Being the mainstream media means making birth control an election issue, then wondering aloud why birth control is an election issue.
Disingenuous Tweet of the Day:
The tweet links to an article titled Birth control as election issue? Why?
The issue of birth control has suddenly become an obsession of the 2012 presidential campaign. To many observers, it seems that the clock has indeed been turned back.
Birth control is not an obsession of the presidential campaign. As Ed Morrissey explains, it is an obession of the mainstream media, which took an issue of religious freedom and tried to turn it into a supposed threat by Republicans to ban contraception.
It started in earnest with the George Stephanopolous grilling of Mitt Romney on the subject at the New Hampshire debate in early January, trying to get Romney to say states have the right to ban contraception. Even as to Rick Santorum, the issue was simply a hypothetical states’ power issue, not a public policy argument that states should ban contraception.
Since then, WaPo has run dozens of articles focusing on the contraception issue, and both its left (Greg Sargent) and (allegedly) right (Jennifer Rubin) bloggers along withWaPo columists, have brought up the issue almost daily.
The mainstream media, with WaPo in the lead, created a phony controversy regarding birth control, and now is shocked, just shocked that it has become an election issue.
Don’t think for a second that in this election cycle anything has changed.
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I can just imagine on Facebook all my liberal high school classmates posting this same question like good little Pavlovian lemmings.
“Squirrel…!!!!”
Pay NO attention to that man behind the curtain…or how he’s screwing us over….
Maybe the issue is not playng as well as intended in polls which the public has not yet seen but the White House has.
Maybe many voters, to the chagrin of the Democrats, have figured out that the core issue is religious freedom, not contraception.
Are they more surprised that the public at large didn’t agree with them?
Why ? Easy – SMOKE SCREEN.
To distract us from the real issues.
The ruin fiscal of our nation. AKA economic jihad.
That’s fiscal ruin.
It’s all about Pres. Obama’s reelection through dividing and conquering.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/michelle-obama-courts-women-voters-by-touting-free-access-to-contraception.html
“Michelle Obama is being billed as the featured attraction in house parties her husband’s re- election campaign is organizing around the country tomorrow to try to boost his support among women….
The e-mail mentions access to contraception without a co- pay among the administration’s accomplishments for women, in addition to the president’s signing of the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” and the 2010 health-care overhaul that includes mammogram coverage and a restriction on charging women higher premiums than men.”
Was in Chicago this weekend, got to hear Archbishop George speak about the issue (briefly). I don’t recall exactly but I don’t think he mentioned birth control specifically all all, he only mentioned conscience and freedom.
There was a bit of a “This line you won’t cross” tenor to it, I liked it personally. If this line is crossed I can only imagine the inevetiable outcome, next up to be mandated as covered: abrotions, followed by “Gender Reassignment.”
See page 27 of the CDC report on the use of contraceptives in the U.S.
Almost 99% of U.S. women have access to Birth Control.
Page 40 of that same report finds that high percentages of women who stopped chemical birth control did so because of side effects. Birth control does not seem to be the big healer its purported to be.
Birth control is only an issue if George Stephanopoulos decides to spawn again.
abstinence is free. this is a command (i refuse to use the euphemism,”mandate”) for others to subsidize moochers the contraception of their choice. it wont be long before we see platinum iuds.
We all had to know this was coming. Any presidential candidate who didn’t see the day when a leading MSM figure would collude with the White House in forming election narratives and the entire media would swarm to support the narratives should not be running. He’s too stupid to live.
In that case, no one with the exception of Newt Gingrich should be running.
Romney never saw it coming and still doesn’t realize it’s arrived. He’s hopeless, a lost cause. Santorum is only just now clumsily groping with the reality. Given the past 20 years, this is incredible.
But I see no ability or willingness of either of these candidates to proactively and effectively contend with the SINGLE GREATEST CHALLENGE to their party’s presidential prospects in 2012 and, longer-term, to the very existence of conservatism. The corruption and totalitarian infection of our journalistic class is the greatest domestic threat to our nation.
Santorum’s is trying but one can see how afraid he is of incurring media blowback or of being labeled a “victim” or anti-free press. This is the moral cudgel the Left (and even the media-cowed Vichy Republican establishment) holds over the heads of those who try to take them on. Look what they did to Palin when she fought back. They turn any effort to fight back into a disqualifying character defect. It’s how they protect their empire.
I honestly see no chance of victory for 2012 absent a candidate who can form and execute a bold and revolutionary strategy to call out the media and make THEM the issue. That is, turn their vicious energies and worst instincts against themselves. It can be done.
So all the candidates are disqualified, except Newt, because they didn’t see through the contraception scam?
Then what does that say for Newt, who was suckered into joining forces with Nancy Pelosi on the couch? Is that, as you would put it, “too dumb to live”?
What does that say about Newt declaring victory before a single primary was held?
Gingrich’s schooled consciousness of the media and willingness to engage them is not equaled among the candidates. His pointed and well-modulated critiques defined his candidacy, at least for awhile. Santorum is struggling and cannot commit to an attack. How hopeless is Romney? He actually defended the media against Gingrich’s attacks.
Dragging out the “couch” invites the same response: Gingrich didn’t get up from the couch with legacy legislation deeply damaging to conservatism and the country as Romney did from his sustained love-seat bromance with Ted Kennedy. But this game is childish. Every candidate has some “disqualifying” feature – and probably any conservative anywhere would. But if you cannot identify and call out the central antagonist in the political drama of our time, you shouldn’t be running. Obama is NOT the central antagonist. Obama is a two-legged stool who wouldn’t have been elected to begin with and wouldn’t still be standing without the third leg of the media. The media is the enemy.
No, you’re speaking out of both sides of your mouth. You claim that all the candidates have disqualifying traits/records, and yet only Newt’s disqualifying record doesn’t really disqualify him.
Which is easier to see through, an out-of-left field question about contraception, or Nancy Pelosi? Hint: If Nancy Pelosi is for it, you want to be against it. Always.
And anyone that is THAT unable to see past his own ego, thinking he has the nomination all locked up before the primaries even started, is NOT someone I want as the visionary and leader of my party.
Hey, I’m gonna win, what could possibly go wrong? Hey, I’m for a federal healthcare mandate, what could possibly go wrong? Hey, I’m gonna agree with Nancy Pelosi and become part of the propaganda for global warming, what could possibly go wrong?
You have a powerful resistance to staying on topic.
So how about it? What about the candidates’ skills and guts on the central challenge and threat of the media and its capacity to concoct destructive narratives? Or do you not agree it is a central challenge?
“Disqualifying” was in quotes. I assumed you’d get the implication. That is, any candidate can be found to have a disqualifying feature according to somebody’s standard. Go down the list of candidates and mentally trace back debates on conservative blogs for the past year – EVERY candidate was called out for some surpassingly negative and disqualifying feature.
I don’t think it serves this debate or this thread to argue anymore about your litany of grievances against Gingrich and/or reiterate the comparable charges against Romney and Santorum.
Who will confront and deconstruct the media?
Raven, well said! well said! (Cheering: hurrah!) I agree 100%. More, if I could.
Astroman, Newt did not join in the global warming propaganda. Period.
Do you even look at the videos that are linked here? You’re making things up.
You have said you care about personal liberty. I am all for that.
So we are allies on personal liberty.
What would you like to see for the future of our country?
raven said, “Who will confront and deconstruct the media?”
What’s the point in picking a candidate who will “confront the media” in a debate, only to sell us down the river of power grabs like global warming and healthcare mandates?
I’m FAR less concerned with how a candidate behaves in debates, and more concerned with how they deal with things outside the debates in the real world, where it matters.
Hope Change said, “Astroman, Newt did not join in the global warming propaganda. Period.”
Newt, meet Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi, meet Newt. Here’s a couch, have a nice chat while we make propaganda. You see, you can deny deny deny all you want to, but I saw the ad with my own eyes when it came out. So who am I going to believe, you or my “lying” eyes?
Astroman.
The evidence that Newt did not join in global warming propaganda is overwhelming.
I just put up the links to the videos. Here they are again.
“NEWT RIPS GORE’S ‘FACTS’ TO PIECES” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VUg7nG3lw&feature=related
EXCERPT FROM “THE BUSINESS OF GOING GREEN” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9mTRDhWTJM
What are you for?
“A WHOLE NEW APPROACH TO AMERICAN ENERGY: RENEWED ECONOMY, MONEY IN YOUR POCKET” http://conservatives4newt.blogspot.com/2012/02/newt-gingrich-plain-talk-about-american.html – February 19, 2012 – 28:59
uhm, this is about Gingrich slapping down the media. Try not to wander off on your Santorum talking points.
“uhm,” I was responding to a post that talked about Romney and Santorum being “too dumb.” So who was off-topic, and are you the self-appointed topic police?
“..and are you the self-appointed topic police?”
Now THERE’S some unintended comical irony, eh?
Hi Astroman.
Thank you for bringing that up again.
I’ve been meaning to help with some facts. From original sources. Here are facts about Newt’s position on global warming and cap n trade. Also some FAB FACTS about NEwt and Romney from commenter Conservalidity over at ReihlWorldView. Bon Appétit!
[original post January 15, 2012 ] Newt testified AGAINST cap and trade in congress on the very same day that Al Gore testified for it. Newt was never for spending money or making government policy based on global warming theories. “NEWT RIPS GORE’S ‘FACTS’ TO PIECES” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VUg7nG3lw&feature=related Newt also talks about this in the speech others have linked to above, at Dunham S.C.
Newt said, years ago, and years before the Climategate emails were leaked, that we don’t know if or why the earth’s temperatures change, that there were warmer periods and ice ages, and we don’t know why. Newt said this in a forum from 2008 with a guy from General Motors also on the Newt testified AGAINST cap and trade in congress on the very same day that Al Gore testified for it. Newt was never for spending money or making government policy based on global warming theories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VUg7nG3lw&feature=related Newt also talks about this in the speech others have linked to above, at Dunham S.C.
Newt said, years ago, and years before the Climategate emails were leaked, that we don’t know if or why the earth’s temperatures change, that there were warmer periods and ice ages, and we don’t know why. Newt said this in a forum from 2008 with a guy from General Motors also on the panel (link below) the that the sun is by far the greatest determiner of earth’s climate and that he thinks it is hubristic for humans to think that we are causing the earth’s atmosphere to change. At the same time, Newt is saying, we must be good stewards of the earth and keep the water clean pay attention to doing things a smart way when we use natural resources.
EXCERPT FROM “THE BUSINESS OF GOING GREEN” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9mTRDhWTJM
Newt sat on the couch with Pelosi to show that liberals don’t own the topic of the environment, and now Newt admits that that one of the stupidest things he’s done in recent years.
Here is Newt’s most recent video about energy and returning America to a strong economy. “A WHOLE NEW APPROACH TO AMERICAN ENERGY: RENEWED ECONOMY, MONEY IN YOUR POCKET” http://conservatives4newt.blogspot.com/2012/02/newt-gingrich-plain-talk-about-american.html – February 19, 2012 – 28:59
[ORIGINAL COMMENT JANUARY 31, 2012] And to help with the research, here are some FAB FACTS about Romney’s record versus Newt’s record I saw yesterday at Riehl World View, written by commenter Conservalidity. here’s the link: http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2012/01/wake-up-conservatives-mitt-romney-is-running-as-a-leftist.html
Astroman, with all due respect, because we are allies in the fight for personal liberty.
But there’s no excuse anymore for not knowing. The original sources are here.
You get to prefer your candidate. But your objections to Newt, as you state them here on LI, are not based on the facts.
What you you like to see for the future of our country?
Newt said in the ad made on behalf of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, and I quote, “we (Nancy and Newt) do agree that our country must take action to address climate change.”
Now hmmmm, what exactly does “the country taking action to address climate change” in the context of AL GORE AND NANCY PELOSI mean? Hmmmmm…
And he did support a healthcare mandate.
You can call it lies and smears all you want, but those are the facts. When you can own up to the facts, let me know.
We can’t completely cry victim here. We have a candidate (Santurum) who has a history of saying what are considered extreme views by many Americans. Not only that, he says them in a holier-than-thou way that makes a lot of independents uncomfortable. You may not agree with them, but they vote.
If you don’t think he sounds extreme in his comments about gays, contraception, women in the military, etc. you haven’t been paying attention. Just google and watch a couple of his videos.
Extreme social conservatism has turned a lot of people off to the Republican party (myself included). That’s why I became an independent.
You can ridicule me for that, but there are a lot of us out here. You think Newt has baggage? Santurum’s issues will be a much easier target than Newt’s AND they will fire up the liberal base as well. We will have lost the enthusiasm gap.
We need someone who will lead, not come across as a preacher.
I’m immediately suspicious of anyone using the term “independents”. I’m doubly dubious of anyone labeling Ricky’s social conservatism “extreme”.
why? It is extreme to most.
“RICKY” ?
Why am I seeing hip swivelling gay latinos?
No no -I am back to the image of Rick. Phewwh .
I am ok now thanks but don’t do it again..
Yes, being for traditional marriage is “extreme.” Just how extreme is it? It is SOOOOOO extreme that even that far Left liberal Obama pretended to be for traditional marriage, also, in order to get elected.
Yeah, because being pro-life is SOOOOO extreme, that the far Left liberal Obama pretends to think abortion is a “morally difficult” question, and that he portrays himself as reluctantly allowing abortion, not for abortion itself, but out of “freedom of choice.” Uh huh, which is why Obama was completely aloof when he heard the testimony of babies surviving abortions and being dumped in dirty linen closets to die without aid or comfort. Uh huh.
No, YOU social liberals are the extremists, which is why you have to lie and cover up what you are really all about.
The supposed MSM is so corrupt. They have abdicated whatever Constitutional responsibility they may have had.
Mainstream Media Matters coordinates with the White House … so they can do some initial shelling of the enemy (Republicans) before Obama launches his assault.
But this assault is another diversion. Obama’s war against US is foreign and domestic. Of COURSE he wants to change the subject.
He is running another unicorn campaign. The evil 1% want to stop him from giving free abortions and birth control, free forgiveness on mortgage debt, big rebates on appliances and Volts, etc. Everything’s FREE in Amereeca … just tax the rich
Vote for me and I’ll set you free
More taxes will save everything
and the band plays on
Temptations .. Ball of Confusion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVtxwFyOwRw
The left thinks we are… dumb as rocks.
Pictures are worth a 1000 words.
http://theobamadiary.com/2011/03/30/wonderful-women/
At the young women mentoring event last spring at the White House
1) There’s Michele Obama
2) There’s acting M.C. Ali Wentworth (Mrs. George Steffi…)
3) There’s Komen for the Cure’s Nancy Brinker….
Predictably, the DSCC is using the totally phony issue as a fundraising tool, too. Rush read a solicitation letter from the DSCC aloud recently, and it was the most distorted piece of misinformation and total fiction imaginable.
That Senator Patty Murray would allow it to go out under her name just demonstrates how corrupt and devoid of integrity the current Democrat Party is.
[…] the red flags. This election is not going to be about abortion nor contraception. Republicans know “it’s the economy, stupid.” This is more crazy making from Barack Obama. It’s a distraction to make people forget about […]
Check out Drudge’s headline. Wish Professor Jacobson would defend Rick on this stuff. I agree Newt is the best candidate too, but Drudge is getting ridiculous and conservatives need to call him out.
Santorum needs to button it up about religion and just stick to the issues. He is playing to a small portion of the population who is eating this stuff up but he won’t win w it. He needs to stay on the economy, jobs and nutso Obama in the WH.
Ah, if only Republicans would drop this social conservatism nonsense. If only Republicans would become more like Democrats, Republicans would be liked more and win more.
Gotta love that RINO logic.
Facepalm.
I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating:
http://youtu.be/A5z6Aqli41Q
Note how happy and positive the lyrics are as well. Positive wins elections.
Hi Sophie. I totally agree, I love the song. thank you!
Here’s something else that bears repeating — others have included this link in comments. I saw it here in the LI tip line. Thanks!!
Listening to it now! And the audience, most of them the college students, is SO QUICK on the uptake! enthusiastic! It’s really fun to watch with them for company.
Starting from here, the comment by Say What:
Say_What | February 21, 2012 at 4:21 pm
If anyone is starting to get bored with all social issues, all the time – if you need an infusion of information about the issues that are of grave importance to our country and you want to hear solutions, then check out Newt’s speech and town hall at Oral Roberts University – it is the best thing I’ve heard this entire campaign season:
http://vimeo.com/37151079
It is the best one hour you can spend listening to one of the most brilliant minds in politics … Newt!
Hope Change,
I thought I’d just watch the first few minutes. I couldn’t stop watching. I’d heard him make parts of this speech before and new some of the “punch lines” but found that I couldn’t wait to hear them again.
I’ve said it before Newt is not just the best of a lousy crop of candidates, he is the man for our time. It’s not that he’s the best debater, he’s the best thinker.
He’s able to strike on some of the same social issues that others do without sounding judgmental or that he’s just catering to the religious right.
This is a man that is easy to picture as the leader of the free world.
Oh, lndlyb4 — Me, too!! I so agree!!
And you said it. A man for our time. A leader of the free world. I see it too.
My whole and entire hope is to help people to see with fresh eyes and really imagine what it would be to recapture our liberties after all these years. We can do this.
My hope, my dearest hope, is that we can try again to be a shining city on a hill. That is what we are meant to be. We, shoddy, failed humans that we are. That is what we are meant to aspire to. We’re at least supposed to be making the attempt.
And at the least, even in our imperfection, we could be an example to all people of what it could be like to be free and prosperous.
I want that for everyone who wants it.
Thank you, lndlyb4. You said it. Exactly right.
Sophie. Gotta say thanks. Hadn’t seen it. Thanks for re-posting the video.
Remember this video of Andrew Breitbart, about the media, yelling “These decadent bastards are going down!”? AWESOME MOMENT!!
http://www.behindbluelines.com/2010/02/01/breitbart-these-decadent-bastards-are-going-down/ Linked here at Behind Blue Lines.
I hope you remember it, because WMAU-TV apparently doesn’t want you to see it, on Behind Blue Lines or any other place I could find.
The MSM is fighting to maintain its dominance over the public discourse. But they are losing, just like the buggy-whip makers finally had to find other work.
We see what the WAPO is trying to do, and we’re laughing at them at the same time as we resolve that these decadent bastards are going down.
Brilliant! I love the Buggy-Whip analogy. Imagine if the “Buggy-Whip” industry had been propped up by Big Government?
We would all be forced to use “Buggy Whips” somehow with our mandatory (environmentally friendly) horse-drawn carriages while all free markets world wide had already moved on to flying cars and hovercraft.
Government is the problem in everything. Just look how well the government-controlled media is doing and why the hand-wringing pols moaning over “too much freedom of information” on the “internets”.
Don’t think WaPo didn’t know what they were doing. They know that most people running on the GOP ticket believe in God and practice Christian faith in some manner. They wanted to see who would go off the rails on it and Santorum took the bait. He is interjecting that into every speech he makes. The far right people are eating it up except they only make up 20-30% of the country. And it’s not going to create any jobs or sow any doubt about Obama.
The Democrat Party and liberals in general have ridden two political ponies over the past several decades: race and all it can be milked for, and protecting Roe vs Wade, abortion. Alas, the growing Hispanic demographic and their resistance to Dem herding is slowly rendering the Af-Am demographic to be of less and less political value, and the Dem/libs are desperate to somehow tie them monolithically to the Dem party. Worse yet, the national polling on abortion is swinging away from them, is now majority against abortion. Clearly, they need fresh ponies.
The replacement pony for abortion is birth control ‘rights’, and it is necessary for Dem/libs – and hence, the MSM as well – to make it appear that birth control ‘rights’ are in peril, even though they are not threatened by anyone in any way. That is why there is such an inexplicable focus on it lately. George Stuffitupyerass began the new schtick during that debate where he ambushed Romney with the nonsequitous line of birth control ‘what if’ questions. Now the MSM is pushing the meme heavily. This is almost certainly a concoction of the Media Matters/Obama campaign teamwork, with the secondary goal of distracting voters away from economic issues onto social issues.
It has been written that there is a Democratic strategy in place “to create a vast infrastructure of liberal organizations that produces an anti-Republican, anti-conservative echo chamber in politics and the media.”
The idea is to “[b]uild an echo chamber and the media laps it up.”
See http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/28/the-colorado-model-the-lefts-stratagem-for-turning-red-states-to-blue/
If anyone is starting to get bored with all social issues, all the time – if you need an infusion of information about the issues that are of grave importance to our country and you want to hear solutions, then check out Newt’s speech and town hall at Oral Roberts University – it is the best thing I’ve heard this entire campaign season:
http://vimeo.com/37151079
It is the best one hour you can spend listening to one of the most brilliant minds in politics … Newt!
$15.4 trillion of recorded public debt and counting. That does not include the debt carried by the state and local governments. They will be unable to defer and shift costs in perpetuity.
As for the so-called “social” issues, they are actually derivative of the natural order. They are only “social” because people’s “objective” faith is selective. And with the other “social” issues there is the enlightened order, where, presumably, we respect each other’s individual dignity and do not support general and progressive involuntary exploitation… and the corruption it sponsors.
Just do what feels “left”!
Astroman | February 21, 2012 at 5:27 pm
“I’m FAR less concerned with how a candidate behaves in debates, and more concerned with how they deal with things outside the debates in the real world, where it matters.”
Who said anything about debates?
If your candidate can’t, as a routine matter of his political existence, confront the media and deconsruct the narrative world they would impose, he’ll never win. And you’ll never get the chance to see him sell you out.
Astroman.
Newt has said sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi was the dumbest thing he’s done in recent years. The idea was to show that conservatives care about the environment.
Yes, Newt was for an individual mandate, because he was trying to address the problem of people with means (like $75,00 per year) not buying health insurance and then getting into some emergency, getting medical care as required by state laws, and then failing to or refusing to pay their hospital or medical bills.
Newt has said that the more he looked at it, the more he saw that the individual mandate is unworkable and that it’s unconstitutional.
Mark Twain said that a cat will never sit on a hot stove twice; of course, he continued, a cat will never sit on a cold stove, either. I’m trying to tell you that this stove is cold.
You, being a human being with thought processes and the capability of reasoning, can ponder, consider, weigh and make rational judgments.
So it’s not just about that you saw Newt sit on the couch. We all agree that he did that.
Of course it was stupid. Of course it was a terrible idea. And yes, at one time, he favored an individual mandate. But he completely repudiated the idea of the individual mandate and he says it’s unworkable and unconstitutional.
So for me, these are non-issues. It’s dog biscuits.
(Dog biscuit reference: I wrote this to retire05: retire05, your criticisms of Newt are like those of an extraterrestrial sent by his planet to learn about humans. They beam him into a grocery store in a shopping center, and he grabs a box of dog biscuits.
What Newt accomplished is like that whole shopping center. All you know about is the dog biscuits.
Newt is largely responsible for the excellent economy we had in the 90’s. See Politi Jim’s endorsement of Newt for real research, real facts, real perspective.
DEAR SPEAKER GINGRICH
http://www.politijim.com/2012/02/dear-speaker-gingrich.html [end of comment to retire05])
Astroman, the point is not between what your lying eyes saw and what I say.
The point here is the MEANING of what you saw. The facts support other conclusions. That’s what I keep trying to offer you evidence for.
And what I am trying to bring to your attention is the vast range of ideas and issues that we as a free people, involved in self-government, must address.
Life & death issues. Freedom. Prosperity. Vibrant economy. A strong America. Versatility, innovation, exciting new challenges, new technologies, the stars are the limit.
We owe something better than what we’ve got going on right now to our children and grandchildren and that is no joke.
Our country is in real, serious trouble. Our freedoms are being erased. Our children and grandchildren will not have the America you and I were born into unless we turn this tide, NOW. This urgently requires your attention.
Newt’s plan can provide a focus for the genius of the American People to fix it. This is the big picture. This is about America. This is about the future of America.
You care about personal liberty. Your input is important. This project needs every American to understand and to provide energy and ideas.