"When you see your enemy making a mistake, do not hinder him."
So, over the weekend, the Republican Party apparently decided that it had not yet reached the absolute outer limits of self-parody and, rather than pausing for a moment and reflecting upon the absolute folly of pissing off more than half the population of the United States, opted to double-down on the whole 'NO BIRTH CONTROL FOR YOU DIRTY SLUTS' issue.
Via Rachel Maddow's blog:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/13/10395912-dropping-the-pretense-in-the-war-on-contraception
Quoted For Truth:
As of Friday, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were pushing measures to allow all private-sector employers, including those completely unaffiliated with any religious institution, to start denying health services that businesses might find morally objectionable.
The proposals are aimed at blocking access to contraception, but as Igor Volsky noted, they're so expansive, "an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an 'unhealthy' or 'immoral' lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer."
The Obama administration's underlying goal is entirely straightforward: the law already makes preventive care free for all Americans, and officials believe access to contraception must be included as part of this coverage. If faith-based employers don't want to pay for this directly, the White House has already changed the policy to ensure they won't have to.
The Republicans' underlying goal, at least of yesterday, is equally clear: no American employer should have to cover contraception, ever.
Bolded emphasis mine. This is the hill that the Republicans have elected to fight on, in a Presidential election year. When they've got to convince not just their "base" or the 27% of American voters that are reliably bugfuck crazy at any given time that they're better for the country than the Democrats. And they're going to do this while screaming about BIG GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN FREEDOM OF RELIGION...while championing the cause of an EMPLOYER'S RIGHT to decide what sort of preventative medical coverage their employees are allowed to have, in a situation where THE EMPLOYER AND THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS DO NOT HAVE TO BE INVOLVED AT ALL.
The Republican Party has literally just outed itself as the party, not of conservatism, but psychotically reactionary hatred of modernity itself. They're Al Qaeda with better tailors and a bigger PR budget.
Obama would have to light kittens on fire on live television not to beat these assclowns in November. I hope to all the gods that ever were or ever will be that they DO completely lose their fucking minds and nominate Santorum -- as I said before, the landslide will be so massive it'll alter the axial tilt of the planet. And I will never, ever stop laughing.
Via Rachel Maddow's blog:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/13/10395912-dropping-the-pretense-in-the-war-on-contraception
Quoted For Truth:
As of Friday, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were pushing measures to allow all private-sector employers, including those completely unaffiliated with any religious institution, to start denying health services that businesses might find morally objectionable.
The proposals are aimed at blocking access to contraception, but as Igor Volsky noted, they're so expansive, "an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an 'unhealthy' or 'immoral' lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer."
The Obama administration's underlying goal is entirely straightforward: the law already makes preventive care free for all Americans, and officials believe access to contraception must be included as part of this coverage. If faith-based employers don't want to pay for this directly, the White House has already changed the policy to ensure they won't have to.
The Republicans' underlying goal, at least of yesterday, is equally clear: no American employer should have to cover contraception, ever.
Bolded emphasis mine. This is the hill that the Republicans have elected to fight on, in a Presidential election year. When they've got to convince not just their "base" or the 27% of American voters that are reliably bugfuck crazy at any given time that they're better for the country than the Democrats. And they're going to do this while screaming about BIG GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN FREEDOM OF RELIGION...while championing the cause of an EMPLOYER'S RIGHT to decide what sort of preventative medical coverage their employees are allowed to have, in a situation where THE EMPLOYER AND THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS DO NOT HAVE TO BE INVOLVED AT ALL.
The Republican Party has literally just outed itself as the party, not of conservatism, but psychotically reactionary hatred of modernity itself. They're Al Qaeda with better tailors and a bigger PR budget.
Obama would have to light kittens on fire on live television not to beat these assclowns in November. I hope to all the gods that ever were or ever will be that they DO completely lose their fucking minds and nominate Santorum -- as I said before, the landslide will be so massive it'll alter the axial tilt of the planet. And I will never, ever stop laughing.