As the Romney campaign unskews, will the GOP's racist id take over?

As the Romney campaign unskews, will the GOP's racist id take over?
"Like Mitt Romney's 47 percent remark, the Republicans use overtly racist appeals to whites to attempt to give the impressions that non-whites are the prime beneficiaries of "government handouts." And as in that case, when the 47 percent was mostly comprised of whites, like whites on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans benefits, student loan for college, the universal phone service requirement primarily benefits whites, in this case rural whites. Consider the Universal Service Program for Rural Health Care Providers"

Abortion access in America makes dramatic backward slide

Rachel Maddow reports on the extent to which state-level Republicans have erected obstacles to legal abortion and the desperate measures women have turned to as an alternative.

A Bill to Make Employers Less Mean to Pregnant Women | Common Dreams

A Bill to Make Employers Less Mean to Pregnant Women | Common Dreams
"Under current law, it's easy for bosses to mistreat pregnant women or force them off the job. Yet the men who run Congress are too busy sponsoring anti-abortion bills and slashing social programs, it seems, to protect pregnant women in the workplace. One of the many labor bills left off the congressional radar is the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, (PWFA) which would help prevent pregnant women from being arbitrarily fired and make employers better accommodate them."

Scott Brown still shamelessly flogging Warren on Native American issue

Scott Brown still shamelessly flogging Warren on Native American issue
"Sen. Scott Brown has definitively answered the question of whether he has any shame. He doesn't. He has a brand new ad out hitting Elizabeth Warren on her claim to be a Native American, pushing an issue her employers have uniformly debunked."

Top whoppers: Why Mitt’s pants are on fire

GOP Senate Candidate Akin: ‘Free Enterprise’ Means Being Allowed To Deny Equal Pay To Women

GOP Senate Candidate Akin: ‘Free Enterprise’ Means Being Allowed To Deny Equal Pay To Women: Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has struggled with a well-established woman problem in his Senate campaign, ever since he claimed women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape.” After he said his opponent, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), was not “ladylike,” her campaign released a video of Akin suggesting that businesses should be allowed to pay [...]/p

RNC Chair Reverses Course, Says Republican Party Will ‘Absolutely’ Support Todd Akin

RNC Chair Reverses Course, Says Republican Party Will ‘Absolutely’ Support Todd Akin: Republicans, stuck with Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) in the Missouri Senate race after the dropout deadline passed this week, have hit the fifth stage of grief: acceptance. After Akin declared last month that women cannot get pregnant from “legitimate rape” because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” nearly [...]/p

Akin does it again

Todd Akin does it again, saying Senator Claire McCaskill's debate performance was not "ladylike" and like a "wildcat out of the cage." TheRoot.com's Keli Goff and Sam Stein of The Huffington Post join Ed Schultz to discuss Akin's latest comments and other big Senate races.

Did You Hear The One About the Nuns Who Weren't Alowed to Vote? | Alternet

Did You Hear The One About the Nuns Who Weren't Alowed to Vote? | Alternet
"And who are the white folk lacking ID? The elderly, like the sisters, and students like Angela Hiss and Allyson Miller, whose official state IDs don’t list their dorm room addresses and so can’t be used to vote.

Black folk, the elderly, students, poor whites blocked from registering and voting—a federal judge didn’t think it was all that coincidental. Justice Terence Evans could see a pattern: “The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too- thinly veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic"."

Republicans begin to rally around Todd Akin

The deadline for Congressman Todd Akin to withdraw from his Senate race against Sen. Claire McCaskill has passed-- and now Republicans are rallying around the candidate they were previously asking to step down.

Explaining Today’s Great Jobs News

Explaining Today’s Great Jobs News:  New data released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the private-sector added 450,000 more jobs as of March 2012 than previously thought. This means that the economy has crossed the threshold and more jobs [...]/p

Todd Akin Says McCaskill Is Not ‘Ladylike’

Todd Akin Says McCaskill Is Not ‘Ladylike’: Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-MO), who is still trying to make it up to women since he suggested that victims of “legitimate rape” cannot get pregnant, blew another hole in his pro-woman persona today when he said Sen. Claire McCaskill is not as “ladylike” as she was in 2006. In an interview with the Kansas [...]/p

Why Sexual Fundamentalists Dominate Politics and How We Can Stop Them | Alternet

Why Sexual Fundamentalists Dominate Politics and How We Can Stop Them | Alternet
"In a political climate where women have to debate scientific inaccuracies stated by Republican politicians about “legitimate rape,” where women who use birth control aremaligned as “sluts,” and where all-male congressional hearings are held to determine women’s right to control their own bodies, Delirium is a welcome font of clarity. Although Cohen couldn’t have anticipated the degree to which sexual rights would be the focus of the 2012 election, her book provides germane guidance for progressive activists who wish to secure four more years of a Democratic presidency."

World Contraception Day Highlights How Obamacare Is Helping U.S. Women Access Birth Control

World Contraception Day Highlights How Obamacare Is Helping U.S. Women Access Birth Control: Today is World Contraception Day, a global campaign to “enable young people to make informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health.” Every year, 100,000 women’s lives could be saved globally if access to contraception were expanded; unfortunately, more than 200 million women in the world do not have access to birth control. Millions of women [...]/p

Voter Suppression Is the Last Resort of These Stop-at-Nothing Republicans | Common Dreams

Voter Suppression Is the Last Resort of These Stop-at-Nothing Republicans | Common Dreams
As millions of ad dollars have failed to put Mitt Romney ahead, his allies are trying to rig this election in worst Jim Crow tradition

Illinois Court Permits Religious Pharmacists To Refuse To Dispense Emergency Contraception

Illinois Court Permits Religious Pharmacists To Refuse To Dispense Emergency Contraception: An Illinois appeals court upheld a ruling Friday that exempted pharmacists with religious objections from prescribing emergency contraceptives, finding that the medical professionals were protected by state law. The plaintiffs, both individual pharmacists and corporations that own pharmacies, had challenged an order by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich requiring that pharmacists sell “Plan B,” a brand of the contraceptive also known [...]/p

Republican Attack on Women's Rights

Women of all ages explain how a Romney presidency would threaten their their rights, their health, and their equality.

Romney Ignores Facts, Lies About Taxes

"This is the same sort of scam that the extremely wealthy have been perpetrating on working people for centuries. And to compound the hustle, now Romney and his rich buddies are claiming that if we tax them at the same rate a surgeon pays, at 35 percent like everybody else instead of the 15 percent "capital gains" rate paid for by banksters like Romney and heiresses like Paris Hilton, then the economy will suffer. But history - and facts - prove this point wrong."

Arun Gupta and Marina Sitrin on Occupy’s Anniversary And how the Media of the 1% misrepresent Occupy

STUDY: Contraception Is ‘Critical’ For Ensuring Women Achieve Their Life Goals

STUDY: Contraception Is ‘Critical’ For Ensuring Women Achieve Their Life Goals: A new study from the Guttmacher Institute investigates the ways that women believe their birth control has impacted their lives. Although the strong connection between increased access to contraception and increased improvements to women’s lives has been confirmed, women are rarely asked to speak about the effects of birth control on their own lives and [...]/p

Let My People Vote 2012

In honor of National Voter Registration Day, and in recognition of a new study finding that bogus voter I.D. laws could disenfranchise up to 10 million eligible Latinos, a riotously profane video from Sarah Silverman blasting those laws.

Meet Renee: A 47 Percenter Whose Life Was Turned Around By Programs Romney Denigrated

Meet Renee: A 47 Percenter Whose Life Was Turned Around By Programs Romney Denigrated: Renee Fleming is a mother and grandmother who has spent most of her 54 years living on the streets of Brooklyn, except when she’s been in prison. But the last time she went in, she found a helping hand from Providence House, a New York-based charity that visits women in prison and helps re-unite them [...]/p

Warren Responds To Brown's Attack On Her Indian Heritage

Warren Responds To Brown's Attack On Her Indian Heritage
"Way to go, professor! If Scott Brown is dumb enough to bring this up, way to throw it back in his teeth!"

Elizabeth Warren is GOP Target #1: Smear Campaigns Start in Key Races -- It's the Start of Political Mud Season | Alternet

Elizabeth Warren is GOP Target #1: Smear Campaigns Start in Key Races -- It's the Start of Political Mud Season | Alternet
"This year’s political mud season is beginning, where campaign ads based on the flimsiest assertions and dirtiest lies will pound voters throughout their days—on televison, radio, online and in the mail. When campaign finance reformers say big money drowns out debate and monopolizes the microphone, this is what they are talking about."

Scott Brown takes the racial low road

Rachel Maddow reviews the way Senator Scott Brown has relied heavily on racial resentment as a campaign strategy against Elizabeth Warren.

Women Earn Less Than Men In 97 Percent Of Congressional Districts

Women Earn Less Than Men In 97 Percent Of Congressional Districts: Women are earning less than men in 97 percent of Congressional districts, the National Partnership for Women and Families has calculated. That means that only 13 members of Congress have the privilege of representing an area where women are out-earning or making equal pay to men. Nationally, women make just .77 cents to a man’s [...]/p

Desperate Scott Brown loses nice-guy image

Desperate Scott Brown loses nice-guy image
"The Scott Brown that showed up at Thursday's Massachusetts Senate debate, "condescending, snide, repetitive, off topic, rote, eager to get personal," and "dark, hyperkinetic," is apparently the Scott Brown that is going to stick around through the rest of this election season. Elizabeth Warren is surging in the polls, and Brown's desperation is showing."

Your IL Pharmacist Still Gets To Refuse To Sell You Plan B

Your IL Pharmacist Still Gets To Refuse To Sell You Plan B
"Of course, it doesn't matter that the morning after pills don't cause abortion - they simply stop ovulation to prevent a pregnancy from occurring, or prevent sperm from reaching the egg. It's more important that elected judges not give voters (or the Catholic church) a reason to target them when they run again:"

Rick Perry Wants To Replace Planned Parenthood With Crisis Pregnancy Centers That Don’t Provide Health Services

Rick Perry Wants To Replace Planned Parenthood With Crisis Pregnancy Centers That Don’t Provide Health Services: When Texas Republicans cut off Planned Parenthood from the state’s Women’s Health Program — losing millions in federal funds and endangering access to health care for women in the program — Gov. Rick Perry (R) promised to keeping the program going with only state funds and without Planned Parenthood. Now it’s clear what groups he [...]/p

Senator Bernie Sanders Eviscerates Mitt Romney's 47% Secret Video

Bernie Sanders Eviscerates Mitt Romney's 47% Secret Video

Susan Sarandon: I’m very happy for Romney’s gaffe

Anti-Choice Groups Try To Force Alabama Abortion Clinic To Close

Anti-Choice Groups Try To Force Alabama Abortion Clinic To Close: Several anti-abortion groups in Alabama have filed complaints against a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham in an attempt to force it to close. The complaints to the state health department allege that Planned Parenthood performed two abortions while on state probation in 2010. The women’s health clinic is the last abortion provider in the state’s [...]/p

Granholm: ‘Get your absentee ballot now, right now!’

Warren-Brown debate: On substance and style, Warren wins

Warren-Brown debate: On substance and style, Warren wins
"That was the substance of the debate, essentially, in which Warren was pretty effective in making her point that yes, Scott Brown really is, and votes like, a Republican."

Limbaugh: Penises Now '10 Percent Smaller' and Shrinking Because of 'Feminazis'

Limbaugh: Penises Now '10 Percent Smaller' and Shrinking Because of 'Feminazis'
"But Limbaugh wasn't buying that explanation.

"I think it's feminism," he declared. "If it's tied to the last 50 years -- the average size of [a male's] member is 10 percent smaller than 50 years -- it has to be the feminazis, the chickification and everything else"."

Karl Rove’s Super PAC Accepts $1 Million From Notorious Rape Defender

Karl Rove’s Super PAC Accepts $1 Million From Notorious Rape Defender: Karl Rove’s American Crossroads super PAC reported Thursday that it raised over $9.4 million in August — $1 million of which came from Clayton Williams Energy Inc. in Midland, Texas. That company’s chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer is, unsurprisingly, Clayton Williams, Jr. Williams was the Texas Republican gubernatorial nominee who lost [...]/p

Republicans kill veterans' jobs bill

Patrick Murphy, former U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania and Iraq war veteran, talks with Rachel Maddow about what kind of men Senators John Boozman, Mike Johanns, Richard Burr and Pat Toomey must be to turn their backs on U.S. veterans and kill a bill design to help them - a bill that is not only bipartisan, but which these four senators helped write.

New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’

New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’: After Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) asserted his belief that “legitimate rape” doesn’t often lead to pregnancy, Republican lawmakers were quick to attempt to configure his radical stance on women’s health as an outlier in their party. However, increasing numbers of GOP politicians’ language about the nature of sexual assault actually echoes Akin’s — including New [...]/p

GOP Kills Veterans Jobs Bill, Grants Themselves a Vacation

GOP Kills Veterans Jobs Bill, Grants Themselves a Vacation
"Let's talk about how dedicated Republicans really are to creating jobs. While they talk pretty about the unemployment rate and publicly tear their clothes, don sackcloth and spread on ashes over higher veterans' unemployment rates, they do everything they can to kill any possibility of actually employing veterans."

Warren: Romney 'wrote off half the American people as deadbeats'

Warren: Romney 'wrote off half the American people as deadbeats'
"Greg Sargent asked Elizabeth Warren to respond to Mitt Romney's assertion that 47 percent of America is mooching off the rest. As you might expect, he got a great response."

Proof Romney & Ryan are Consumed by the Libertarian Utopian "Me Society"

Mitt Romney's "off the cuff" comments caught on tape are the latest proof that he - and Paul Ryan are consumed by the selfish "me society" preached by Ayn Rand.

Tammy Baldwin surges in Wisconsin Senate race

Tammy Baldwin surges in Wisconsin Senate race
"Yesterday we enjoyed Elizabeth Warren's surge in her Senate race in Massachusetts (another poll today added to Scott Brown's bad news). She isn't the only great Democrat enjoying a post-convention renaissance. The Senate race in Wisconsin between Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican Tommy Thompson has been turned upside down in a single week"

Romney blames the 47%, lets Wall Street off the hook

Romney blames the 47%, lets Wall Street off the hook
"Mitt Romney does not concede the grievous error of the Randian Republican anti-government, anti-regulation ideology that cost millions of Americans  their jobs, homes and savings. Indeed, he promises a return to Bush era economic and regulatory policies."

8 Terrible Things That Have Happened to Mitt Romney...Just This Morning | Alternet

8 Terrible Things That Have Happened to Mitt Romney...Just This Morning | Alternet
"Yesterday was a no good, very bad day for the Romney’s campaign, who had to mop up the mess their candidate created when he said that “47 percent” of Americans are “dependent on government” and “believe they are victims.” But the bad news hasn’t stopped today.
From poll numbers to Republican politicians throwing Romney under the bus, the campaign’s woes continue."

House GOP Wants Americans’ Premiums to Help Fund Insurance Company Profits Instead Of Health Care

House GOP Wants Americans’ Premiums to Help Fund Insurance Company Profits Instead Of Health Care: Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider legislation repealing a crucial Obamacare consumer protection that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of their premium dollars on actual care rather than overhead or profits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains that the bill, H.R. 1206, amounts to a massive [...]/p

Mitt Romney And The 47%

Recently, Mitt Romney held a high dollar fundraiser behind closed doors. We asked Americans what they thought about what he said to his donors.

Atlanta Embraces Tenets of Obamacare, Cuts Health Costs by $3.2 Million

Atlanta Embraces Tenets of Obamacare, Cuts Health Costs by $3.2 Million: For the first time in six years, the city of Atlanta will see its health care costs and city employees’ premiums go down instead of up, to the tune of $3.2 million in savings. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the city’s contributions to health plans for more than 19,000 residents were initially expected to increase [...]/p

Silver lining on Romney's clouded campaign

Rachel Maddow points out that despite the missteps and terrible headlines and campaign infighting afflicting the Mitt Romney campaign, he can at least take comfort in the fact that outside spending favors him by a big margin and Republican voter suppression efforts remain robust.

Romney’s secret video could be a game changer

New VA Health Regulations Aim To Close Abortion Clinics

New VA Health Regulations Aim To Close Abortion Clinics
"Remember the old days, when the Republicans used to moan about "the rule of law"? Now they're perfectly happy to make up their own laws on the spot, as we're seeing in Virginia right now, where abortion clinics are now held to the same requirements as hospitals. They're trying to prevent women from having abortions -- even though they have a legal right to do so:"

Elizabeth Warren Pulls Ahead Of Scott Brown By Six Points

Elizabeth Warren Pulls Ahead Of Scott Brown By Six Points
"This is good. Even if it's a post-convention bump for the most part, it shows she has momentum, and that's what you need at this stage of the game. I'd certainly look forward to having Elizabethe Warren in the Senate"

The Post-Truth Campaign: Mitt Romney Tells 530 Lies in 30 Weeks

The Post-Truth Campaign: Mitt Romney Tells 530 Lies in 30 Weeks
"While the sheer number of Romney's lies are indeed unprecedented for a presidential campaign, his fact-free campaigning is simply the logical continuation of a trend that started in the George W. Bush administration, when Republicans literally walled themselves from reality."

Virginia war on women could cost Romney race

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli bullied the state board of health into imposing rules designed to force abortion clinics to close, furthering their own agenda, but enraging women voters such that Romney could lose an important swing state.

Ryanomics Assault on Poor and Hungry Children | Common Dreams

Ryanomics Assault on Poor and Hungry Children | Common Dreams
"Ryanomics is not only poor arithmetic, it is also poor morality and gross injustice which turns upside down the requirements of all great faiths to protect the poor and vulnerable. The U.S. Catholic Bishops in a letter to every member of Congress on May 8, 2012 said: “deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people” and declared that the proposed cuts in the House budget ”fail this basic moral test.” The much publicized “Nuns on the Bus,” Catholic Sisters committed to fighting poverty, challenged Ryanomics declaring: “we insist on a Faithful Budget that affirms the life of all God’s children – not just the wealthiest few.” And Albert Camus, Nobel Laureate, speaking at a Dominican monastery in 1948 said: “Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children.” He described our responsibility as human beings “if not to reduce evil, at least not to add to it” and “to refuse to consent to conditions which torture innocents.” “I continue,” he said “to struggle against this universe in which children suffer and die." And so must all of us including our political leaders of all parties.

Every American who believes in basic fairness must resoundingly reject Ryanomics."

Mitt Romney Would Turn Back The Clock On Women's Health

Republican Threats To Women’s Access To Contraception Could Affect Millions

Republican Threats To Women’s Access To Contraception Could Affect Millions: With renewed attacks on Sandra Fluke’s activism in support of access to affordable birth control, an increasing number of religious organizations suing for the right to deny contraceptive coverage for their employees, and the passage of a Missouri law that allows any employer to drop birth control coverage from their insurance plans if they morally [...]/p

DeMint Likens Teachers Striking In Chicago To ‘Thugs’ In The Middle East

DeMint Likens Teachers Striking In Chicago To ‘Thugs’ In The Middle East: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) jokingly compared the teachers strike in Chicago to the unrest in the Middle East during a speech at the Values Voters summit Friday morning. “You know, we had a lot of bad news this week,” DeMint began. “On my way over, I was reading another story about a distant place where [...]/p

Scott Brown’s New Woman-Friendly Ad Glosses Over His Anti-Woman Voting Record

Scott Brown’s New Woman-Friendly Ad Glosses Over His Anti-Woman Voting Record: Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) released a new ad on Friday geared toward moderate Massachusetts voters who are suspicious of Brown’s social conservatism. Brown has been trying hard to paint himself as a moderate pro-choice Republican in spite of his party’s extreme anti-choice positions — and his own voting record. The ad features a woman claiming [...]/p

GOP Congressman Calls Planned Parenthood A ‘Racist Organization,’ Compares Abortion To Slavery

GOP Congressman Calls Planned Parenthood A ‘Racist Organization,’ Compares Abortion To Slavery: Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) compared abortion to slavery and said that Planned Parenthood was a “racist organization” that was “created for the sole purpose of killing” children of color at a conservative religious conference in Washington, DC, Friday. To loud applause, the congressman unleashed a series of intense accusations about the women’s health organization. He [...]/p

Protesters Await Virginia Abortion Clinic Regulation Decision

Protesters Await Virginia Abortion Clinic Regulation Decision: The Virginia Board of Health is expected to make a decision later today on whether existing abortion clinics must comply with newly-instated facility regulations that would require abortion providers to make thousands of dollars in updates and may force some clinics to close altogether. Protesters waiting outside of the board of health consider the new [...]/p

Pamphlets At Conservative Conference Urge Women To ‘Go Home And Put Some Clothes On’

Pamphlets At Conservative Conference Urge Women To ‘Go Home And Put Some Clothes On’: WASHINGTON, DC — Literature being handed out at the Values Voter Summit on Friday attacks women for being “immodest” and extolled them to “go home and put some clothes on!” In flyers and brochures on display at Values Voters, the social conservative conference where Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke, an organization called Modesty [...]/p

Women's support for Obama grows

Women's support for Obama grows
"Thus, we want a smaller gap, with men and women deciding to meet in a neutral spot somewhere between Mars and Venus ... like, say, earth, and agreeing to jointly support Obama by big margins. But huge gap or not-so-huge gap, fact is that Obama leads Romney among women by double digits in every single one of these polls. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney can't muster double-digit leads with men in these critical battlegrounds.

And given that women vote in significantly higher numbers than men, that's the ballgame."

Liars Don't Lead, They Mislead

Liars Don't Lead, They Mislead
"Romney pollster Neil Newhouse stated, "Fact checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers." In a representative democracy, facts do matter, and checking the facts is how we hold our representatives accountable. Romney and Ryan have based their campaign on smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, political prestidigitation, lies and deceit.

Liars don't lead; they mislead."

After 18 Years, Violence Against Women Act Has Saved Countless Lives

After 18 Years, Violence Against Women Act Has Saved Countless Lives: For many victims of domestic abuse, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been a resounding success, and a lifeline. Since then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) wrote the legislation in 1994, the country’s infrastructure for dealing with rape and abuse has vastly improved, saving countless women’s lives and livelihoods. As the country celebrates the 18th anniversary [...]/p

Ohio Gov. Kasich: 'Our Wives Are Home Doing Laundry'

Ohio Gov. Kasich: 'Our Wives Are Home Doing Laundry'
"Kasich is known for running off at the mouth without thinking, but right now Republicans, and especially Mitt Romney, are not especially popular with women. Women, even conservative women, who choose to be stay-at-home moms should be recognized for something besides doing the laundry, don't you think?

I just cringe every time I think of any of these cretins holding higher office. They should all be retired."

Women’s Health Advocates Challenge Missouri Law Allowing Employers To Deny Access To Birth Control

Women’s Health Advocates Challenge Missouri Law Allowing Employers To Deny Access To Birth Control: Yesterday afternoon, the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature overrode Gov. Jay Nixon’s (D-MO) veto of a bill that would allow employers to deny coverage for contraceptive services that violate their religious beliefs, ensuring that the legislation will immediately go into effect. Women’s health advocates are already pushing back on what they describe as an affront on the [...]/p

Romney Has Found a New Way to Lie!

Mitt Romney has figured out a new way to lie. In an interview on Sunday with NBC, watched by millions of people - Romney said that there are a number of things he likes with Obamacare - including a guarantee that health insurers can't deny healthcare to people with pre-existing conditions - and reforms that allow children to stay on their parents' health plans until the age of 26. So the man who first created Obamneycare in Massachusetts, and then disavowed it when he ran for President, now supports it again. Or he did for a few hours, until his campaign told Buzz Feed that Romney actually opposes all provisions of Obamacare and instead believes that the corporate-run "free market" will find a way to cover those with pre-existing conditions. In other words, Romney wants to roll-back Obamacare. So the Romney Big Lie strategy works like this - go on Meet the Press, where a lot of moderate, undecided voters will be watching - and lie about your position on protecting people with pre-existing conditions. Try to assure the independents that you won't let health insurers act like death panels toward children with pre-existing conditions. And then, after the show is off the air - immediately backtrack - and issue a "correction" to your base, a group of right-wing crazies who are perfectly OK with letting health insurance companies discriminate against sick children again. I've said it before - I'll say it again - the only way Mitt Romney can win this election is by lying. And now he's coming up with ever more clever ways to do so.

Federal Appeals Court Tells Idaho Prosecutors To Back Off Woman Who Had An Abortion

Federal Appeals Court Tells Idaho Prosecutors To Back Off Woman Who Had An Abortion: Two years ago, an Idaho woman named Jennie Linn McCormack became pregnant. McCormack lives off of no more than $250 a month in child support payments, the nearest abortion clinic to her home is nearly 140 miles away in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it would charge up to $2000 to perform an abortion. So [...]/p

GOP Representative Says: 'Let's Hurl Some Acid At Those Female Democratic Senators'

GOP Representative Says: 'Let's Hurl Some Acid At Those Female Democratic Senators'
"Townsend wrote."My question today... when is Tommy boy going to weigh in on all the Lilly Ledbetter hypocrites who claim to be fighting the War on Women? Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector"."

Growth or Equality: Two Competing Visions for America’s Future | Common Dreams

Growth or Equality: Two Competing Visions for America’s Future | Common Dreams
"One vision holds that inequality is an essential and beneficial precondition to unleash the economic growth needed to end poverty and heal the environment. Freeing the rich from taxes and cumbersome regulation will unleash a wave of productive investment, job creation, and prosperity that eventually will trickle down to enrich us all. 
The other vision holds that inequality bears a primary responsibility for the political, economic, social, and environmental failures that threaten the future of America and the world. America already has the world’s largest economy and one of the world’s highest per capita income levels. Further growth for growth’s sake is not the answer. Our priority need is to reallocate and redistribute our economic resources to get the outcomes we really want."

New poll shows Massachusetts Senate race in dead heat

New poll shows Massachusetts Senate race in dead heat
"There's some evidence that Brown's supposed party independence is getting a closer look by Massachusetts voters. For example, this surprising column in the Brown-boostingBoston Herald, that scrutinizes his voting record and finds him not really all that bipartisan when it comes to the War on Women and on big money in politics."

During Battle With Planned Parenthood, Even Karl Rove Advised Komen To Rethink Decision To Defund

During Battle With Planned Parenthood, Even Karl Rove Advised Komen To Rethink Decision To Defund: A new tell-all book by Karen Handel, the former Senior Vice President for Public Policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, alleges that during the organization’s weeks-long confrontation with progressives outraged at their decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, Republican strategist Karl Rove was advising that Komen reverse course. In her book [...]/p

Romney Goes On Right-Wing Radio To Reassure Conservatives He Will Support Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

Romney Goes On Right-Wing Radio To Reassure Conservatives He Will Support Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions
"Repeat after me: This fight over health care has always centered on pre-existing conditions. Some on the right actually believe covering pre-existing conditions is a form of welfare! This is, of course, a variation on the theme "Die and Die Quickly"."

Obamacare Has Saved Consumers $2.1 Billion

Obamacare Has Saved Consumers $2.1 Billion: "Obamacare set up a program to review insurance rate increases and instituted an 80/20 rule, requiring insurance companies to spend no more than 20 percent of consumer premiums on profits and administrative costs."

Obama Appoints As Many Women Judges In One Term As Bush Did in Two

Obama Appoints As Many Women Judges In One Term As Bush Did in Two: Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Judge Stephanie Rose to a federal court in Iowa, making her the 72nd woman appointed to the federal bench by President Obama. Coincidentally, 72 is also the same number of women President George W. Bush appointed to the bench during his entire presidency — meaning that Obama accomplished in under one [...]/p

Joe Walsh Attacks Sandra Fluke and Tells Her to 'Get a Job'

Joe Walsh Attacks Sandra Fluke and Tells Her to 'Get a Job'
"Someone needs to tell Joe Walsh to "get a job" where it doesn't include lying to his constituents on a daily basis. Hate monger and deadbeat dad Rep. Joe Walsh decided to lay into activist Sandra Fluke for her appearance at the Democratic National Convention this week, and apparently he's not aware that she was not asking for the government to pay for anyone's birth control, or her own.

She was advocating that insurance companies pick up that tab, since it actually saves them money in the long run to do so. And he apparently thinks that she's never going to try to find a job once she graduates from college. I'm not sure what corner of the electorate this mean S.O.B. is trying to appeal to, but somehow I don't think screeching that someone who is continuing their education needs to get a job right now if they dare to want insurance companies to pay for birth control pills is going to resonate with a good deal of the sane public out there. Here's to hoping this idiot goes down in flames in the upcoming election, and that Fox doesn't hire him once the voters fire him."

Why Five Studies Cited By Romney Further Prove His Plan Will Raise Taxes On The Middle Class

Why Five Studies Cited By Romney Further Prove His Plan Will Raise Taxes On The Middle Class: The non-partisan Tax Policy Center last month released a study showing that if Mitt Romney were to keep his promise to cut tax rates by 20 percent while still balancing the budget, he would have to raise taxes on middle class families by more than $2,000. The Romney campaign has disputed the study, saying that [...]/p

Now Romney hopes activist judges will set abortion policy for him

Now Romney hopes activist judges will set abortion policy for him
"So Romney's most recent position is that this settled-for-some-time-in-the-courts issue should be settled in the courts again, and Romney is hoping to appoint activist judges who will re-settle this settled issue. Because even though every politician, including the ones running for dogcatcher of Podunk, takes a position on reproductive rights, Romney is such a coward that he'd really rather leave it up to someone else. Or forbid reporters from asking him any questions at all. No wonder the Republican Party is running in fear from the issue they usually love to discuss."

Romney on SCOTUS Picks: It Would be My Preference They Reverse Roe v. Wade

Romney on SCOTUS Picks: It Would be My Preference They Reverse Roe v. Wade
" And he claims he'll nominate judges who he hopes will overturn Roe v. Wade."

Romney Clarifies He Still Supports Denying Insurance To Millions Of Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions

Romney Clarifies He Still Supports Denying Insurance To Millions Of Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions: This weekend on Meet the Press, Romney said “there are a number of things I like” about President Obama’s health care reform law, including the popular provision on pre-exisiting conditions. Romney’s campaign, however, began walking back his statements as soon as they left his mouth. After the NBC interview aired, a Romney aide was quick [...]/p

3 Ways the GOP Has Already Disenfranchised Thousands of Swing-State Voters | Alternet

3 Ways the GOP Has Already Disenfranchised Thousands of Swing-State Voters | Alternet
"The Republican Party’s war on Democratic voting blocks is like a game of three-dimensional chess in which their strategies are intended to remain dormant until Election Day, and in the following days when votes are officially counted.

But their game plan is simple. They want to discourage voters by complicating every step for new and existing voters from specific blue cohorts, such as students, poor people and minorities. They’ve adopted new laws or rules that target pathways surrounding polling place voting, while keeping voting by mail—a longtime GOP strategy—free from similar rules. And they are spreading fears that there will be vastly more policing of the process to scare away voters, when in reality that’s not likely to be the case."

STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults

STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults: Thanks to the popular Obamacare provision that extends health insurance coverage to millions of young adults by allowing them to stay on their parents’ insurance until 26 years of age, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control estimates the number of uninsured young adults dropped by one-sixth between 2010 and 2011. This represents [...]/p

Joe Walsh Tells Women’s Health Advocate To ‘Get A Job’

Joe Walsh Tells Women’s Health Advocate To ‘Get A Job’: Rep. Joe Walsh, the ornery Republican Congressman from Illinois, is known for trying to diminish his opponents’ their accomplishments. Earlier this year he said of Tammy Duckworth, the woman running against him for his Congressional seat, “Female, wounded veteran … ehhh.” Walsh is now attacking women’s health advocate Sandra Fluke, joining the list of Republicans [...]/p

Powerful women took center stage

Powerful women took center stage
"As I looked at the faces of women, so many women, on the stage and in the hall at the Democratic National Convention this last week, I cheered through my tears—filled with emotions that are hard to put into words.

Change has been a long time coming. Lest we forget, this year we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women in the United States the right to vote."

UPDATE: 100,000 People Tell CNN To Fire Contributor For Sexist Comments

UPDATE: 100,000 People Tell CNN To Fire Contributor For Sexist Comments: Over 100,000 people have signed onto a petition calling on CNN to fire Erick Erickson, the contributor who dubbed the largely female lineup at the Democratic Convention ‘the Vagina Monoglogues.’ According to Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of Ultraviolet, which launched the petition, it sailed past 100,000 signatures this morning, and is still steadily growing./p

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: Election Is 'Personal For Every American'

Florida representative and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz addressed the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, talking about her battles with breast cancer and President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

President Obama Acceptance Speech at 2012 Democratic National Convention

President Obama

Watch Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Recite Pledge of Allegiance at DNC

Former Arizona representative Gabby Giffords recited the Pledge of Allegiance Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention.

Dr. Jill Biden Remarks at 2012 Democratic Convention

Fmr Gov. Jennifer Granholm Remarks at 2012 Democratic National Convention

Actress Kerry Washington: 'We Are Not Invisible'

Florida Retiree Carol Berman Talks Health Care Reform at DNC

Caroline Kennedy Speaks to DNC on Health Care, Women's Health, Voting

Actress Scarlett Johansson: 'Vote, So That Your Voice Is Heard'

Watch Actress Eva Longoria Speak at DNC

Defunding Planned Parenthood Caused Women’s Services To Drop By 93 Percent In Tennessee County

Defunding Planned Parenthood Caused Women’s Services To Drop By 93 Percent In Tennessee County: As anti-choice lawmakers attempt to strip state and federal funding for Planned Parenthood branches across the country, a closer look at regional access to women’s health services reveals the devastating effects of hampering Planned Parenthood’s work. Mother Jones notes that one county in Tennessee provides a case study for what happens when conservative politicians successfully [...]/p

WATCH: Sandra Fluke Explains The Republican War On Women In 144 Seconds

WATCH: Sandra Fluke Explains The Republican War On Women In 144 Seconds: Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student who was dragged into the national spotlight after Rush Limbaugh referred to her as a slut, said Wednesday it is time to choose between being “a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward, or one that forces our generation to re-fight the battles they already won.” In [...]/p

Elizabeth Warren Explains: ‘No, Governor Romney, Corporations Are Not People’

Elizabeth Warren Explains: ‘No, Governor Romney, Corporations Are Not People’: Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senate candidate in Massachusetts, drew roaring cheers, applause, and even tears tonght at the Democratic Convention when she laid out the differences between corporations and people. Knocking Romney for his infamous line “corporations are people, my friend,” Warren illustrated the stark divides — “People have hearts,” she said: After all, Mitt [...]/p

40 Right-Wing Attacks and Conspiracy Theories Flung at Michelle Obama | Alternet

40 Right-Wing Attacks and Conspiracy Theories Flung at Michelle Obama | Alternet
"Conservative media figures have spent the past four years smearing, attacking, and hurling insults at Michelle Obama."

Kamala Harris Speaks At The DNC

California Attorney General Kamala Harris

Elizabeth Warren: 'Americans Are Fighters'

Elizabeth Warren, candidate for U.S. Senate, spoke to the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, speaking about the middle class and the struggles to find the American dream.

Sandra Fluke: 'This November, Each of Us Must Speak Up'

Attorney and Women's Rights Activist Sandra Fluke addressed the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night

The Best of Reproductive Rights at the DNC | Common Dreams

The Best of Reproductive Rights at the DNC | Common Dreams
"Democrats have introduced a long line of female speakers, politicians and advocates to address the issues explicitly facing women and their families, and have planned numerous events to rally their support."

Michelle Obama Delivers Killer Speech at the DNC | Alternet

Michelle Obama Delivers Killer Speech at the DNC | Alternet
"The first lady managed to tell a story about change in America — with the promise of more to come — and to deliver her speech transcendently."

The GOP's Disgusting New Southern Strategy: Take the Vote Away from Blacks, Roll Back the Civil Rights Movement | Alternet

The GOP's Disgusting New Southern Strategy: Take the Vote Away from Blacks, Roll Back the Civil Rights Movement | Alternet
"The GOP's war on voting rights isn't new. It harks back to past efforts to alter the political process."

WATCH: Fox News Broadcasts Romney Talking Points, Attacks Michelle Obama’s Speech For Focusing On ‘Government’

WATCH: Fox News Broadcasts Romney Talking Points, Attacks Michelle Obama’s Speech For Focusing On ‘Government’: Nearly every prognosticator on television last night heaped praise on First Lady Michelle Obama’s primetime speech at the opening day of the Democratic National Convention. And then there’s Fox News. Even while several of their on-air personalities applauded Michelle’s speech, the network wasted no time broadcasting the Romney campaign’s talking points after the speech ended. [...]/p

Michelle Obama's Amazing DNC Speech Wins All But The Most Hardened Of Hearts In America

Michelle Obama's full DNC speech

Lily Ledbetter: Without Equal Pay, 'We Lose What Cannot be Measure by Dollars'

Lilly Ledbetter, Women's Equality Leader and Namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, talks about her struggle to earn equal pay as a woman for the same job done as a man, and how the first bill President Obama signed into law.

Stacy Lihn speech @ 2012 Democratic National Convention

Stacy Lihn on her daughter Zoe and why she supports Obamacare 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Tammy Duckworth: 'Barack Obama Will Never Ignore Our Troops'

Candidate for the US House of Representatives in Illinois and Former Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth addressed the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, speaking to how President Obama has lived up to his title of Commander-in-Chief by his actions with the U.S. military.

Public Hearing On Texas’ Cuts To Planned Parenthood Emphasizes Strain On Low-Income Women

Public Hearing On Texas’ Cuts To Planned Parenthood Emphasizes Strain On Low-Income Women: For the past several months, Planned Parenthood has been embroiled in a legal battle with the state of Texas as the organization’s funding hangs in the balance. After Republicans officials in Texas cut off Planned Parenthood’s funding by making it ineligible for the state’s Medicaid-funded Women’s Health Program, a court sided with Texas to uphold [...]/p

Michelle Obama - 2012 Democratic National Convention

Sandra Fluke: Women Care About More Than Just Being Put at the Podium

Sandra Fluke: Women Care About More Than Just Being Put at the Podium
"Regardless of the right's continued attacks and insults against activist Sandra Fluke, I for one and happy to see such an articulate and smart young woman speaking out for women and their issues at this year's Democratic National Convention."

Democratic Platform Includes Support For ERA

Democratic Platform Includes Support For ERA
"The official Democratic Party platform has been published. You can read the whole document here, but this jumped right off the page at me, under the heading of Civil Rights:

We understand that women’s rights are civil rights. That’s why we reaffirm our support for the ERA, recommit to enforcing Title IX,and will urge ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. That’s why we are committed to ending violence against women, why Vice President Joe Biden originally wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act during his time in the Senate, and why we support reauthorizing and strengthening it now."

BREAKING: Democrats expected to be proud of not pissing off lady voters

BREAKING: Democrats expected to be proud of not pissing off lady voters
"The issue of women's reproductive rights has never been exclusively about abortion. You know, unless you're a a lazy but Very Serious Journalist who thinks it's a lot easier to talk about "abortion" than to bother learning that the issue of reproductive rights, and of women's rights in general, extends far beyond a single medical procedure. And always has."

Pelosi: 'Our country is better off than where we were' four years ago

Pelosi: 'Our country is better off than where we were' four years ago
"There's no question that the country is better off than the day George W. Bush left office. There's also no question that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would take us right back there, with even more tax cuts for the wealthy and even less oversight of the financial system that brought the economy crashing down."

Watch A Democratic Mayor Expose The Tea Party’s Deficit Hypocrisy

Watch A Democratic Mayor Expose The Tea Party’s Deficit Hypocrisy: "During an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Tuesday, Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer refused to condemn the deficit increase that would result from Mitt Romney’s proposed tax cuts, suggesting that the group is more concerned about acting as a surrogate for the Republican candidate than promoting fiscal responsibility.

Romney would extend all of the Bush tax cuts, reduce all individual income tax rates by an additional 20 percent, lower the corporate rate from the current 35 percent to 25 percent, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, the estate tax, Obamacare’s Medicare taxes on high-income individuals, and taxes on investment income for households under certain income levels. The former governor claims that he could recoup the lost revenue by closing unspecified “tax expenditures,” though economists predict that he would have to dramatically slash spending to pay for his tax cuts or add trillions to the national deficit."

26 States Cut Their Education Budgets For This School Year

26 States Cut Their Education Budgets For This School Year: States have made deep cuts to their education budgets in the years since the Great Recession, and as their budgets remained crunched by lower levels of tax revenues, more than half are spending less on education this school year than they did last year, a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [...]/p

In 2012 Campaign Season, Anti-Choicers Show Their True Colors | Common Dreams

In 2012 Campaign Season, Anti-Choicers Show Their True Colors | Common Dreams
"Indeed, showing their true colors has been a theme of anti-choicers this campaign season, from Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment to Mike Huckabee’s extolling the virtues of rape as a baby delivery system to Paul Ryan minimizing rape by calling it a “method of conception.” But even beyond making comments indicating that they don’t really think rape is a big deal---it’s not like raping uterus vessels is the same as violating people, right?---it just seems generally like anti-choicers are getting weary of play-acting like this is about “life.” The urge to say what they actually mean, to shame women for being sexual and for being independent, is just becoming too great. Decades of pretending has worn thin. Now the seams are showing, and the misogynist comments are coming out.
The most prominent example is, of course, the viciousness towards the 99 percent of women who will use contraception at some point in their lives and who, as a result of the birth control benefit under health reform will now gain access to affordable contraceptive care. Most of the hatred was dumped on Sandra Fluke, who appears to most of us to be a normal law student, but who represents everything the anti-choice movement hates: A woman who unapologetically wants equality with men and who is unafraid to advocate for reproductive autonomy as a tool to get it. Hardly a week goes by anymore that some right wing pundit on the radio or Fox News doesn’t take a swipe at Fluke, implying that she’s some kind of emasculating, sex-crazed monster for no other reason than she’s a woman with ambition who thinks that it’s one’s basic human right to prevent unwanted pregnancy."

Romney On Whether We’re Better Off: ‘Of Course It’s Getting Better’

Romney On Whether We’re Better Off: ‘Of Course It’s Getting Better’: "But if it’s an insult to say that the economy is better off, then Mitt Romney has been slinging some insults of his own, considering how he answered a question from conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham back in January"

GOP Targets African-American Women in Voter Suppression Efforts | Alternet

GOP Targets African-American Women in Voter Suppression Efforts | Alternet
"How will the American Presidential election be won in November 2012? By the Republicans buying the election? Perhaps. But money cannot always buy an election. That is why Republicans have spent the last 4-6 years passing a spate of voter suppression laws in “swing states” that will make it more difficult and costly for the young, the elderly, minorities, union members and single and elderly women to cast a vote for Barack Obama.

Although the Republican effort is not exactly a secret, few Americans are discussing it with the urgency it deserves."

GOP Senate Candidate Supports Life Sentences For Rape Victims Who Obtain Abortions

GOP Senate Candidate Supports Life Sentences For Rape Victims Who Obtain Abortions: Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND), the candidate for Senate from North Dakota, once voted for a bill that would have made any woman who obtained an abortion guilty of a homicide crime — even if it were in the case of rape or incest. Indeed, the bill Berg supported does not even contain an explicit exception [...]/p

Maryland Congressman Says ‘Few Pregnancies’ Result From Rape

Maryland Congressman Says ‘Few Pregnancies’ Result From Rape: Another House Republican is raising eyebrows for suggesting that women who are raped are less likely to become pregnant — just weeks after Rep. Todd Akin (R-MS) sparked controversy for his “legitimate rape” remark. Speaking at a town hall on Thursday, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), responded to a question about abortion by reiterating his longstanding [...]/p

Time for a little nation-building at home, Obama declares in weekly address

Time for a little nation-building at home, Obama declares in weekly address
"President Obama, riffing off his remarks at Fort Bliss, Texas, yesterday, discussed in this morning's weekly address the importance of treating our veterans right as they return home—and he also used the topic to call for an investment reminiscent of New Deal and post-World War II fiscal strategies"

Doctors, Patients Rally In Support Of Obamacare In Tampa On The Last Day Of The RNC

Doctors, Patients Rally In Support Of Obamacare In Tampa On The Last Day Of The RNC: Tampa, Florida — As Republicans gathered for the final day of their national convention here in Tampa, a small but vocal group of doctors, medical students and patients marched in the heat to deliver thousands of petitions in support of the Affordable Care Act. One of the marchers, Kenya Wheeler, was a grad student last [...]/p