The Daily Sausage – Wednesday Edition

Right Wing Media Hate, Todd Akin and The Politicians, and dropping the gloves on Abortion.

Welcome to The Daily Sausage.

First up, Mitt Romney began to lay out his energy plan at an event yesterday, but stopped because there were reporters in the room.

Along with that, Michael Baumgartner, a GOP Senate candidate in Washington, told a reporter to “Go Fuck Yourself” after the reporter correctly noted that Baumgartner’s views on abortion were similar if not identical to Todd Akin’s.

Meanwhile, Todd Akin is claiming that the calls for him to drop out of the Missouri Senate race are coming from “the liberal media.” You know, the Liberal Media that consists of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, the RNC, American Crossroads, and the rest of the GOP.

The GOP and the Media have an abusive relationship. The GOP uses them as a punching bag whenever they report something they disagree with, and a punchline when they’re trying to make a point. The media, in turn, gives conservatives more time to air out their failed plans and policies, which just leads to more of the same. How the media hasn’t revolted and started writing brutal hit pieces on every GOP candidate in the country, I just don’t know.

Professional Terrible Person Joe Walsh came out in support of Todd Akin, saying he was “bothered by the silence of members of our own party to stand up for him.”

Well Joe, there’s three reasons for this. First off, Todd Akin’s position is so unpopular it probably cost him his Senate seat. Second of all, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Akin, the GOP platform, and the Romney/Ryan campaign. And third of all, this is going to make abortion a campaign issue everywhere in the country, and put GOP candidates in the exceptionally awkward position of either backing Akin, costing them Independents, or repudiating him, costing them their base. It’s pretty much a worst case scenario.

Todd Akin is on a Mission From God, or at least that’s how he sees it. He’s not dropping out, and he’s gonna keep going to Election Day. Every day he’s in the race is another day that another GOP candidate has to answer their view on abortion.

It’s easy to bag on Rush Limbaugh. He’s one of the most detestable people alive. However, every now and then like some kind of idiot savant, he touches on something bigger than his own terrifically narrow world view.

Their ultimate aim is to protect the baby no matter what circumstance the conception occurs in. And I think that’s just who the guy is, but he doesn’t know how to explain it. He has no clue how to make his case for it. And so he hangs around people who are like-minded and they’ve devised this belief. He’s not the first guy to say this. I’ve had people tell me that a woman’s body shuts down in rape. There’s no evidence for this. I mean it’s absolutely absurd. This leads to the second problem. This is absurd. That belief that a woman’s body shuts down and the whole notion of “legitimate” “illegitimate” rape, that’s the thing that bothers me about it. That’s just absurd. It’s not intelligent.

Mike Huckabee, who is supposed to be the “nicer” version of Rush, had Akin on his show and then guilted women that had become pregnant as a result of rape for not carrying those pregnancies to term.

Meanwhile, in Clusterfuckistan, the GOP approved the most conservative party platform in modern history.

Here’s a rundown:

1. No abortion, period, including drugs like Plan B.
2. Mandatory ultrasounds.
3. No legal recognition of same sex couples.
4. Arizona-style “Papers Please” immigration laws.
5. Audit the Fed.
6. Reinstate DADT, no women in combat.
7. No statehood and more guns for Washington DC.
8. Constitutional Amendment requiring a super-majority to approve any tax increase (aka The Stupidest Idea in Washington, aka Why California Can’t Balance It’s Budget), with exceptions for war and national emergencies. Would also cap government spending to historical average percentage of GDP.

This is just nutty stuff. The fact that a major political party has now adopted fringe beliefs into the party platform is downright dangerous.

And now, it’s time to drop the gloves on Abortion.

I’ve avoided the topic for the most part here, with the occasional hit on particularly egregious offenders, but I can’t do that anymore.

It’s time for the Democratic party to become a Pro-Choice party, full stop.

It’s time to stop humoring the legions of woman-haters by pretending that there’s some kind of compromise between them and us and to shed the Clintonian mantra of “Safe, Legal, and Rare”. It should be “Safe and Legal”, end of story.

It’s time to repeal the odious Hyde Amendment, which bans the Federal Government from spending taxpayer dollars on Abortion.

It’s time for someone in the Democratic party to point out that only one side of the Abortion debate has an actual honest to god body count. That only one side is gunning down doctors in churches and blowing up clinics.

It’s time for the Democratic party to start hammering the GOP neanderthals that have spent most of the last thirty years trying to overturn Roe V. Wade and Griswold V. Connecticut on why they hate women so much.

If you don’t believe that abortion is right, that’s your right. But you don’t get to make that decision for someone else.

It’s time for more voices like Eve Ensler’s, who penned an incredibly moving piece on the reality of the situation.

There is a time for compromise, and a time for absolutes. The time for compromise has passed. The line must be drawn here; this far, no further, and they must pay for what they’ve done.