"Forcible Rape" I Have No Words..

[noise]

Source?

There are endless sources if you simply search for Google for "Akin Willke", so here's the first result:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...mney-surrogate

This is common knowledge.

[JBMcB]

The most interesting thing about this whole escapade isn't what Akin said. It's awful, I don't think anyone who is sane would agree with it, and even the republicans are saying he shouldn't be running anymore.

The interesting thing is - has anyone heard of this guy before he said this claptrap? I checked the news timeline - pretty much nothing. He's a nobody. A congressman from Missouri. No significant legislative actions. No big-time committee assignments. Yet, he says one stupid thing, and it's on the front burner of the news cycle for a week. Granted, it's an *insanely* stupid thing, but there's no indication that it's a widely held belief.

Wanna bet I can find clips of other congress-critters saying equally stupid things, both [[R) and [[D)? Betcha they weren't in the news for a week.

Kinda strange, isn't it?

[Goose]

The most interesting thing about this whole escapade isn't what Akin said. It's awful, I don't think anyone who is sane would agree with it, and even the republicans are saying he shouldn't be running anymore.

The interesting thing is - has anyone heard of this guy before he said this claptrap? I checked the news timeline - pretty much nothing. He's a nobody. A congressman from Missouri. No significant legislative actions. No big-time committee assignments. Yet, he says one stupid thing, and it's on the front burner of the news cycle for a week. Granted, it's an *insanely* stupid thing, but there's no indication that it's a widely held belief.

Wanna bet I can find clips of other congress-critters saying equally stupid things, both [[R) and [[D)? Betcha they weren't in the news for a week.

Kinda strange, isn't it?

this would have been a non-issue any other year but the left has to find obscure evidence to persecute the right on this election year because clearly Obama cannot run on his record.......

[noise]

this would have been a non-issue any other year but the left has to find obscure evidence to persecute the right on this election year because clearly Obama cannot run on his record.......

I guess the obvious and relevant relationships between Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan to this lunatic and his belief could be considered "obscure", but only if you're being disingenuous.

[JBMcB]

I guess the obvious and relevant relationships between Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan to this lunatic and his belief could be considered "obscure", but only if you're being disingenuous.

Show me a quote or a statement on their website where either one of them said that women who are "legitimately raped" do not get pregnant. Otherwise you're casting aspersions.

Don't get me wrong, I think Paul Ryan's views on abortion are stupid. However, the incredible dishonesty and manipulation of the media is just disgusting, and the mindless parroting of the narrative isn't adding anything to the greater debate.

I agree with about 20% of the Republican platform, but they have one thing right. We need to be talking about the economy, not what some third-string congressman said, or how much Romney's show horse cost.

[noise]

Show me a quote or a statement on their website where either one of them said that women who are "legitimately raped" do not get pregnant. Otherwise you're casting aspersions.

Don't get me wrong, I think Paul Ryan's views on abortion are stupid. However, the incredible dishonesty and manipulation of the media is just disgusting, and the mindless parroting of the narrative isn't adding anything to the greater debate.

I agree with about 20% of the Republican platform, but they have one thing right. We need to be talking about the economy, not what some third-string congressman said, or how much Romney's show horse cost.

I was referring to their connections, which are completely valid.

“Dr. Willke is a leading voice within the pro-life community and will be an important surrogate for Governor Romney’s pro-life and pro-family agenda.”

[rb336]

this would have been a non-issue any other year but the left has to find obscure evidence to persecute the right on this election year because clearly Obama cannot run on his record.......

Obama's record in government kicks Romney's ass all over the place. Obama SHOULD run on his record.

as far as the first part of your statement, that is just plain moronic. This is not "obscure evidence" this goes straight to the heart of the republican party's anti-woman agenda. Romney's veep worked closely with Akin on a number of anti-woman bills and worked closely with him against the equal pay legislation

[JBMcB]

I was referring to their connections, which are completely valid.

“Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin's statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”

What connection would that be?

[noise]

“Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin's statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”

What connection would that be?

It's been posted in this thread and multiple other times on this board. I won't help you help yourself.

Furthermore, the statement you posted is not historically accurate nor does it address the other controversial factors involved. If you're not willing to follow the issues, don't expect anyone else to spoon-feed you.

[poobert]

Yes, it is absolutely disingenuous to separate the right from this guy. The line is so familiar - creationism should be taught in schools, God causes storms to smite people.

The Republicans made their nest when they embraced people like this as their base. Look at how far to the right the rightwing machine pushed the Romneybot on the campaign trail - all the debates were those assclowns trying to out-conservative and out-Christian each other [[I happen to be a Christian and Jesus seems to talk an awful lot about the poor and zilch about gay people or abortion). Well fuck that. I don't care what kind of gripes I may have with the Democrats, but I am not willing to see the USA turn into Iran at the hands of these bloodthirsty fanatics.

[Detroitej72]

Nope, but it was the topic of this thread as opposed to everything else. Yes, I do pay attention to hypocrisy, irony, and double standards.

Then why bring up unproven allegations from over 14 years ago?

In America, are we not innocent until proven guilty? That is part of the liberty of which you speak, is it not?

Funny, cons always seem to forget that which is not convenient to them!

[oladub]

Then why bring up unproven allegations from over 14 years ago?

In America, are we not innocent until proven guilty? That is part of the liberty of which you speak, is it not?

Funny, cons always seem to forget that which is not convenient to them!

I notice that you didn't complain when I gave credit to Bill Clinton for balancing the budget about 14 years ago on another thread.

The reason I brought Clinton up regarding Akin up was because this thread is about the horror, or feigned horror, regarding a Senate candidate's stupid remark. One way of putting it in perspective is to note how Democrats deal with their own. Here, let's put two statements side by side.

Republican Senatorial candidate Akin's statement:

"It seems to me first of all from what I understand from doctors that's really rare," Akin said. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,"

Joke made by Al Franken, whom Democrats did elect as a US Senator:
And, ‘I give the pills to Lesley Stahl. Then, when Lesley's passed out, I take her to the closet and rape her." "That's why you never see Lesley until February" "When she passes out, I put her in various positions and take pictures of her."

To me, the latter statement is more objectionable but to Democrats, the first statement means all Republicans are waging a ‘war on women’ while the second is just a funny Al Franken joke that can be overlooked when voting for Al. Tags: irony, double standard, hypocracy.

Back to Bill Clinton. Wikipedia has a brief article on Bill and his lady friends. Maybe that somehow violates being innocent until proven guilty too? I expect that Bill Clinton and Al Franken will both be at the Democratic Convention in good standing railing about the Republican ‘war on women’. I just love irony. I do credit Clinton with balancing the budget, something our current President is incapable of. I try to give credit and discredit where due. I suspect that if Akin had been accused of rape and had a history of being a womanizer, some Democrats might have brought that up too.

If I were you, instead of being an apologist for double standards, I would bring up the fact that recent Republican presidents have also been big spenders and that the last two presidents who balanced the budget were Democrats. No republican president has balanced a budget since Ike. Republicans have their own double standard and are hypocritical when they accuse Democrats of being big spenders, Ron Paul being an exception.

[MSUguy]

The most interesting thing about this whole escapade isn't what Akin said. It's awful, I don't think anyone who is sane would agree with it, and even the republicans are saying he shouldn't be running anymore.

The interesting thing is - has anyone heard of this guy before he said this claptrap? I checked the news timeline - pretty much nothing. He's a nobody. A congressman from Missouri. No significant legislative actions. No big-time committee assignments. Yet, he says one stupid thing, and it's on the front burner of the news cycle for a week. Granted, it's an *insanely* stupid thing, but there's no indication that it's a widely held belief.

Wanna bet I can find clips of other congress-critters saying equally stupid things, both [[R) and [[D)? Betcha they weren't in the news for a week.

Kinda strange, isn't it?

A nobody? The man is running for the U.S Senate, if he were to win he'd be one of the most powerful people in the country. You don't think having a someone who is running for very high political office, who thinks that a womans body can prevent pregnancy during rape is newsworthy?

Ideas like Akin's is something that has been floating around the anti-choice right for decades.

The thing is, his comments were hardly some kind never-before-heard gaffe. Arguments like his have cropped up again and again on the right over the past quarter century and the idea that trauma is a form of birth control continues to be promulgated by anti-abortion forces that seek to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. The push for a no-exceptions anti-abortion policy has for decades gone hand in hand with efforts to downplay the frequency with which rape- or incest-related pregnancies occur, and even to deny that they happen, at all. In other words, it's not just Akin singing this tune.
Take Christian Life Resources, an educational site, for example. It reprints an 1999 article on the topic that seeks to make the same distinction between categories of rape as did Akin, and for the same reason. Wrote John C. Willke -- a physician who in the 1980s and early 1990s was president of the National Right to Life Committee -- in the piece, originally published in Life Issues Connector:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...gnancy/261303/

Pennsylvania state Rep. Stephen Freind [[R) was an ardent abortion opponent. He authored legislation that included one of the the nation’s first abortion waiting periods, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.He also looks to be the first legislator to make the argument that rape prevents pregnancy, arguing in the late 1980s that the odds of a pregnancy resulting from rape were “one in millions and millions and millions.”
The argument was dormant for about a decade, until the late 1990s. That’s when a North Carolina legislator, whom Garance Franke-Ruta points to, extended the argument to question whether there should actually be a rape exception from abortion restrictions, given that ”The facts show that people who are raped – truly raped – the juices don’t flow.”
Arkansas politician Fay Boozman followed up during during his 1998 Senate campaign by arguing that “fear-induced hormonal changes could block a rape victim’s ability to conceive.” Those remarks lead to a backlash when then-Gov. Mike Huckabee tappedBoozman to run the state’s health department.
The argument was most recently – and perhaps most fully – articulated by National Right to Life president John Wilke in a 1999 essay titled “Rape Pregnancies Are Rare.” Wilke made a pretty similar case to Akin: That the “physical trauma” of rape has a way of preventing pregnancy

.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...hes-not-alone/