Sick sick sick sick sick.

If Bill Maher ever has Andrew Breitbart on his show again, I'm going to stop watching him for good. Why should we give air time to someone who hires people like this.

Here's how demented I am

The first thing I thought of when I heard that "In the Arena" with Eliot Spitzer was cancelled was that "Weiner/Spitzer" would be a great name for an evening talk show.

(I think it'd be entertaining as hell, too.)

Around the blogroll and elsewhere: Sex-Obsessed Republicans Longing for the Dark Ages edition

Because when politicians and writers on the right starts talking about sex, they're telling you an awful lot about themselves.

Amanda on Maggie Gallagher's strange world in which legal abortion leads to anal sex and how the world was much better when women would grit their teeth, lie back, and think of England. And extra bonus points for this rant about Rush Limbaugh's view that advising people to eat fruits and vegetables is a Kenyan Socialist Communist Fascist plot by four-eyed aliens named Gallaxhar.

Melissa, whom I've knocked on more than one occasion for an ever-expanding definition of rape that turns every woman into someone who was victimized at some point, makes a very valid point about how Chris Smith and the Republican House of Representatives want to give men a roadmap as to how to avoid a rape rap and as a bonus, force women to carry their children.

Scott over at World-o-Crap channels his inner Driftglass and demolishes this lunatic article bemoaning The Descent of Women. Because we all know that women had it so much better when they could have their heads cut off for not delivering sons on cue.

Evan McMorris-Santoro at TPM shows that with Democrats like this, who needs Republicans? Perhaps Daniel Lipinski ought to actually read the bills he co-sponsors.

Sady at Tiger Beatdown: "Instead of maintaining that rape is always rape, that there’s no such thing as a “minor” or “excusable” rape, the GOP is putting forth a bill that says some rapes are so very minor and excusable as not to warrant consideration."

Taking a stroll down memory lane over to I Blame the Patriarchy, back to Bill Napoli's musings about the kind of virtuous, untouched, pure virgin he might allow to have an abortion if raped. Think about it. Chris Smith is even more nutty than Bill Napoli. And so is the current Speaker of the House.

AK Muckraker with examples of what kinds of sexual assault would now be redefined as essentially consensual. One wonders what the impact would be on prosecutions of people who use date rape drugs and then assault unconscious women. If rape is redefined for the purpose of funding of abortions, why not redefine it for the legal system as well?

RMuse at Politics USA wonders: just who are the ones imposing tyranny and stealing liberty here, when the House is starting to resemble the Westboro Baptist Church?

Was this a real enough rape to satisfy Chris Smith, Daniel Lipinksi, and John Boehner?

Dennis G. at Balloon Juice makes special note of how this bill protects child predators, which makes me wonder just what kind of secrets Rep. Chris Smith and others who support this travesty are hiding. After all, when Republicans start ranting about the morality and sexual practices of others, they're telling you a great deal about themselves.

And where ARE those jobs, anyway, Mr. Boehner?

The GOP 's sick, twisted men

You really have to wonder about Republican men. These are the guys who rail the most about family values but have affairs themselves. They call others corrupt when their own histories are questionable at best. And they stand for reproductive policies that punish women and girls while their own ranks are rife with sex offenders, many of whom prey on underage girls and boys.

In the past, they have advocated laws requiring minors to have parental consent for abortion on the grounds that without such laws, men who prey on underage girls (like some Republicans???) will be able to hide the consequences of their actions (such as pregnant 12-year-olds). But now, even though the Hyde Amendment prevents federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment of the woman's life, New Jersey lunatic wingnut Congressman Chris Smith has decided that while he's not quite ready to protect fathers who rape their daughters, and he knows it's political suicide to come out and say that women are just garbage to be thrown in the trash if it meqans saving a fetus, what he CAN do is define what constitutes rape. Yes, folks, a Congressman from New Jersey is all set to redefine rape according to his own twisted vision:

Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)

Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions, that 13-year-old's parents wouldn't be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn't be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense. 

So if your twelve-year-old is sexually attacked by a neighbor, and her attacker says he'll kill her if she doesn't keep quiet and do what he wants, in Chris Smith's world she wasn't actually raped. And if your twelve-year-old becomes pregnant as a result, and your insurance doesn't cover abortion, and you want to use your flex or HSA money to pay for it, Chris Smith won't let you do that either. Because Chris Smith thinks your daughter is a dirty slut who asked for it.

And this is one of the new GOP Congress' first priorities.

Where ARE those jobs, anyway? Or are we too busy painting scarlet letters on women who are assuaulted by guys like Chris Smith?

Utah: The Misogynist State

Here's how one Utah Republican lawmaker thinks his state should save a few bucks:

Under the theory that perhaps thousands of Utah college students are having babies paid for by Medicaid that they could pay for themselves, one lawmaker has a plan: cut all elective epidurals and elective C-sections.

Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful, has vowed massive Medicaid reform in next year's legislative session, and first on the list is people who may be freeloading. Medicaid pays for 15,000 births a year in Utah, a third of the total, Liljenquist says.

"Do we save some kid or make birth easier?" he said, noting that the waiting list for Medicaid in Utah just for the disabled has reached 4,400 people.

Liljenquist says the state could save millions. Epidurals, a shot given in the spine, are a common method of relieving pain during labor. At Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, 86 to 87 percent of women who deliver babies at the hospital get an epidural; studies show about 65 percent of births nationwide happen with an epidural.

Cesarean births have risen to nearly a third of all births nationwide and cost nearly double a vaginal birth. The average charge for a Cesarean delivery in Utah County in 2008 was $8,989, according to the Utah Department of Health. In 2008, the average cost of a vaginal birth in the county was $5,079, but that does not include an epidural.

On Wednesday, a group of senators including Liljenquist had an animated discussion about the matter after meeting informally on the Senate floor.

"These are 90 percent out-of-state students having babies on our dime," Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told Liljenquist, referring to BYU students. Conservative lawmakers have been upset about anecdotal evidence of students with a Lexus and trust fund having a baby under Medicaid. They qualify because there may technically be no income.

Yeah. Let the dirty sluts writhe in pain. That'll teach them.

What kind of sick fucks is the Republican Pafrty putting into office these days, anyway? Between Louie Gomert standing on the floor of the House with his litany of sexual practices that most of us never even think about, or Man-on-Dog Santorum, or Lindsey Graham talking about illegal immigrant women coming her to "drop a child", the fear and loathing that Republican men have for women is indisputable. Given the private lives of all too many Republican legislators, what goes on in their heads about women is something I don't think any of us really want to know.

OMG these Republicans are sick and twisted people

What kind of sick fuck dresses up his daughter as Jon-Benet Ramsey for Halloween?

A giant leap forward into the 1890s

Who knew John Derbyshire was this old?

John Derbyshire, a British-American conservative author and columnist for the National Review, has written a new book titled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. The book contains a section called “The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Yesterday on his radio show, Alan Colmes asked Derbyshire to articulate his argument.

“What is the case against female suffrage?” Colmes asked. “The conservative case against it is that women lean hard to the left,” Derbyshire responded nonsensically. “They want someone to nurture, they want someone to help raise their kids, and if men aren’t inclined to do it — and in the present days, they’re not much — then they’d like the state to do it for them.”

Colmes then pressed Derbyshire on whether women should have the right to vote. “Ah…” Derbyshire sighed, attempting to dodge the question initially. “I’m not putting forward a political program here,” he said. But then Derbyshire slowly began to open up:

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.

COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Derbyshire, for the uninitiated, is the sick, twisted man who in 2001 made a "historical" case at National Review Online for the killing of Chelsea Clinton so she could never hold office. You think I'm joking? Here it is.

Yes, lynching is hilarious -- if you're a Republican

Republicans think this is funny

U.S. Congressman Todd Akin, Republican of Missouri, on death threats received by a Democratic Congressman from North Carolina:

Note how his audience cheers and applauds, and how he snarkly says he doesn't approve of lynching -- while his audience laughs.

That's your Republican Party, folks. And these are the people before whom the Obama Administration and Senate Democrats are capitulating on health care reform. These are the people Barack Obama thinks are worthy of bipartisanship -- people who would happily string him up from a tree.