keep the present a secret, refusing to answer reporters who asked what President Obama had given to mark the reaffirmation of the special relationship. However, the Evening Standard discovered the truth through White House insiders.

One reason for the secrecy might be that the gift seems markedly less generous and thoughtful than the presents taken to Washington by the Prime Minister.

Brit reporters in bit of a snit over lack of Obama-Brown news conference

They see it as a snub.
"Embarrassing," says Benedict Brogan of The Mail. Embarrassing, that is, for Brown.
"Mr. Brown might lament," writes Toby Harnden of The Telegraph, "that despite the so-called 'special relationship' Britain is now getting the same treatment as the president of Uruguay but he need not despair. I'm told there's a chance he might get drinks with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening."

And who could forget the time Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod filled with his own speeches?
Or when Obama infamously returned Britain's gift of a Churchill bust? Romney got in a good dig at Obama a few days ago when he said, "I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again."

Olympic expert Mitt Romney repeating what everyone has been saying about the London Games, which unfortunately may have wounded British pride but had the benefit of uniting the country behind the Games, is nothing compared to Obama's "embarrassing" snubs of British leaders and dismissal of the "special relationship" the United States has with Britain.

This point is, this kerfuffle shouldn't hurt Romney in the US (of course, with a liberal media desperate to take the heat off of Obama, who knows how they'll try to drag this story along). This will all blow over soon, with the excitement of tonight's Opening Ceremonies and other news stories quickly overshadowing it. The Obama campaign can't keep bringing it up because, if anything, the incident reminds people of Romney's leadership during the 2002 Olympic Games where he dealt with national security issues and efficiently cut spending to dig the Games out of a fiscal hole (a quality that is desperately needed right now with $16 trillion national debt.)

The quotes that will endure are Obama's real gaffes (if speaking your mind can really be considered a gaffe) on the economy saying, "The private sector is doing fine," "If you've got a business you didn't build that," and "We tried our plan and it worked," and the full context of these quotes are just as bad. They reveal a president who is distressingly out of touch with economic realities, not to mention the American creed which includes rugged individualism and personal accomplishment.

Does he really think with 8.2% unemployment ANYONE is doing fine? Does he really think the idea that "If you've used a public road, you've benefited from government assistance and therefore you owe the government all your success," is a winning message? Does is really think his plan which has brought 41 straight months of 8.1-10% unemployment, adding $5 trillion to our $16 trillion in debt, and 1.5% GDP growth this quarter worked?

In the Olympic-sized Gaffe Games, Obama takes home the gold.

Mitt Romney the Bad Ass

2012-07-25T13:45:00.000-04:00

National Review writer Jim Geraghty has a piece out today that focuses on 6 stories from Mitt Romney's past that he says he would highlight if he were running the campaign. These tidbits about his history may surprise you or at least remind you of the truth of the man beyond Obama's attack ads. The truth is, Mitt Romney is actually exciting and kind of a bad ass!

Read on to learn more, it will pump you up to fight for this man in November.
(Geraghty's headings are in bold, the words below them are mine)

Taking on epic mismanagement and incompetence in Massachusetts state government as governor

Geraghty highlights when Romney physically confronted the head of the Mass Turnpike Authority in the wake of the death of a motorist from a falling piece of concrete in a Big Dig tunnel. Now, the Big Dig was a huge, decades long construction project to completely overhaul the highway system in Boston. It was a boondoggle bloated with waste, incompetence, corrupt government contracts, delays, and safety issues. I'm from Boston and I can tell you what a headache the Big Dig was and how cynically it was viewed at the time. No one was particularly shocked that bad craftsmanship had led to a fatal disaster, many felt it was only a matter of time, but it was nice to see someone finally take on the corrupt MTA and hold them accountable. As an article on the incident said, “Immediately, Romney became a commanding and reassuring presence.” Finally, an adult took over to manage the out of control project!

A focus on spending priorities that saved the Salt Lake City Olympics

Romney came in to manage an Olympic games that was almost $400 million in the hole. He cut wasteful projects like a youth camp, wetlands restoration, and decorations. He even charged the Olympic Committee for food and drinks to raise money. The Olympic COO at the time recalled: “Every line item in the budget was classified as ‘must’ or ‘nice to have,’ ” Mr. Bullock said, and “nice to have” was chopped.

Giving away his inheritance

Geraghty quotes Romney saying, "I did get a check from my dad when he passed away. I shouldn’t say a check, but I did inherit some funds from my dad. But I turned and gave that away to charity. In this case I gave it to a school which Brigham Young University established in his honor." Romney is a self-made man, it wasn't his father's money that made him successful.

Romney and his sons, heroic lifesavers

This one's a great story about Romney and his sons saving a family on a lake whose boat was quickly sinking. Mitt Romney saves lives!!! That's the story that he should be associated with, not the stupid dog one.

I'll get to this story a little later, but the quote from a man whose daughter Romney helped find when she went missing is particularly apropos and one to keep in mind when thinking about Romney, his character and how he'd be as a president:

So, here’s my epiphany: Mitt Romney simply can’t help himself. He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it, sometimes consciously, and sometimes not-so-consciously. He doesn’t do it for self-aggrandizement or for personal gain. He does it because that’s just how he’s wired.

Now contrast that with Obama ... nuff said.

A focus on helping others, reflected in lifelong generosity to charitable foundations

Mitt Romney has given back at least $18 million to charity. Obama always talks about the rich giving back and paying their fair share but he means that in the forms of taxes paying for more wasteful government programs. Romney doesn't need the government to mandate he give back even more, he already does, by his own volition, with the power to choose what his money goes towards. And private charities are better at doing things than the government. They tend to be more localized, focused and can be held more accountable than a massive, faceless government bureaucracy. Plus, if the charity is not doing what it is supposed to, people can choose not to give them their money. I sure wish we could do that with the government!

Young Mitt Romney, barefoot street-brawling vigilante

This is a funny story about Romney running out barefoot in the snow to defend some female Mormon missionaries from a group of thugs while in France. Bad ass!

One additional story that Geraghty does not include but needs to be told is the one I mentioned earlier about Romney helping to save a Bain partner's missing teenage daughter. PolitiFact relates the story:

"In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, had disappeared," the story reads. "She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter. Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter. Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could – prostitutes, drug addicts – anyone."

The quote from Mr. Gay about Romney that I cited earlier deserves to be repeated: "He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it...He does it because that’s just how he’s wired."

I say these stories reveal Romney the Bad Ass. He is often portrayed as a milquetoast, unapproachable, greedy businessman but these aspects of his history show him to be an exciting, smart, accomplished man with a heart for using his wealth and power to help others.

Mitt Romney is a businessman, a doer. Barack Obama is a professor, a thinker. Romney deals in the real world, he sees a problem and he fixes it. Obama lives in Fantasyland, he sees a problem and he finds someone else to blame for it - or proposes a solution that makes things 10x worse yet still declares it a success.

"He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it." At a time of high unemployment, record deficits and debt, and an economy on the brink, this is the kind of mind our nation needs. We need Mitt Romney as president.

Top 10 Hottest Conservative Congressmen

2012-07-05T17:11:00.002-04:00

MOST IMPORTANT UPDATE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS WEBSITE: PAUL RYAN SHIRTLESS PIC FOUND:

BUMPED UP 8/11/12: OUR VP PICK!!! Hottest Vice Presidential candidate ever? Don't you wish we had a pick of Paul Ryan shirtless like with Flake?

Rep. Paul Ryan (WI-1)
Age 42
This budget-cutting cutie is the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. His command of economic issues and innovative budget plan “The Path to Prosperity” is attractive to younger people like me because he actually wants to DO something to save our future! This, combined with his boyish good looks, helped inspired the internet meme Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan. Never before has conservative economics been so sexy!

________________

I had so much fun doing the Top 20 HOTTEST Men in Conservative New Media list in 2010 that I wanted to do it again this year. Alas, I was beaten to the punch. Those lists always court controversy and bruise egos so I thought I'd give the hottest conservative men meme a twist and feature the top 10 hottest conservative CONGRESSmen! Now nobody I know personally will be ticked off at being left off the list! (And it goes without saying, but I love my husband Mr. Shrugged and he's 1000x hotter than any of these guys!)

Here, in no particular order by request, are the top 10 hottest conservative Congressmen:

Sen. Scott Brown (MA)
Age 52
This silver fox originally set hearts racing with his nude spread in Cosmopolitian magazine in the 80's - picture below for your enjoyment but cropped to make it more safe for work. He captured my heart when he turned the Kennedy Seat into the People's Seat in the MA Senate special election in 2010. As a refugee from the People's Republic of Massachusetts, I never thought we'd see another Republican Senator so his win was AMAZING! Now he's up for Senate again in November against the lying fake Native American and elitist 1% ivy league professor Elizabeth Warren - this man needs to win, help him out!

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (CA-52)
Age 35
This son of a congressman quit his job to become a Marine after 9/11. Wonder if any of the anti-war protestors thought they were being clever and went to his father Rep. Duncan L. Hunter at the time saying, "If you support the war, why don't you send your own children to fight it?" only to have him say his son IS fighting. No chicken hawks in the Hunter family (his father also served in Vietnam)! He was sent to Afghanistan once and Iraq twice - including the battle of Fallujah. He took his father's seat when he retired and has been advocating for conservative values ever since.

Rep. Ben Quayle (AZ-3)
Age 35
This cutie may be known as the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, but he's quickly making a conservative name for himself in the House as a freshman Congressman. National Journal has already ranked him tied for first as the most conservative in the House. Unfortunately, due to redistricting, he has to go head to head with fellow freshman Republican Congressman David Schweiker in a primary for Arizona's 6th District. Something tells me no matter what happens this won't be last of what we see from Ben Quayle.

Sen. Marco Rubio (FL)
Age 41
Muy caliente! This Tea Party favorite was a long shot to win against RINO turned traitor Charlie Crist, but turned it around with his charisma and ability to make conservatism accessible to the masses. His parents escaped Cuba which influenced his personal political beliefs and dedication to life and liberty. He's obviously a rising star in the GOP, no wonder there are whispers of him for VP this year, and president in the future.

Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ-6)
Age 49
This anti-pork crusader first caught my eye when I worked for a government waste watchdog group. His principled stance on earmarks, sometimes even bucking his own party, has earned him respect from across the political spectrum. He's the former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute - gotta love when someone with a think tank background and deep knowledge of conservative issues can fight for us in Congress. Now he's running for Senate where he can gain more influence and join up with fellow waste warriors Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn. Oh, and look at those pecs!

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL-11)
Age 34
This Tom Cruise in Top Gun lookalike achieved the rank of Major in United States Air Force and is still a pilot in the Air National Guard. Although he's only 34 and a freshman, he's earned the role of Deputy Republican Whip in the House. But waaaaay more impressive is the fact that he saved a woman's life in 2006 - the woman had her throat cut and Adam disarmed and subdued her attacker! He told Human Events, "When you think someone could be killed and you did nothing about it, you realize your life is not the most important thing." AMAZING! Who wouldn't want to be saved by this hunk?

Rep. Aaron Schock (IL-18)
Age 31
This "abtastic" Congressman is the youngest Member of Congress and the first member of my generation - children of the 80’s! Aaron's youth and toned physique have made him a DC celebrity, landing on magazine covers, TMZ, and tv shows. The man has style, but based on the abundance of photos on the internet, he is more comfortable without a shirt than in a suit. I apologize that I only have photos of Aaron shirtless ... ok, no, I'm not sorry!

Rep. Michael Grimm (NY-17)
Age: 42
This Marine served our country in the first Gulf War. Upon returning - how cool is this - he became an undercover FBI agent investigating the mafia and white collar crime on Wall Street. He even had a mafia nickname - "Mikey Suits!" As you can see below, he is a sharp dressed man, which every girl's crazy about. And could anything be more swoon-worthy than a photo of him holding a puppy with a Ronald Reagan portrait in the background?

Rep. Sean Duffy (WI-7)
Age 40
This professional lumberjack athlete - yes, professional lumberjack athlete! - began his career in the public eye on the tv show "Real World" Boston. After lawyering for a while, Sean announced he'd run against heavy favorite and powerful Democrat House Appropriations Chairman David Obey. But Obey saw the writing on the wall after key GOP victories like Scott Brown's and retired. Sean eventually went on to win election to Congress with 52% of the vote. I've met him in person and, along with having a beautiful wife and the cutest children, he is devastatingly handsome.

So that's my list of the top 10 hottest conservative Congressmen - what did you think? How do you rank them and is there anyone I missed? Enjoy!
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Happy Independence Day!

2012-07-04T11:08:00.000-04:00

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. ...

Chief Justice Roberts Sends Dangerous Message: He Can Be Manipulated

2012-07-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

CBS has confirmed what many speculated - Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote from a 5-4 majority with the conservative justices plus Kennedy to overrule Obamacare, to a 5-4 majority with the liberal justices to uphold it as a tax.

Although I knew Roberts is too much of a pragmatist, more concerned about the perception of the Court as an authority and his legacy, this section of CBS' report is still particularly disturbing (emphasis added):

Some of the conservatives, such as Justice Clarence Thomas, deliberately avoid news articles on the court when issues are pending (and avoid some publications altogether, such as The New York Times). They've explained that they don't want to be influenced by outside opinion or feel pressure from outlets that are perceived as liberal.
But Roberts pays attention to media coverage. As chief justice, he is keenly aware of his leadership role on the court, and he also is sensitive to how the court is perceived by the public.
There were countless news articles in May warning of damage to the court - and to Roberts' reputation - if the court were to strike down the mandate. Leading politicians, including the president himself, had expressed confidence the mandate would be upheld.

The courts are supposed to be independent and above politics. The notion that the President, the head of a competing branch of government, could browbeat the court into a decision is especially galling. Not to mention the blackmail from the mainstream media and liberal elites, threatening the legitimacy of the court based solely on the outcome of the decision. The fact that a chief justice could be influenced by these external forces is shameful and unbecoming of the prestigious position he holds.

I can't help but think such a chief justice is unfit for the role. His duty is to the Constitution, not to his own legacy, not to Congress or the President, and not to the perceptions of the Supreme Court.

The perceived authority of the Supreme Court has ebbed and flowed over the last 200 plus years. It is extremely short-sighted for Roberts to think he has to safe-guard today's perception. The Supreme Court is much bigger than him, it is not going away, no matter how much the liberals pout and cry. It is disgusting to think that their threats of a temper tantrum would make him change his mind. This is similar to when liberals wanted to abolish the Electoral College after Bush v. Gore. They ridiculously want to change the rules when they don't win the game. But our institutions, while not perfect, were expertly designed and are meant to endure temporary partisan heartache.

Justice is supposed to be blind, but Roberts is wide-eyed to the external pressures he is supposed to ignore. This is precisely why justices are given lifetime appointments - so that the politics of the day do not influence them. They are to have no constituencies of their own, no fickle voters to appease, their only duty is to their oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States."

One must stand with the Constitution, not cave into the threats to destroy it. Unfortunately, Roberts does not have that kind of courage. Yes, Chief Justice Roberts is a wimp. The chief justice of the Supreme Court should not be susceptible to blackmail and professional threats. This sets an extremely dangerous precedent. How can the Constitution be upheld when the leader in charge of safe-guarding it can be manipulated? What other outrageous laws could President Obama enact in - God forbid - a second term that Roberts will feel pressured to uphold?

Ironically, in twisting and contorting himself to supposedly protect the court's and his own legitimacy, he has further damaged the institution. Unlike Roberts, I can see the big picture. I know the court will endure. The question is, will the character of our once great republic under Obamacare?

How #ReplaceQuoteWithThingamajig Became a Worldwide Twitter Trend Covered in the New York Times

2012-06-01T19:11:00.001-04:00

Yikes! It's been almost a month since I last blogged! But now I have a good reason to - I'm in the New York Times!

It all started when Obama made this ridiculous and nonsensical statement:

"...if you have $3,000 a year extra, that helps you pay down your credit cards, that helps you go out and buy somethings that your family needs which is good for business. Maybe somebody will be replacing a -- some thingamajig for their furnace. They've been putting that off, but if they got that extra money they might just go out there and buy that thing. Right?" Obama said to laughter.

(By the way, here's my Tumblr reaction to hearing that Obama’s solution to the economy is buying a #thingamajig)

The Twitterverse was all abuzz over Obama's use of the word "thingamajig" in talking about economics. It just shows how hopelessly out of touch and over his head he is on the economy. #Thingamajig was already trending on Twitter from thousands of people mocking Obama. I started thinking about Obama's other gaffes and I came up with this tweet:

"The cost of #thingamajig's will necessarily skyrocket" #replacequotewiththingamajig
— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Then I thought of contrasting how ridiculous and undignified the word thingamajig was with famous quotes from Founders and presidents:

Mr. Gorbachev tear down this thingamajig! #replacequotewiththingamajig
— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Give me Liberty or give me thingamajigs! #replacequotewiththingamajig
— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Then it was just to, as Rush would say, illustrate absurdity by being absurd:

People in glass houses shouldn't throw thingamajigs #replacequotewiththingamajig
— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

I shared the #replacequotewiththingamajig hashtag with friends and it caught fire - it was the number 1 trend worldwide on Twitter this afternoon!

Apparently this was enough to attract the attention of a political reporter from the New York Times who saw that I created the first #replacequotewiththingamajig tweet and contacted me. She wrote:

“Thingamajig” was already trending on Twitter when AlexaShrugged, a conservative blogger, started the meme #replacequotewiththingamajig, which started trending worldwide.
...
(The original quote, by Mr. Obama in January 2008, is, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”)
“Then I thought how ridiculous it would sound in contrast to other presidents & famous quotes,” she said in an exchange of direct messages.
Other conservatives, like Redstate’s Erick Erickson, got in on the action. (His message was re-posted by Ryan Williams, another Romney spokesman.)

So that's the story of how I got my first worldwide trending topic on Twitter! It just shows the amazing power of conservatives on Twitter with the help of sites like Twitchy and how much influence we have in driving the debate so that even the NYT takes notice. Can't wait to continue flexing our muscles the rest of this campaign season!

Follow me on Twitter @AlexaShrugged

Best of #Julia Responses

2012-05-04T14:58:00.001-04:00

via RushLimbaugh.com

I am so impressed with how quick and witty the right was in responding to and debunking Obama's latest campaign prop "Julia." Along with getting #Julia trending with mocking tweets, at least two Twitter parody accounts (@WarOnJulia and @LifeOfJuIia) were created, and at least one Tumblr.

Here are some of the best alternative realities for Julia, under Obama, in roughly chronological order:

NakedDC - Who is Julia and why am I paying for all her sh*t? - By Emily Zanotti
Best Line:
At age three, Julia enters HeadStart, which was actually launched, not in Barack Obama’s presidency, but in 1964, and is, as you’d expect, basically the DMV of day care. According to a 1998 study, HeadStart seemed to actually disadvantage children, and in 2004, Congress had to expand enrollment in the program because – and this is key – poor people didn’t want it anymore basically because it sucked. Under Barack Obama, spending dramatically increased for HeadStart, but as the New York Times pointed out, he didn’t require any changes to the program, so right now, it costs taxpayers around $22,000 per child that its not really helping. A comparable private day care would only cost the American taxpayer $9,500.

Heritage Foundation - A Better Life For Julia

Best Line:
With conservative reforms: Julia will be a happy three year old unburdened by the federal government. She will not be $50,0000 in debt the day she is born, and her parents will have access to private preschool providers of choice.

Breitbart Big Government - Obama Campaign: Romney Would Ruin Life of Composite Woman - By Ben Shapiro
Best Line:
Apparently, nothing happens in Julia’s life until she’s 17. There’s a reason for that – America’s public school system is an utter failure, and Obama knows it. But Obama says that Julia at age 17 is flourishing (presumably she isn’t one of the approximately 25 percent of all students who drop out of school, or one of the 40 percent of black or Hispanic students who do so).

Human Events - Julia’s life of dependency and servitude - By John Hayward
Best Line:
According to the Congressional Budget Office, when Julia is 18 years old, the weight of Barack Obama’s debt will cause the entire national economy to shut down. When Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, was informed of this by Rep. Paul Ryan, he laughed nervously and said, “We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is, we don’t like yours.”

National Review - "Julia" - By Kevin Williamson
Best Line:
22 years: After working in the bar for a while, Julia decides she likes it and wants to open her own place. But she’ll need capital to get that done. Under Obama, there is little or no credit available to small entrepreneurs, because we never got around to fixing the problems in the banking system, instead choosing to futz around with things like the disclosures on credit-card offers and micromanaging swipe fees and grandstanding about bonuses. Julia does not open her new business, and she doesn’t hire any other Julias to build, decorate, supply, or staff it.

Yid With Lid - Julia's Son,"Barack Obama Ruined My Mother's Life" - By Jeff Dunetz
Best Line:
Julia finally has a job…but has to quit because of the high commuting costs. Under Obama (who has been President for 11 years so far) gas is now 27 dollars a gallon. Because the country is approacing insolvency everyone who makes more than $40,000/year has to pay 80% of their income in taxes (and it’s not helping). On the bright side, she still has health coverage (although thepremiums have skyrocketed)and still gets free condoms.

Townhall - Cradle to Grave: The Obama Campaign's Fantasy for American Life - By Kevin Glass
Best Line:
This is Julia at age 37 - which means if Julia is 3 years old today, it's the year 2046. If Barack Obama's budget is followed, the economy will have long ago collapsed under the weight of debt and deficit brought on by out of control entitlement spending. But Obama is going to go on pretending that these programs are just fine, and both the American economy and Julia are doing fine in 2046. ...Julia must be living in a kind of alternate reality where, after President Obama leaves office, a serious budget reformer comes in with significant entitlement reforms that get debt and deficit under control. That would be the only assumption possible considering Julia's relatively normal life at age 37.

Commentary - "The Life Of Julia" - By Alana Goodman
Best Line:
Age 65 – It’s 2077, and publicly held debt is now 180 percent of the GDP. But Julia will still be covered by Medicare “as we know it,” at least if President Obama was reelected in 2012. That’s right, no Medicare reform for the next half-century, according to Obama.

Hot Air - The cradle-to-grave, government-supported existence of “Julia” - By Ed Morrissey
Best Line:
65 years old – My, how time flies! (Do women do nothing of value between 42 and 65?) Julia enrolls in Medicare, which ceased to exist decades earlier, thanks to the fact that Obama and Tim Geithner didn’t have a plan to address the debt crisis — all they knew was they didn’t like anyone else’s plan.

TheLifeOfJulia.com - By @partiallypro & @charlievidal
Best Line:
Under Government Care: Social Security isn't nearly enough money for Julia to live off of; in fact, it's bankrupt. Julia starts gardening and painting fences to make ends meet. Her degenerative arthritis makes life very painful, but a government health care panel has ruled that knee replacement surgery is medically unnecessary. Her son Zach is unable to help with medical costs because he has been unable to hold a steady job due to the poor economy his mother's generation left him.

Update:

Sooper Mexican - The Life of Julia Under Obama and Mitt:
Best Graphic:

UPDATE: 5/7

Video from the PA GOP:

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The War on Women Like Ann Romney

2012-04-12T14:57:00.000-04:00

The internet has exploded at Democratic campaign adviser Hilary Rosen (who has visited the White House 35 times, and works for the PR firm that represents Sandra Fluke) who attacked Ann Romney, saying the stay at home mom "has actually never worked a day in her life."

So many emotions: anger at Rosen and all the feminazis she represents, disgust at the personal attack on a mother of 5 who suffers from MS and survived breast cancer, and yet schadenfreude that the "War On Women" lie is blowing up in Democrats' faces and turning the tide in our favor for once.

Rosen was attempting to launch a class warfare attack by acting as if only the super rich can afford to be stay at home moms. She's so out of touch in her little liberal elite world that she has no clue what millions of women know: women of all classes sacrifice and forgo things to be with their children because it's important, not because they're lazy or rich.

Rosen tries to say "most" women can't afford to stay at home like Ann Romney, but if that's true, who's fault is it that times are still so tough now?! If moms are forced to work, it's because the economy is so bad and we need a businessman like Mitt Romney who HAS run a business, unlike Obama, to fix what Obama has done to prolong this recession!

Liberals want the government to take over the role of daddy - Rosen bemoans the hypothetical woman "whose daycare funding is being cut off because of the Romney-Ryan budget." How about the fact that that woman's dependence on government-funded daycare is a result of the Obama economy not giving her better opportunities? How about the woman who can't be a stay at home mom anymore because of President Obama's lack of any kind of a budget or economic recovery plan? And let's not forget that of the people who have lost their jobs under Obama, an astounding 92.3% of them are women!

Economics aren't Obama's only women problem. Remember when his own staffers said his White House was a "genuinely hostile workplace to women" and "the president has a real woman problem." Even Christina Romer said she "felt like a piece of meat." Now this week comes the news that women on Obama's staff are paid 18% less than men. I guess Obama talks so much about the female pay gap because he participates in it himself!

I think it's clear who's waging the real "War on Women."

President Obama, Are You Serious? Are You Serious?!

2012-04-03T10:20:00.000-04:00

President Obama made some unprecedented and extraordinary statements yesterday about Obamacare and its prospects at the Supreme Court, to which I had to say, Pelosi-style, "Are you serious? Are you serious?!" For starters, he said:

I am confident the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected Congress. ...

As many have pointed out, this is a laughably unprecedented and extraordinary definition of the words "unprecedented" and "extraordinary." It's as if President Obama thinks the Supreme Court has never struck down a law before! Or that Congress has never passed an unconstitutional law in its history!

After his Solicitor General got terrible reviews for his oral arguments, which some think put the case in jeopardy, Obama is trying to reframe the debate in case he loses. If Obamacare goes down, Obama wants you to think it is because of an activist, extreme Supreme Court - not because the law itself is an unconstitutional federal intrusion into your life.

And is Obama really calling a bill that had zero Republican votes and passed 219-212 in the House a "strong" majority? Obama did do better in the Senate, on a 60-39 party-line vote taken on Christmas Eve. But where's that "strong majority" now? Less than a month after the Senate vote, Scott Brown was the first Republican to be elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in decades, in part because he ran as the 41st vote to stop Obamacare. Today, the Democrats are down to 51 Senators and the House saw a 60 person swing and a switch over to GOP control since the vote, which played a huge part in the 2010 elections.

In his weakened state, Obama is reduced to lecturing conservatives on what he thinks we say:

I just remind conservative commentators that for years we have heard the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. That an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. ...

Obama seems to think that simply striking down a law passed by Congress is what makes a ruling judicial activism - as if not acceding to whatever the legislative branch wants is judicial excess. But it's not whether a law is upheld or struck down, it is whether the law was Constitutional and whether an originalist or strict constructionalist theory was applied that matters.

Judicial activism is about judges who disregard the Constitution and make up rights out of whole cloth. Like "penumbras, formed by emanations" that magically find rights to abortion or separation of church and state hiding in the text of the Constitution all along. It's about illiterate judges who uphold gun bans despite the clear wording of the 2nd Amendment. It's about courts that think the the Founders' original intent in the 1st Amendment was to ban prayer. Obama has no idea what judicial activism is, for him, words only mean what he wants them to mean, only at that particular point in time.

Finally, let's hear why Obama thinks Obamacare should be upheld:

I am confident this will be upheld because it should be upheld. ...

Ok, nevermind, I take it all back - Obama's astounding powers of persuasion and impeccable reasoning skills have convinced me of the error of my ways! He wins!
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UPDATE: Looks like the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is taking Obama's words seriously:

In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.
...
In the hearing, Judge Smith says the president's comments suggesting courts lack power to set aside federal laws "have troubled a number of people" and that the suggestion "is not a small matter."
The bottom line from Smith: A three-page letter with specifics. He asked DOJ to discuss "judicial review, as it relates to the specific statements of the president, in regard to Obamacare and to the authority of the federal courts to review that legislation."
"I would like to have from you by noon on Thursday -- that's about 48 hours from now -- a letter stating what is the position of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, in regard to the recent statements by the president," Smith said. "What is the authority is of the federal courts in this regard in terms of judicial review?"

I'm glad there are consequences for Obama's irresponsible words. This is part of why the Founders' system of checks and balances is so brilliant. Instead of each branch colluding with each other, they are pitted in competition with each other, with each not wanting the others to overstep their bounds and encroach into their territory. Here the judiciary branch is pushing back against an executive assault on its Constitutional powers. This system is meant to break allegiances across the branches on partisan lines, but alas that has been happening far too often these days.
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Obama Stands With Planned Parenthood - Get Rid of Them Both

2012-03-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

This video for Planned Parenthood that President Obama has made in his official capacity as President of the United States - the end shows www.whitehouse.gov - saddens, sickens, and angers me. Of course, it's not a surprise that a man who voted for infanticide would so lovingly embrace the biggest abortion provider in the country, but it should still outrage us and renew our commitment to fight.

In the video Obama says:

“So when some professional politicians casually say that they’ll get rid of Planned Parenthood, don’t forget what they’re really talking about: eliminating the funding for preventive care that millions of women rely on and leaving them to fend for themselves."

No, Mr. President, don't YOU forget what we're really talking about: the elimination of millions of unborn babies from our population and abortion as "preventive care."

President Obama says Planned Parenthood fights for "the woman with a new lease on life because a mammogram caught her cancer in time" - except Planned Parenthoods don't do mammograms, they only refer them - and "the woman who was able to choose when to start a family because she could afford contraception." I thought women weren't able to afford contraception and that's why Obamacare made it "free," but now he's saying Planned Parenthood is doing the job? Good! I expect he'll repeal the contraception mandate that violates religious conscience at any moment!

The President finishes with the perfect call to action for conservatives and pro-lifers to defeat him at the polls this November: "I know you’ll never stop fighting to protect the health care and the choices that America’s women deserve and as long as I have the privilege of being your president, neither will I."

By thanking Planned Parenthood and standing by their work, Obama is voicing his support for some very despicable things: the deaths of millions of unborn babies; the sexual exploitation of minors; the cover up of sex abuse perpetrated on children and incest victims; the enabling of sex trafficking; the fraud and abuse of millions in taxpayer dollars; the non-FDA approved administration of abortion drugs that led to the deaths of 4 California women; the acceptance of racist donations; and more.

President Obama alluded to Mitt Romney saying he'd get rid of Planned Parenthood's funding - which amounts to over $360 million dollars from federal, state, and local taxpayers of PP's Billion dollar yearly budget (check out the page labeled 29 of their 2008-09 annual report). Planned Parenthood takes lives and commits crimes, they do not deserve our hard-earned tax money. Luckily, so far 9 states have defunded Planned Parenthood of over $60 million, but we need more states and the federal government to kick PP of the dole. But as long as Obama is president, Planned Parenthood will remain strong, so we need to kick him out as well.

Related Posts:

McDonnell Caves on Ultrasounds, Where Do We Go From Here
If Ultrasounds are Rape, Abortionists Have Been Raping Women for Years!
No, Planned Parenthood, Birth Control is NOT "Basic Health Care"
Debunking the Myth that 99% of Women Are Using Birth Control
Controlling the Birth Control Debate
Susan G. Komen for the ~~WIN~~: FAIL What Planned Parenthood doesn't want you to know
How Planned Parenthood Exploits Minors
Planned Parenthood exposed again
Abortion ends in death. Can you live with that?
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Nothing to See Here, Just Obama Embracing Another Radical

2012-03-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

Obama hugging Bell

Apparently Obama's embrace of radical professor Derrick Bell isn't news because it happened in the past. Just like Obama palling around with terrorists Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Khalid Al Masour. And who could forget the 20+ years he spent listening to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Even though some of these radical associations were discussed during the 2008 campaign, the media did not fully explore them and much of the public didn't believe they were true. But now looking back in 2012 they carry new meaning - perhaps those caught up in the excitement of "hope and change" who've been mugged by reality will finally open their hearts and minds to the truth. Maybe the Obama presidency seen through this context will finally make sense to them and they will realize how Obama's extreme leftist agenda threatens the country. That is why this is news and why it must be kept in the public's consciousness through election day.

Barack Obama asks that you "open your hearts and minds to the words of Derrick Bell" - Breitbart.com has all you need to know about this radical professor:

Derrick Bell: Liberal Whites Are Oppressors

Derrick Bell: Racism a Permanent Part of U.S. Culture

Derrick Bell's Sci-Fi Film Portrays Reagan As Alien Slave Trader

Derrick Bell: Racism 'Important Stabilizing Function In Society'

Derrick Bell: USA Must Admit We Are Permanently Racist

Derrick Bell: Racism 'Permanent Part' Of US Culture

Derrick Bell: I Write My Views In Fiction Because They're Too 'Theatening'

Bell, Farrakhan BFFs

Radical Racialist Derrick Bell: American Whites Would Sell Blacks For Goods In a Future Bad Economy

Obama Assigned Reading: Bell Says Whites Might Enslave Blacks

And Commentary reports:

Derrick Bell in 1994: ‘Jewish Neoconservative Racists’

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Call Them Out By Name: Sandra Fluke, David Gregory and David Friend

2012-03-05T12:02:00.001-05:00

After going to an Andrew Breitbart memorial event on Saturday, I am more inspired than ever to fight back against the Left. Three things that were said stood out to me in that regard. Number one, Dana Loesch said we need to follow Breitbart and hit Leftists by "calling them out by name." Then Brandon Darby mentioned that the Left was taking advantage of our grief and we were losing on Limbaugh. Finally, I'm struck with the image of Breitbart himself in this tribute video looking straight at the camera and simply saying, "War."

This is war. I am going to defend Limbaugh from the radical Leftists who want to take him off the air. And I am going to call out our opponents by name. Starting with Sandra Fluke, David Gregory and David Friend.

Sandra Fluke.
Sandra Fluke is a 30 year old woman who is president of Law Students for Reproductive Justice and went to Georgetown Law despite knowing that their insurance does not cover birth control - because they are a Catholic institution - and made it her mission to force them to change their policy. Remember when I mentioned how feminazis lied and said a Congressional hearing on religious concerns about the Obamacare contraceptive mandate was only men? They had wanted Sandra Fluke to testify - I guess Allison Dabbs Garrett and Dr. Laura Champion, the two women who DID testify at the "all-male" panel, just don't count as women because they don't toe the radical feminist line.

When the 30 year old woman, Sandra Fluke, did finally speak, she claimed that she and her fellow law school attendees were suffering under the strain of paying for their own birth control out of pocket - she said it costs $3,000 over a 3 year law school term!

I have no idea what kind of birth control she was claiming cost $3,000. Out of pocket, condoms are free or about $1, the Pill costs as low as $4 a month/ $10 over three months, an IUD is $500 but lasts 5 years, etc. There really is not a birth control that should cost $3,000 over 3 years (you can't count the first doctor's visit because obviously the yearly OB-GYN exam is covered by her insurance), this woman is vastly overpaying. You'd think by age 30 she'd have shopped around and figured out the most economical solutions to her problem. Why does her Catholic law school - and the rest of us - have to pay for her bad shopping choices?

[UPDATED: On February 7th, before her testimony, Georgetown's law newspaper wrote about some of her background in radically crusading on this issue, including a campaign to lobby GU and the Obama Administration, and even a sex discrimination claim. She explicitly says she wants to make GU's policy illegal:

Former LSRJ Co-President Sandra Fluke, 3L, organized a lobbying campaign to try to persuade the university to reverse course before the mandate was announced in August 2011. When the campaign was unsuccessful, the group turned its efforts to lobbying the Obama administration to extend the mandate to universities like Georgetown, and even considered filing a sex discrimination claim against the school.
“We’re very excited that these regulations may make that unnecessary and would make it crystal clear to the administration that continuing this policy would be illegal,” Fluke said.

Another blogger dug into her background and wonders if she's being managed by the Glover Park Group.]

In regards to Rush Limbaugh, he was making the point that she wants others to pay for her to have sex. She wants to be paid for having sex by forcing Catholics and their insurers (i.e. every one of us who will be forced to buy insurance under Obamacare) to pay for her birth control. He literally shouldn't have said "slut" because a slut doesn't get paid and he later retracts, but he did also say "prostitute," which better fit his analogy. Clearly not a well thought out rant as he goes back and forth on several words. Here is the transcript from 2/29/12 for which Rush has since apologized:

"RUSH: What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word. Okay, so she's not a slut. She's "round heeled." I take it back."

Ridiculously, but predictably, Democrats are seizing on Rush Limbaugh's statement to do two things they love to do: change the subject and raise money. Even the President of the United States took time out of his busy day (presumably filled with strategy sessions on how to save our economy, lower the price of gas, and get Americans back to work) to call this 30 year old woman who shamelessly told the world about her overspending problem (hey, they have something in common!).

In response, Laura Ingraham tweeted, "Ed Schultz called me a slut last May...still waiting for Obama's call" (more on Schultz later). Don't forget this is the same president who whined about having to take more pictures with the troops! I hope he called from the DNC and not the White House because this was a purely cynical campaign op and Democrats are raising millions off this and the media are making in-kind contributions with all the attention they've brought to the issue - which brings me to David Gregory.

David Gregory.
David Gregory is the host of NBC's Sunday morning show "Meet the Press" who spent the first 5 minutes of his interview with Newt Gingrich this week trying to push the liberal line on Limbaugh and birth control. God Bless Newt Gingrich for slapping back at Gregory - Newsbusters recorded Newt's great response:

"You know, David, I am astonished at the desperation of the elite media to avoid rising gas prices, to avoid the President's apology to religious fanatics in Afghanistan, to avoid a trillion dollar deficit, to avoid the longest period of unemployment since the Great Depression, and to suddenly decide that Rush Limbaugh is the great national crisis of this week."

Newt continued:

"There is no debate about access to contraception. There is a debate, which Cardinal George of Chicago has pointed out, is a war against the Catholic Church. You do have this weird situation where President Obama apologizes to Islamic extremists while waging war against the Catholic Church."

David Gregory: useful idiot of the Left. I hear the other Sunday morning shows made the issue a focus as well, but Gregory has the distinction of getting his butt whooped on it so I wanted to rub it in and highlight Newt's great response.

Video of the Newt v. Gregory exchange:

David Friend.
David Friend is an Obama campaign donor and the CEO of Carbonite who decided after Rush Limbaugh apologized to still withdraw ads from his program, despite the fact that Carbonite still advertises for other men who call women sluts, Ed Schultz and Howard Stern. Friend wrote on the Carbonite website explaining the decision to drop advertising:

“No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. ..."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he has no idea that Fluke is in her 30's. He probably thinks, like the myth the media has been perpetuating, that she's of undergrad college age. I can't imagine him bringing up his own daughters or calling her a "young lady" (how patronizing, by the way) unless he thought she was in the 18-22 range, but I guess it's possible. And if that's the case, then he should be equally upset that Laura Ingraham, a woman in her 40's (an age his daughters will be someday), was called a slut by Ed Schultz, one of the men his company sponsors. Ben Howe's on the case asking, Carbonite Drops Ads from Rush Limbaugh but Not Ed Schultz?

And how about him calling Fluke "courageous and well-intentioned?" Puh-LEAZE! As if she was an innocent victim who was thrown into this, instead of an adult liberal activist who crusaded on this issue and ran to the press and the world to demand that the government force the religious institution she attends to violate its beliefs and give her contraception for free. Begging for a government handout is not courageous and her years of activism on this very issue shows she was not well-intentioned. Fluke knew full well what she was getting into and as Ed Morrissey said, "If you want your sexual choices to remain private, don’t use the government to force other people to subsidize them."

Before they made the decision to pull their ads, Friend said that "the outcry over Limbaugh is the worst we’ve ever seen." Well, Dittoheads, let's make the outcry over them dropping Limbaugh the worst they've ever seen! Here is Carbonite's contact page, and be sure to Tweet them and Facebook them!

This is war. We lost an amazing leader when Breitbart died, but pieces of him live on in the hearts of millions of us now. He is still here.

UPDATE: People are having fun with making petitions on WhiteHouse.gov:

We Petition the Obama Administration to:

apologize to Laura Ingraham for Ed Schultz's offensive remarks about her, as seems to be White House policy now.

return Bill Maher's $1million dollar donation unless and until he apologizes for calling Sarah Palin a "slut."

and my personal favorite:

Resign.

UPDATE 2: The Media Research Center has an I Stand With Rush petition that I just signed, please share:

The Petition States:

I stand with Rush Limbaugh and appreciate the massive contribution that he has made to the conservative movement and our nation over the last 25 years. Rush has apologized. But the radical left will never accept it because they despise him and want him off the air. I condemn attempts by radical left-wing organizations and the media to censor Rush and his commonsense conservative message.

Related Posts:
No, Planned Parenthood, Birth Control is NOT "Basic Health Care"
Debunking the Myth that 99% of Women Are Using Birth Control
Controlling the Birth Control Debate
.

Andrew Breitbart RIP

2012-03-02T01:07:00.000-05:00

Like many, when I heard the news of Andrew Breitbart's death, my immediate thought was that it was a stunt by him to see what the reaction would be to his death. Unfortunately, it was no stunt, it was all too real, with a 43 year old husband and father of 4 gone far too soon.

The amazing thing about Breitbart is that so many have stories about him. It is a deep loss to the conservative blogging community because he was a friend to us. In fact, it was practically impossible to have gone to an event he was at like CPAC or RightOnline and NOT have spoken to him at least once. He really cared about the others with him in the trenches fighting the Left, and he would talk to you like he knew you.

The day before CPAC 2012, he was at my office. We talked about the Occupyers' plans to disrupt CPAC and as we were talking he was composing a tweet and asking my advice about it. It was very interesting how he carefully thought about it, going through two or three revisions, changing words, etc. He wanted to toy with the Occupyers and get them to think a lot more was happening to counter them at CPAC. So he came up with this tweet:

Not sure how I feel about this dog feces catapult (40 plus foot reach) & horse urine balloon as #OccupyCPAC counterplot rumor. Kids.
— AndrewBreitbart (@AndrewBreitbart) February 8, 2012

The next day at CPAC he came into the Citizens United Blogger Briefing on "Occupy Unmasked" with a Guy Fawkes mask and cape, an image which some have told me is one of the last memories they have of Breitbart:

As usual, Breitbart was brilliant, taking down the radical left and Occupy anarchists. I only wish that I had gotten a picture with him, but stupidly, I thought I'd have plenty of opportunities to in the future. I will not make that mistake again. Carpe diem. That's how Breitbart lived.

RIP

.
UPDATE: Get a twibbon here for your Twitter avatar that says #IAmAndrewBreitbart.

McDonnell Caves on Ultrasounds, Where Do We Go From Here

2012-02-22T18:00:00.002-05:00

Truth lost out

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell caved on his support for the S.B. 484 ultrasound bill and even used the language of the lefties like "invasive" and "consent" (see my debunking of the ultrasound-is-rape-charge here) to defend his reversal:

Thus, having looked at the current proposal, I believe there is no need to direct by statute that further invasive ultrasound procedures be done. Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.

This statement just opens him up to so many attacks, from all sides. First, is he admitting that he hadn't already looked at the current proposal that he had previously stated support for?? Good job, gov'na!

Second, his words dangerously echo the liberal idea that ANY law pertaining to abortion isn't the "proper role for the state" and puts the state between a woman and her abortionist. This is a slippery slope - leading to the question of what IS the proper role of the state in terms of mandating informed consent on abortion. Obviously pro-choicers would say there is none and McDonnell's words must hearten them; they will be sure to throw them back in his face should the subject come up again. It will be difficult for him to defend Virginia's informed consent 2001 statute that he helped pass as a delegate (and which he cited in his decision) in light of his new view of the "proper" role of the state.

Third, he acts as if abortion is just "another medical procedure" - like pro-aborts who compare it to removing tonsils, a mole or a tumor. Abortion is not just "another medical procedure," it stops a beating heart and ends a life, there are unique and compelling interests that the state - and all people of good conscience - have regarding it.

Where Do We Go From Here

The most frustrating thing is that, once again, hysterically unsupportable lies won the day and pro-lifers like me who fought to spread the truth were betrayed, just like with Komen. THIS. MUST. END. NOW. The question is, how do we regroup, learn, and counter the next culture war ambush?

Apparently hysteria like MILLIONS OF POOR MINORITY WOMEN WILL DIE OF BREAST CANCER IN THE STREETS!!!!11! and REPUBLICANS WANT TO BAN BIRTH CONTROL!!!!11!! and VIRGINIA WANTS TO RAPE WOMEN!!!11! has been affective for radical lefties. So do we need to be more reactive and hysterical, thinking of the most extreme, ridiculous sound bytes and scream them from the top of our lungs like the left does? This is difficult for many on the right to do but I do admit to occasionally enjoy the indulgence of fighting fire with fire.

Perhaps along with a little bomb throwing, we need to work on our coordination and anticipation skills. In hindsight, this kerfuffle was entirely predictable and pro-lifers should have been prepared for it. Even if we were caught flatfooted, we should have begun hitting back hard last week and providing cover for the VA GOP immediately. All the pro-life groups and activists should have coordinated and begun a PR strategy to address the media and a campaign to write to VA state reps to encourage their support and defense of the bill as soon as it happened. Instead - maybe because we thought the rape charges were too ridiculous to be taken seriously - we let it languish, which allowed the lie to fester and spread. It became a part of the national conversation and local politicians got scared.

Bottom line: we need to get better at this - ALL of us on the right side of the political spectrum do - especially if we want a chance at defeating Obama.

Incompetence and Confusion Abound

(Added 2/23/12) Reading this Washington Post article, "McDonnell, Virginia Republicans back off mandatory invasive ultrasounds," it is shocking how none of the major players knew what was going on or what the bill would entail - from the pro-abortion lobby, to the GOP representatives who sponsored it, to the Governor who said he'd sign it. Check out the key words I've bolded:

Confusion over the legislation and ultrasounds — and considerable national media attention — preceded the unraveling of the bill. The original measure stated, simply, that a woman needed an ultrasound before an abortion. Many lawmakers did not understand that at the young fetal age abortions usually occur, the invasive vaginal ultrasound would be needed to establish gestational age, as required by the bill.
...
Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester), who introduced the measure, said she did not realize that the ultrasound would not be external, and she said she still was not certain that would be required under the legislation. But she said she would move to strike her bill because of that uncertainty.
...
“I had no concept about this other issue,’’ she said. “It didn’t come up in the committee, it didn’t come up in the subcommittee. I’m still not sure if it’s right or not right.”
...
McDonnell’s announcement came a day after legislators and governor’s staff members, including Chief of Staff Martin Kent and Secretary of Health Bill Hazel, huddled in his office Tuesday night to hash out a compromise after learning that some ultrasounds could be more invasive than first thought.
...
Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said that after years of lobbying legislators on similar bills, she didn’t know the ultrasound would be a vaginal one until a colleague at the National Women’s Law Center informed her the first week of the session.

Unbelievable! I can't believe the incompetence and confusion from the representatives who sponsored the bill and the governor who had been outspoken in his support of it. Shame on them for not researching the issue so they would be prepared for the lying attacks and could counter them, shame on me for assuming they had already done basic research before getting behind an issue! I suppose I can take some comfort in the fact that the pro-abortion lobby didn't know either and only discovered the trans-vaginal angle about a month ago. It just sucks when the people who are supposed to represent our side do such a horrible job and make us all look bad by association.

This delegate sums up my feelings on this episode of betrayal, and kudos to him for chastising his fellow turncoat Republicans:

“Instead of confronting the misinformation that’s going on here, some Republicans want to back away from this,’’ said Marshall (R-Prince William). “Instead of confronting the public with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we — the descendants of those who fought the British empire — are sounding the call for retreat.”

UPDATE 3/7/12: McDonnell signs a modified ultrasound bill.

If Ultrasounds are Rape, Abortionists Have Been Raping Women for Years!

2012-02-21T12:13:00.001-05:00

[Update: New post - McDonnell Caves on Ultrasounds, Where Do We Go From Here]

Goodness, it's getting hard to keep up with all the new pro-abortion hysterics, it seems as if a new one comes up every day (Obama is happy, I'm sure)! From Komen temporarily defunding Planned Parenthood, to Obamacare mandating free contraception, now it's a bill in Virginia that would require ultrasounds be performed to determine the gestational age of an unborn baby to be aborted.

Gestational age is important for determining which abortion procedure to execute - Jill Stanek has some examples in Virginia of abortionists disciplined for complications arising from their misjudgment of the age of the babies they attempted to kill. The outrage is that pro-choice extremists are trying to say that the ultrasound requirement, because some ultrasounds are trans-vaginal, is "state-sanctioned rape!" Yep.

As Red State "streiff" blogger notes, trans-vaginal ultrasounds are not specifically required by the bill (S.B. 484), only that an ultrasound "be made pursuant to standard medical practice in the community." In most cases, an abdominal ultrasound will be used. Although trans-vaginal ultrasounds are better for detecting pregnancies between 4 1/2-6 weeks, that is only a short period of time in which they are considered more reliable than abdominal ultrasounds.

Additionally, according to the National Abortion Federation, some women may choose them: "Some patients find TVU [transvaginal ultrasound] more comfortable than TAU [Transabdominal ultrasound] because TVU does not require a distended bladder." But of course, feminazis don't listen to reason, they just want distract you with the word RAPE!!! (Google "The Big Lie," by the way, and tell me this is not it.)

RHRealityCheck.com - a rabidly extreme pro-abortion website was among the first to say that an ultrasound is "State-Sanctioned Rape," bizarrely citing this definition of rape from VA law:

§ 18.2-61. Rape.
A. If any person has sexual intercourse with a complaining witness, whether or not his or her spouse, or causes a complaining witness, whether or not his or her spouse, to engage in sexual intercourse with any other person and such act is accomplished (i) against the complaining witness's will, by force, threat or intimidation of or against the complaining witness or another person; or (ii) through the use of the complaining witness's mental incapacity or physical helplessness; or (iii) with a child under age 13 as the victim, he or she shall be guilty of rape.

Um, explain to me again how the abortionist is having "sexual intercourse" with his victim against their will in this situation ... ? (Although that has happened!) I thought there would be something in there about penetration with an object at the very least! Pretty much big fail in utilizing legal definitions there, RHRC. Sounds like they are the ones in need of a reality check.

But that doesn't stop useful idiot Dahlia Lithwick from jumping on the theme of rape in her article in Slate. Here's a list of all the ways she alludes to trans-vaginal ultrasound as rape:

"bodily intrusion," "forcibly penetrated for no medical reason," "physicians who would merely like to perform their jobs without physically violating their own patients," "physical intrusion by government into the vagina of a pregnant woman," "unwanted penetration with a medical device violates either the undue burden test or the right to bodily autonomy," and "physically invading a woman’s body against her will."

She finishes off with "One might hope that even the benign act of giving women 'more information' not be allowed to happen by forcing it between her legs." Right, as if she's just fine with the regular trans-abdominal ultrasounds that will result from this law, it's only the trans-vaginal part she has a problem with! Hey, you know what actually is a state-sanctioned, vaginally penetrative, invasive procedure? An abortion!

Regarding the idea of women not giving "consent," Virginia S.B. 484 says that the ultrasound is "a component of informed consent to an abortion," which means it is consented to if an abortion is consented to - contrary to feminazis trying to say it would be forced without consent and thus rape. Women are told ahead of time that an ultrasound will be involved, so the idea that it is "physically invading a woman’s body against her will" is ridiculous. Furthermore, ultrasounds are already a part of the abortion process in many cases, but pro-choice radicals won't let that get in the way of a good false rape charge to further their agenda.

The Slate rape-scare screed also cites an American Independent (TAI) article titled "Virginia ultrasound bill at odds with medical standards," which sounds like it's going to tell you that these ultrasounds are medically unnecessary. TAI turns to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to find out "when it is appropriate to administer a trans-vaginal ultrasound." The ACOG helpfully pointed out that abortion was not on their list, but lo and behold, the list includes "to estimate gestational age," which is exactly what the VA bill calls for the ultrasound to do!

TAI also notes that the ACOG has a pamphlet on what to expect in preparation of a first trimester abortion which includes this sentence: "An ultrasound exam may be done to confirm the date of the pregnancy." But WAIT, how can that be! I thought the ultrasound bill was at odds with medical standards! Here the ACOG tells patients to prepare for an ultrasound for the exact reasons the VA bill states! This means that many women are already getting ultrasounds before abortions - are they being raped against their will by the state, too?

In fact, Commentary says "Ultrasounds Already Part of VA Planned Parenthood Abortion Procedure" – is Slate going to say these women are being "forcibly penetrated for no medical reason?" Are abortionists who do trans-vaginal ultrasounds already "physically violating their own patients?" If so, let it be known that the "sacred" big abortion business Planned Parenthood rapes women!

So sorry, pro-aborts, but ultrasounds and determining the gestational age of unborn babies are important - along with the ACOG and Planned Parenthood, your Archbishops of Abortion, the National Abortion Federation (NAF), leaders even say so! NAF's "A Provider’s Guide to Medical Abortion" page that streiff found says, in the section titled Ultrasound Imaging in Early Pregnancy:

"In the context of medical abortion, ultrasonography can help determine gestational age, assess the outcome of the procedure, and diagnose ectopic pregnancy and other types of abnormal pregnancy."

NAF says determining gestational age is especially important for women undergoing "medical" abortions, i.e. through medication:

"Clinicians who provide medical abortion must be able to diagnose pregnancy and estimate gestational age. Accurate estimation of gestational age is essential, as the efficacy of the FDA-approved mifepristone/misoprostol regimen and of methotrexate/misoprostol regimens for medical abortion decreases as the pregnancy advances beyond 49 days' gestation.
...medical abortion researchers and many providers in the United States have routinely used ultrasound for gestational dating.."

Thus, again radical pro-choicers' hysterics are proven wrong, unfortunately days after their poisonous headlines are in the public consciousness. As they say, a lie can run around the world before the truth has time to put on its shoes. Time to fight fire with fire and turn pro-aborts' words against them - if ultrasounds are rape, then abortionists have been raping women for years!

______________________

UPDATE 2/22/12: The truth has finally put on its shoes, but is it too late? (Emphasis below is mine, as always)
LifeNews.com: Planned Parenthood Rape Myth Debunked, 99% Do Ultrasounds:

Abortion advocates in Virginia have come under heavy criticism for equating the ultrasound legislation there would allow women to see before an abortion to rape. Yet, while abortion backers say having an ultrasound is like getting raped, a 2003 study shows 99% of Planned Parenthood abortion facilities do them beforehand.
...
“Vaginal ultrasound was always performed before the early surgical abortion at 59 (83%) sites, under certain conditions at 11 (16%) sites, and never at one (1%) site,” the study noted.
“Vaginal ultrasound was always performed after early surgical abortion at 18 (26%) sites, under certain conditions at 46 (66%) sites, and never at 6 (8%) sites.”
...
“Vaginal ultrasound was very common before the medical abortion, with 37 (92%) sites reporting that they always performed it,” the study continued. “Vaginal ultrasound was always performed after early medical abortion in 35 (87%) sites, performed under certain conditions in 4 (10%) sites, and never performed in 1 (3%) site.”

The research report’s authors also noted that the frequency of the use of vaginal ultrasounds before abortion is not limited to the abortion centers surveyed, but common practice in the abortion industry.

“Almost all sites offering early medical abortion always performed a vaginal ultrasound before and after the abortion, consistent with common practice in the US,” the study said.
The study also indicated some abortion centers will not actually perform an abortion without first performing a vaginal ultrasound.

Americans United for Life: Abortion Proponents Argue Against Medical Standards of Care:

What happens when abortion providers don’t follow practices of standard medical care?
You get Kermit Gosnell. Or Steven Brigham and Nicola Riley. You get unsafe, unsanitary conditions.
You get a “back alley.”
...
A basic component of an ultrasound law is a required standard of care. A “standard of care” is “a statement of actions consistent with minimum safe professional conduct under specific conditions, as determined by professional peer organizations.” Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary (20th ed. 2005). In the ultrasound context, this means that abortion providers are to perform an ultrasound in a professional manner consistent with the way ultrasound is performed across the abortion or obstetrics communities.

But abortion proponents are arguing against including a basic standard of care in ultrasound requirements.

For example, ultrasound bills are currently making their way through the Virginia legislature. Contained in these bills is a provision that the ultrasound “shall be made pursuant to standard medical practice in the community.” In other words, abortion providers must follow a basic standard of care. They shouldn’t conduct the ultrasound haphazardly. They shouldn’t throw an image of the woman’s gall bladder on the screen and claim that it is “products of conception.”

UPDATE 2/22/12 Part 2: Commentary confirms pretty much EVERYTHING we've been saying ("raping" women is standard medical care):
Planned Parenthood Says it Won’t Do Abortions Without Ultrasounds

“That’s just the medical standard,” said Adrienne Schreiber, an official at Planned Parenthood’s Washington, D.C., regional office. “To confirm the gestational age of the pregnancy, before any procedure is done, you do an ultrasound.”

According to Schreiber, Planned Parenthood does require women to give signed consent for abortion procedures, including the ultrasound. But if the women won’t consent to the ultrasound, the abortion cannot take place, according to the group’s national standards.

Schreiber said there are several options at that point. If the woman is uncomfortable with a transvaginal ultrasound, which is more invasive, she can wait until the fetus is large enough to opt for a transabdominal ultrasound.

“But if she’s uncomfortable with a transvaginal ultrasound, then she’s not going to be comfortable with an equally invasive abortion procedure,” Schreiber told me.

Americans United for Life Says Attacks on Virginia Ultrasound Law Could Result in Fatal Consequences for Women

Powerful - Lori Ziganto takes on rape and trans-vaginal ultrasounds from personal experience:
Demagoguing Rape, Exploiting Victims: The Degenerate Left Continues to Use and Abuse Women

As a woman who has experienced both, the equating of a transvaginal ultrasound with rape is beyond despicable. For the women, my arse.

The transvaginal ultrasound that I had when pregnant with my daughter did not cause me violent, bodily harm. It did not put me in fear for my life. It did not cause me to have to still sleep with a light on. The rape did, even to this day — twenty years later. It did not make me have to constantly plan my shopping trips to avoid the dark or suffer the fear and heart racing caused by walking alone through a dark parking lot. To this day. It did not make me introverted and fearful in social situations, convinced that everyone was staring at me. Hello, mad hair twirling!

It did not leave scars on my face and chest, caused by a broken beer bottle used as one of the weapons against me. And while those scars may have faded to the point that only I can see them, the scars that no one can see on the inside are still there. And always will be.
...
They diminish rape, empower rapists and re-victimize those who have been raped — for attempted political points. Demagoguing RAPE. They have truly moved past rock bottom and are scraping the earth’s mantle. Their abuse of women knows no bounds. They know an ultrasound is in no way like rape; in fact, Planned Parenthood uses them themselves before sucking a child from a woman’s womb. But that’s the point, isn’t it? They just don’t want silly little women to see the ultrasounds themselves. They are trying to scare women with cries of ‘it’s just like rape”- an ultrasound – as a way to push the ‘ball of cells’ lie to women. All so that more women will kill their children completely uninformed. Informed choice my strappy sandal-clad foot. See the actual baby? That doesn’t suit. It’s not good for the blood money bottom line.

UPDATED 2/23/12: I like that we're finally getting into the "life-saving" language now, much more effective.
National Review: Abortion Advocates Wage a Misinformation Campaign over Virginia Ultrasound Legislation:

There is a breathtaking display of unvarnished bias as abortion advocates and their allies in the national press try to kill legislation in Virginia requiring that an ultrasound be performed prior to a surgical or chemical abortion. Ultrasound laws are currently in effect in 22 states, with five of those states requiring exactly what Virginia is considering. Why? Because, simply put, ultrasound laws save lives.
Performing an ultrasound before an abortion should be a commonsense standard of care for abortion providers. Ultrasound assists an abortion provider in determining gestational age. The farther along in pregnancy that a woman is, the greater the risk that abortion poses. Ultrasound also serves an essential medical purpose by diagnosing ectopic pregnancies which, if left undiagnosed, can result in fallopian rupture and life-threatening bleeding. For example, the FDA has reported that at least two women have died from ruptured ectopic pregnancies following use of the abortion drug RU-486.

However, the abortion lobby doesn’t want women to receive these life-saving exams if the images produced by the ultrasound could sway women away from abortion....

UPDATED 2/25/12: Ramah International, a place that provides healing for regretful post-abortive women, has a section with information for women to consider before making the decision on whether or not to have an abortion. Included are important reasons for requiring ultrasounds before abortions that you may not have even thought of - what if the abortion mill is taking advantage of a woman who is not even pregnant or is about to miscarry:

Confirm your pregnancy with a doctor who doesn't do abortions.

There have been cases where abortion clinics have provided clients with incorrect information in order to obtain their abortion fee. Carol Everett was an abortion clinic owner who used to provide abortion services in Texas. She testified in Congress that she sold abortions to women who were not pregnant but feared they were. For the best medical input on abortion we recommend you speak with a medical professional that has nothing to gain in your abortion decision. Your local pregnancy care center can provide you with that referral.

Get an ultrasound.

You may receive an ultrasound from your local pregnancy care center. This non-diagnostic ultrasound can tell you how many weeks you are into the pregnancy or whether or not your pregnancy is viable. In other words, it could be that you are going to miscarry the baby and won’t need the services of an abortion clinic. This service, provided by a certified sonographer, may aid you in making this important decision.

UPDATE 2/22/12 - New post reacting to collapse of the Virginia Ultrasound bill:

McDonnell Caves on Ultrasounds, Where Do We Go From Here

UPDATE 3/7/12: McDonnell signs a modified ultrasound bill.

UPDATE 3/8/12: Wow, even after the VA GOP modified the bill so as not to require a transvaginal ultrasound - or "rape" as the radical pro-aborts call it - opponents still weren't satisfied and called transabdominal ultrasounds "battery:"

During the final debate on the bill in the Virginia House, Delegate Charniele Herring, Alexandria Democrat, outrageously stated that requiring the external “transabdominal ultrasound is tantamount to battery.”

Seriously? Does that mean that Planned Parenthood of Virginia and physicians’ offices across the state are “battering” women with “unnecessary” procedures? If not, then don’t all women in the state deserve the common-sense standard of care that even Planned Parenthood admits is necessary before abortion?

The hysterics never end.
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