Everyone has by now heard of the inflammatory, idiotic
statement made by Congressman and Senatorial candidate, Todd Akin of Missouri.
In response to a question about his stand on abortion in cases of pregnancy
from rape, Akin replied:
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really
rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the
female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Of course in the furor that resulted—with
even Republican pooh-bahs, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, urging Akin to
drop a candidacy that was not only hurting Republican chances to unseat current
Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri, but Republicans across the country—Akin
tried to clarify his remarks and apologize (but not drop out of the race). It was only his “words, not
what’s in his heart” that he was expressing, insisted Akin. Just a little word
mistake—the explanation of our time: “I misspoke one word in one sentence on
one day and all of a sudden, overnight, everybody decides, well, Akin can't
possibly win.” Gee, what’s a public figure to do? That one word, according to
Akin, was “legitimate” which he insists people misapplied to the “rape” rather
than “the female body shutting down.” And Akin then cited anti-abortion quack
Jack Willke, who wrote a letter supporting Akin’s claim that women often make
false claims of rape—as in the whole Roe v. Wade case, whatever that means. What,
are Repubs now saying that Roe v Wade was supported by ‘illegitimate’ rape
cases? These people are something, aren’t they?
But
even if we grant him his “misplaced modifier” excuse, Akin’s past record as a
Congressman, and the entire Republican Party’s, for that matter, gives the lie
to that excuse. In fact, Akin and the House Republicans sponsored and passed a 2011 bill to redefine rape—The No
Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act—further
restricting the use of federal money in cases of rape or incest or when the
mother’s life is in danger. That is, the word ‘rape’ would have been changed to
“forcible rape,” presumably so
that no mild rape cases (i.e. not
“legitimate,” which is to say, I suppose, “fake” rape) would qualify for
abortion funding. So we can see that here is where Akin’s mis-speaking actually
derived from. He apparently wants to make sure a women is beaten good and
proper before she can qualify for an abortion—and even then. Because as
McCaskill pointed out, Akin opposed a Missouri law against spousal rape because
of his fear that such a law “might be used as a tool against husbands in a
‘messy divorce.’” And we couldn’t have that, now, could we? More than that, the
now-sanctimonious Republican leaders urging Akin to withdraw, aren’t doing so
out of any moral scruples or late-breaking concern for women. It’s all political
to them—because now, this Akin flareup has drawn attention to their default
stance on rape and abortion. Which is clear to see in the already-written
Republican Party Platform about to be rolled out (or covered up) next week.
Even as the Akin bomb was exploding, that is, the Republican Platform Committee
was approving draft language for proposing a “Human Life Amendment” to the
Constitution that would give legal protection to the unborn (with no
exceptions for rape or incest). That would, of course, make any abortion quite
problematic, if not outright illegal, jeopardizing as never before Roe v Wade.
And to add a little spice to the idea, the platform committee later passed a
measure to oppose FDA approval of drugs like RU-486, thus effectively
preventing the sale of “any drug that terminates life after conception.” Thank
god these things are “only” in the platform and stand little chance of passing
into real laws. But still, as an indicator of how the zealots in the modern
Republican Party are thinking (and note, the Human Life Amendment proposal was
there in the last party platform as well), it’s pretty scary.
To
top off the comedy, another Republican Congressman, Steve King of Iowa, supported
Akin’s no-pregnancy-from-rape assertion by saying that he, King, just hadn’t
heard of any cases brought to him “in any personal way,” but would be open to
discussion about it. Juan Cole then pointed out, in a response to King, that
not only are 32,000 American rape victims made pregnant by rapists every year,
but that “science has actually found that raped women are more likely to get
pregnant” (Juan Cole, Reader Supported News,
August 22). Cole also referred to the thousands of pregnancies that result from
rapes in war zones like Bosnia and elsewhere across the globe. But of course,
such “facts” do not impress the likes of King and Akin, or, for that matter,
the Republican Party zealots like Paul Ryan.
Which
leaves the rest of us with the hope that ever more Republican crazies will keep
putting their stupid feet in their stupid mouths right up through election day.
Speaking
of which, yet another crazy has managed to get her racist venom plastered on
Muni buses in the city of San Francisco. Here’s the “ad” Muni buses currently
carry:
“In
any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.
Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”
The
author of these “civilized” sentences is one Pamela Geller, head of the
American Freedom Defense Initiative—an organization deemed a hate group by the
Southern Poverty Law Center (isn’t it amazing how racists/fascists always manage to portray
their hate as “defense” of “freedom”?). Geller has managed to browbeat Muni to
run her ad because she claims that the First Amendment protects her right to
free speech. Her claim was given added force by a federal judge last month
who, in a case Geller brought against the New York Metropolitan Transportation
Agency—which refused to run her ads—ruled against the NY Met agency by saying
the ad was protected speech.
But
doesn’t implying that Muslims are “savages” sound like hate speech? It does to
me. It apparently sounds like hate speech to many American Jewish groups as
well. But not to a federal judge. And so, Muni buses in our bastion of free
love, San Francisco, are carrying Pamela Geller’s crazy hate message emblazoned
on their sides.
In
case you don’t remember Pamela Geller, she was one of the main organizers of the
demonstrations and anti-Muslim rant against the downtown Manhattan project,
known originally as Cordoba House and later as Park51, to build a mosque and
community center. With Robert Spencer, she took over an organization known as
Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) that has continued its inflammatory
campaign against Muslims in America. Her blog regularly insults Muslims, such
as in a video implying that Muslims practice bestiality with goats, and
cartoons depicting Mohammed with a pig’s face. According to the Southern
Poverty Law Center, she has also denied the genocide of Bosnian Muslims by Serb
forces in Srebrenica, calling it a myth. She has spoken favorably of Stalin’s
forced relocation and execution of Chechen Muslims after WWII, arguing
erroneously that the Chechens were allied with Hitler. She has also claimed
that President Obama is the “love child” of Malcolm X. Below are some other Geller
gems cited by the SPLC:
“Obama
is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on our friends
to appease his Islamic overlords.” (on her blogsite AtlasShrugs.com, 4/13/10.)
“Islam
is not a race. This is an ideology. This is an extreme ideology, the most
radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth.” (on Fox’s “Follow the
Money,” 3/10/11.)
“Hussein
[meaning President Obama] is a muhammadan. He’s not insane…he wants jihad to
win.” (on AtlasShrugs.com, 4/11/10.)
Pamela
Geller is not insane either, at least not clinically. What she is is another
wealthy zealot (her money came from two car dealerships enabling known drug
dealers and thugs to buy cars using fake identities) who has gone off the rails
trying to defend against what she calls “fallacious anti-Israel propaganda,”
and who has become, according to her onetime collaborator, Charles Johnson, “an
anti-muslim ‘hatemonger.’” As the SPCL points out, after Geller criticized the
Islamic
halal practice of slaughtering
animals for food in September 2010, Johnson pointed to the almost identical
kosher practice, observing, “My GOD she is stupid.” (see the whole file on
Geller at SPCL’s website: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/pamela-geller.)
Sadly,
stupid and/or crazy people with money and/or influence can punch large holes in
the fabric of democracy. And we seem to have, in this nation at this time, an
ample supply of them. It’s going to take work to prevent them from taking us
down the well-worn path.
(P.S.: Just yesterday, yet another crazy, this time in New Hampshire,
vowed that, as sheriff, he could use deadly force to stop an abortion doctor.
His name is Frank Szabo, he’s a Tea Party Republican, and he’s running for
sheriff of Hillsborough County, the largest county in New Hampshire. Republican
crazies: the gift that never stops giving.)
Lawrence DiStasi
