St. Hypocrisy Roman Catholic Church Hospital

by Sunnyjane

Double standards?  Pretense?  Duplicity?  Why yes, we DO provide those services!

Americans have been subjected to more than its fair share of far-right hypocrisy in the last couple of years, so much so that the next instance becomes little more than an eye-rolling,  head-shaking example. 

Given the atmosphere of it's just the far-right hypocrisy du jour, when the story broke that a Catholic-run hospital in Canon City, Colorado, was going to court to argue that seven-month twin fetuses were not persons when they died in their deceased mother's womb -- due to negligence on the part of the hospital -- caused hardly a ripple upon the mainstream media waters.  

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI)

I have told you people that life begins at conception!  Oh, never mind, I quit!

There is nothing ambiguous in the Roman Catholic Church's stand on the question of personhood, and when life begins.  In November 2010, Pope Benedict made the following statements concerning this subject:  personhood begins at conception.  And, he who will be a man is already one; there is no reason not to consider him a person from conception.  In the event that these statements seemed a bit vague to the hardheaded Americans, the Holy Father went on to say from the moment of its conception, life must be guarded with the greatest care.

Any questions as to how the Vatican views personhood?  Take notes; there may be a test.

There was not much care exhibited in the case of thirty-one-year-old Lori Stodghill.  She  and her twins died while under the care of a CHI hospital, St. Thomas More, which professes to follow Catholic doctrine to the letter:  In accord with its mission, Catholic health care should distinguish itself by service to and advocacy for … children and the unborn. 

When the widowed father decided to sue CHI for the wrongful death of his twins, the lawyer for the defendants asked that the Supreme Court throw out the suit because, under a long-standing Colorado law, personhood only applies to a person living outside the womb.  The Supreme Court agreed, and the suit did not go forward.

Now the wicket gets sticky, so to speak.  The Catholic Bishops of Colorado -- who maintained afterwards that they knew nothing about the law suit -- met with CHI and sort of set 'em straight.  CHI then acknowledged publicly that yes, it was “morally wrong” for its attorneys to argue in court that a fetus is not a human being under Colorado law.   After all, such a contention directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church.  That's sort of like saying Oops, our bad! after the Court has made its ruling.

How very odd that the Bishops did not get involved until after the Supreme Court of Colorado threw out the suit.  Remember, this has been going on since 2006.

Of course, it's a good thing CHI didn't try this little stunt in Alabama -- and some other states -- whose Supreme Court ruled in January that it recognizes the unborn as persons.

END NOTE

  

You can never be accused of hypocrisy when you keep Church and State separate

Countdown to Election 2012: Week Eight in Review

By Sunnyjane

The left-wing media is taking Obama's side again!
What? It's not just the left-wing media?   Oh.

Mitt Romney should be thankful for the Affordable Healthcare Act because his pre-existing condition -- Stupidity -- will be covered.  No, there is no cure for that ailment as yet, but affected persons are advised an extended treatment of Sit Down and Shut Up.  Unfortunately, this advice is rarely taken by former governors and all other Republicans running for high national office.  As Albert Einstein said, The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

A no-morning-after-bounce convention where the American electorate and the media only remember Chris Christie announcing his 2016 presidential run and a has-been actor debating an empty chair, combined with President Obama's twelve-point lead in the polls on foreign policy, have made the Republicans  desperate to counteract the President's remark that Romney might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.   An international crisis would have been just the thing to demonstrate Mitt's global statesmanship, severely solidify his  geopolitical expertise, and ridicule President Obama's leadership capabilities. It is significant to note that less than twenty-four hours before the situation in Libya exploded, a Romney campaign spokesman had mocked the Democratic campaign, calling foreign policy issues a distraction: It doesn't surprise me that they're raising foreign policy because it's another distraction from the Administration's terrible economic record.  They're going from one shiny object to the next.   

The Smirk Jerk: An Inept Political Opportunist

Mitt Romney, with nothing but a clumsy propensity to shoot from the lip, an imaginary grasp of the intricacies of foreign relations issues, and a fanatical desire to grab our turn in the White House, simply flubbed his rub on the magic genie bottle. Such is the fate of rank amateurs and out-of-touch businessmen with all the political savvy of a  crab cake. 

A brief review of Mitt Romney's geopolitical astuteness consists of three other recent campaign bumblings:  

1.  In March, he called Russia our Number One geopolitical foe and doubled down on that theme during the Republican National Convention. Guess he's never heard of al-Qaeda, eh?

2.  In June, he warned that Syria is Iran's route to the sea.  Wellll...no.  Mitt obviously doesn't understand that Iran and Syria are not only separated by Iraq, but that Iran has two routes to the sea, the Caspian to the north and that big ole Persian Gulf thingy to the south.  Get a map and read some history, Mitt.  Or better yet, get out of U.S. politics altogether.  

3.  In July, Mitt took a little trip to Europe and the Middle East, which his campaign felt was   very successful.   If being called devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity  is what Romney's people refer to as very successful, it would be absolutely frightening to know what they would call a complete disaster.

Perhaps Romney was a bit chafed when Laura Ingraham blasted him for the ineptitude of his   campaign consultants and advisers: Election after election, we hire people who have lost previous campaigns; who've run campaigns that have failed...You have one shot, man. This is going to be the first line of your obituary: you won or you lost. It's all on the line for the country, and it's all on the line for you.

Whatever the reasoning for redeeming his Carpe diem coupon by responding too quickly to the volatile situation in Libya about which he knew absolutely nothing, Romney and his staff chose the wrong time, the wrong circumstance, and the wrong president to mess about with.

Mitt Romney can be easily summed up by comparing him to a computer without software:  a dumb box taking up valuable space. 

Paul Ryan Goes Rogue

I'm pullin' a Palin on ya, Mitt.  Good luck 
with that Libya shit you just stepped in.

Throughout recent history, Republican presidential candidates have  had a propensity for choosing the dumbest nominees for the Number Two spot on their ticket.  Remember Spiro Agnew?  Dan Quayle? John McCain started a new trend in 2008 when he selected not only the dumbest and most unqualified person in the GOP as a running mate, but the most disloyal.  And so did Mitt Romney.

Where was Paul Ryan when the media, the Democrats, and most of the Republican party were bashing Mitt upside the head last week?  Such was the well deserved clamor surrounding the top of the ticket that the deafening sound of silence from Number Two hardly registered a ping on the media's radar screen.  So it's up to Politicalgates to ask: Where was the passionate defense of Mitt Romney?  Where was the campaign's well coordinated message with which Ryan could crisscross the country to counter these attacks at well staged GOP rallies?  Where were the strongly worded talking points to refute the criticism that was being heaped upon Romney?

With the campaign in tatters and fewer than fifty-six days left to get their right-wing message out to the American electorate, Paul Ryan was hunkered down in Wisconsin's 1st District, trying to save his ass congressional seat by using two million dollars of his campaign funds to buy ads that will only be shown in Wisconsin.  It appears that he has glommed on to the fact that he probably will not be able to demonstrate his questionable running skills by taking a victory lap around Washington on November 7.

Speaking to his constituents in coffee shops and other small venues, Ryan merely repeats the tired old Tea Party rhetoric. But when asked by one town hall attendant how the Romney/Ryan administration would have handled the Libyan situation, he gave a response that was so full of lies, hypocrisy, and ambiguities that it was utterly stupefying:

First of all, he began, peace through strength works.  It’s important that people around the world know who we are, what we believe, and the values we  stand up for.  We believe in women’s rights…we believe in plurality...we believe in tolerance and religious freedom...  He then went on to blame the situation on President Obama's proposed defense budget cuts.  Mitt Romney was never mentioned.

[Do not attempt to adjust your computer speakers, dear readers.  That sound you hear is this writer banging her head on the desk, which by the end of this campaign will have more dents in it than Sarah Palin’s refrigerator.]

Of course, Ryan did take time out to spew his filth with Michelle Bachmann at the Value Voters Summit, that despicable right-wing group that takes great joy in mocking diplomacy with Middle East countries.  As Right Wing Watch reported,  the video that sparked the unrest in Egypt and Libya was created and promoted by anti-Muslim activists who have worked with backers of Bachmann’s effort to purge the U.S. government of Muslim Americans and key players in the effort to block the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

I'm sick of these anti-American fools.

End Note

The Transfer of Remains:  Honoring the Four Who Fell in Service to Their Country

"The President has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart, and a spine of steel."

Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic National Convention, September 6, 2012

UPDATE

More media response to Romney's Libya fiasco. 

Courtesy of The Obama Diary

UPDATE 2

H/T Sleuth1

Don't Get Me Started: You're a Liar, Mr. Romney

by Sunnyjane

It is well known that Mitt Romney can change his position on any one issue faster than a well-oiled weather vane in a cyclone.  He has, at one time or another, claimed he created one hundred thousand jobs...tens of thousands of jobs...and then thousands of jobs while running Bain Capital.

Fighting for America -- in France

But there are a couple other spin-the-stories that haven't gotten as much voter attention as they might warrant.  A prime example is Mitt's 4-D deferment from the draft as a minister of religion or divinity student so that he could, ahem, serve his country by trying to convert the French people to Mormonism.  [It is rumored that while the citizens of the country of the Franks found this offer sorely tempting,  they were somewhat reluctant to give up their fabulous wines and strong coffees for the rest of their lives.  This is a position I personally find very reasonable.]   When the Vietnam issue arose during his 1994 run for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy, Mitt told the Boston Herald, I was not planning on signing up for the military.  It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft.  [Well, I do believe that spending thirty-one months in France on a missionary crusade could be construed as taking yourself off the draft list.]  But, fair enough; I sincerely doubt that there were many young men who actually thought the idea of going to war was a great way to spend a couple of years.  However, when he was so anxious to be the 2008 Republican candidate, Romney made the statement that, I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.   [Oh, and just in case Sarah Palin gets her knickers in a knot about Barack Obama's not fighting in Vietnam, it shall be noted here that the President was a one-year-old when President John F. Kennedy sent troops to Vietnam, and he was twelve years old when the war ended in 1973.]   While American veterans currently favor President Obama, it will be up to those stalwart warriors of democracy to determine if Romney's record is a reason to vote against him in November.

One other example of Mitt's spin problem is the  issue of his inheritance from his father. George Romney died a wealthy man in 1995 at the age of eighty-eight, three years before his wife, Lenore.  After their mother's death, the four children inherited what must have been a very substantial estate.  Let's be clear on this: there is absolutely nothing illegal or even morally wrong with inheriting money.  So, why lie about it?   Why spin a tale that makes people narrow their eyes, purse their  lips, and say, Hmmmm?  When responding to questions about his wealth and where he got it, Mitt has given three disparate answers, the most disingenuous being, I didn't inherit money from my parents. What I have, I earned. I worked hard. The American way.   Then on another occasion, I did inherit some funds from my dad. But I turned and gave that away to charity. In this case I gave it to a school which Brigham Young University established in his honor.   Will the third time be the charm?  The next way he spun this head-scratcher of a tale as, What I got from my parents when they passed away I gave away to charity and to my kids.  As Nick Baumann of Mother Jones points out, a common estate-tax reduction strategy known as a dynasty trust relies on skipping generations. Did Romney pass on his inheritance to his kids for tax reasons? It's hard to know without seeing his tax returns—and that's another reason why he should release them. 


Flip-Flopping is Out, Lying and Hypocrisy are In

Perhaps it's because Romney's core convictions have proven to be as resolute as a strand of overcooked fettuccini that he's now reduced to Lying for the Lord and the White Horse he came in on -- or something like that.  It's all too wearisome to think about. But if we thought the garbage coming out of the 2008 presidential campaign had reached an all-time low, we were wrong: the Romney campaign has gone dumpster-diving in the rancid landfill of national politics.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out recently, Romney lied in the first anti-Obama ad his campaign put out in November 2011.  The Romney ad quoted President Obama as saying at a campaign rally, If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.   This was a lie, pure and simple.  The truth is from a 2008 rally where then-candidate Obama actually said  was, Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’


When reporters who knew full well that the quote was from the 2008 campaign questioned Romney on falsely implying that it was President Obama's current quote, Mitt employed the old sauce-for-the-goose defense -- which I suppose is the sophisticate's use of the childhood taunt of na-na, na-na boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo.   Real classy.


This GOP campaign is turning into a perversion of the Golden Rule.  Their version sounds a tad like Do it unto them before they do it unto you.

On May 31, Romney was reduced to engaging in a bit of political theater when he shanghaied a group of reporters for a super-secret bus trip to the empty headquarters of now defunct Solyndra, explaining conspiratorially that there are people who don't want to see this event occur.

Huh?  If he was intimating that his hoped-for drama would somehow incur the wrath of the Obama campaign such that they would try to shut down his visit to an empty office building, Romney was sadly disappointed; his little act was a complete fiasco.  Is there a still-drawing-breath human being over the age of fifteen in this country who doesn't know that Solyndra was a solar technology company that was given a government backed loan through the Energy Department as part of George W. Bush's stimulus package?   And then, unable to compete with more conventional solar technologies after silicon prices fell dramatically, went bankrupt in 2011?  It is true that President Obama supported the company, and that it's demise was unfortunate, both for the company and its employees and for the green technology industry.  But Romney could have phoned in that story instead of resorting to such a ridiculous performance.  According to the amusing reporters' tweets who went on this little trip with the GOP candidate, that's pretty much what it amounted to.  Makes you wonder who in the Romney campaign thought this massive fail was a good idea.  As Mitt himself likes to say, That's capitalism; some businesses succeed and some don't.

But if Mitt was aware of their disdain, he trudged on valiantly by saying to the kidnapped reporters, Two years ago President Obama was here to tout this building and this business as a symbol of the success of his stimulus. Well you can see that's it a symbol of something very different today. It's a symbol not of success but of failure.  But he's where Mitt stepped into the Big Lie:  It's also a symbol of a serious conflict of interest. An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded the administration had steered money to friends and family, to campaign contributors. This building, this half-billion taxpayer investment, represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team.


And where did he get the dynamic, show-stopping piece of information that An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded the administration had steered money to friends and family, to campaign contributors?   When requested by Michael Grunwald of Time Magazine  to provide that information, the Romney campaign supplied him with a Newsweek article asserting that Energy Department inspector general Gregory Friedman “has testified that contracts have been steered to friends and family.”  Except that the Newsweek article was an excerpt from the book “Throw Them All Out,” written by Peter Schweizer, a right-winger who has served as an adviser to Sarah Palin’s PAC, edited one of Andrew Breitbart’s websites, and written a slew of books portraying liberals as pond scum. Not exactly a disinterested source. And it turns out that the inspector general never testified that stimulus contracts were steered to friends and family. 


If Romney thought his hypocrisy on this issue would go unnoticed, he is more out of touch than previously believed.  As the Boston Herald reported in December 2011, when Romney was governor, the state handed out $4.5 million in loans to two firms run by his campaign donors that have since defaulted, leaving taxpayers holding the bag.


And just a couple of days after Romney's big Solyndra sham, another green technology company that received state loans while he was governor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

So how's that Slam-Obama thingy going for ya, Mitt?

The Lyrics of a Liar

With humble apologies to the Bellamy Brothers, I believe with just a few word changes that one of their best pieces of music could become Romney's campaign theme song:

I’ll Lie To You For Your Vote

I can tell you what you wanna hear, but never truths about myself.
I can tell you I’m the best there is, there'll never be nobody else.
Yeah, I'm runnin' for president, I got money to burn.
But I’m just hoping that you never learn...

That I'll lie to you for your vote.
I'll lie to you for your vote.
Yes, I'll lie to you for your vote.
And that's the truth.

End Note

Remember, Americans: we get what we vote for, and this is what Mitt Romney wants us to vote for in 2012

Don’t Get Me Started: Mitt Romney and His Human Rights Hypocrisy

by Sunnyjane

Every day in this country, another irksome bit of far-right rhetorical bile flows from the Republican Party and its presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.  We read it or hear it, share it with our Politicalgates community, and then move on to the next contemptible piece of right-wing garbage.  Most news is old after twenty-four hours.

But on this particular issue, I have not been able to move on.

The Backstory

For me, Romney’s inexhaustible hypocrisies melded into one massive clump of horseshit horse excrement in the middle of the sensitive situation playing out last week in China during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s trip there.  The original goal of the visit to Beijing was to implore China to support international efforts to persuade North Korea to end provocative actions, get Iran to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful, and end fighting in Syria and the two Sudans.  The visit soon became about Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese civil rights activist who works on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China, particularly in support of women's rights and the welfare of the poor. 

We will probably never know the entire story involving Chen's issues and how it was eventually resolved.  But having the United States Secretary of State sitting on potentially hostile soil is not the time for fools to begin yammering about what the President should be telling the Chinese regarding how wretched their record on human rights is.   Romney simply confirmed that he knows nothing about delicate international policy negotiations.  


A Fool's Mouth is Always Open

It is typical of Romney's ignorance and out-of-touch nature that he could so "tactfully" state for the benefit of his base, It's not the language I would have used when Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut, but took it upon himself to openly slam President Obama for carefully saying of the situation going on in China, I am obviously aware of the press reports.

Romney decided it was a dark day for freedom -- IF the reports out of China were true.  No need to keep his mouth shut until the tense situation was resolved.  And at the same time, he made this inane statement:  I really love America.  I love what it represents, and I love that a Chinese dissident who fled the policies in his country, I love where he went -- to our embassy.   Oh, and don't we love the idle chatter of an idiot.


He liberally chastised the American embassy in Beijing for failing to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would assure the safety of Mr. Chen and his family and didn't hesitate to add that, it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration. We are a place of freedom, here and around the world, and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack.


But this slap-down advice to President Obama was the most egregious:  He should speak one on one with the key leadership in China and make sure they understand that we're entirely committed to the principle of human rights…that the [Chen] family is given protection from authorities that have apparently been abusing their civil and human rights, and we should make it very clear that  and for the people of the world.


You may be sorry you said that, Mitt.


Hypocrisy, Thy Ugly Name is Mitt Romney


Mitt Romney criticizing China for its human rights deficiencies is closely akin to Adolph Hitler had he condemned genocide.  Romney has made himself the candidate of the party that is committing the most grave offenses against human rights in America's history.   Never has one party so savagely destroyed the fundamental rights to which people are inherently entitled.  To name only a few, they have suppressed peaceful protests; disenfranchised segments of the population by enacting restrictive voter laws; presented budgets that protect only the wealthy; legislatively attacked the LGBT community; stripped labor unions of  their collective bargaining rights; and unmercifully enacted repressive laws against women.


Remember Romney's words regarding the China situation: stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack...We're entirely committed to the principle of human rights...This [human rights] is an important priority for the United States of America.


And yet, this is what he promises to do if elected president:  Of course get rid of Obamacare, that's the easy one. Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that.   And he loves the Ryan budget that protects the rich.
      
It doesn't sound like you really believe that human rights are so important in America, Mitt.

End Note

Severely conservative, severely unfit for the presidency of the United States of America