Yes, that’s right. Just like Peter Jackson’s production of The Hobbit, I’ve found so much raw material to work with that I decided to break what was originally a single story into two, and now three sections.

As I reported yesterday, in addition to being front-paged here at Eclectablog and at dKos, the first chart went utterly viral, hitting everything from Alternet and Balloon Juice to the New Civil Rights Movement, Dan Savage and even (and it doesn’t get more surreal than this) Neil Gaiman by way of Wil Wheaton.

dKos even did an email alert blast thingie with it.

Anyway, the second chart didn’t receive quite as much hoopla, but that’s fine.

Still, this has turned into a strange, mini-calling of sorts, so I’ve decided to complete the “trilogy”. Below the fold, I present The Republican Rape Advisory Chart: Volume III.

WARNING: This one’s a doozie.

To fight back against the Republican war on women, please contribute to the Daily Kos-endorsed women who are running for House and Senate.

In general, I’d recommend helping out ANY of the Democrats running against the scumbags who made the quotes or, alternately, Planned Parenthood, RAINN or the Jamie Leigh Foundation, all of which seem appropriate.

Planned Parenthood
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
The Jamie Leigh Foundation

Anyone familiar with the name Jamie Leigh Jones knows that she’s the young woman referred to in the final listing in the chart above–she’s the one who was brutalized by KBR employees in Iraq, and then endured a multi-year battle to take her case to court. Below is the most riveting 10 minutes of questioning I’ve ever witnessed, by Minnesota Senator Al Franken of a KBR attorney:

Since this is the “final chapter” in this series (though, tragically, not in real life), I’m embedding Volumes I and II right here as well–you’re gonna have to scroll a lonnnnng way to post comments, I’m afraid. As an added “bonus”, Volume I has also been modified to match the formatting of the other two, including source attribution for each of the quotes:

But wait, there’s more!

I’m also embedding the “Compleat” Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart–all three volumes in one massive image file! The perfect holiday gift, suitable for framing…or something like that.

Anyway, you’ll have to click to see this one full-size; it’s just too damned big, thanks to the nearly ENDLESS number of horrifyingly offensive, medically inaccurate and flat-out ugly statements made and votes cast about rape-related issues by the Republican Party over the past few years:

Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart (Volumes I – III Compleat)

Anyway, as noted at the bottom of Volume III, I’m now done with this strange, disturbing but hopefully helpful project, but since there’s SO MANY MORE examples of Republicans saying awful things about the subject, I’d advise checking out Days Without a GOP Rape Mention, which is keeping an ongoing archive of such things. I had nothing to do with that site; it was inspired by Stephen Colbert’s fantastic takedown of the Republican Party the other evening.

Extra props to connecticutie, who came up with the “terror/rape chart” idea in the first place…give her blog some love, willya?

And with that, I think I’ll take several long, hot showers to clean the slime of researching all of these quotes off of me.

UPDATE: Volume II of the GOP Rape Advisory Chart can be found HERE and Volume III is HERE.

A week or so ago, someone posted her version of the GOP Rape Advisory Chart to help sort out all of the confusion about the wide variety of rape “flavors” that today’s Republican Party seems so hell-bent on bringing to light.

I thought she did a fantastic job, but, given the latest entries into the “rainbow of rape flavors” yesterday and today by Richard Mourdock and John Cornyn, I decided to create a revised version that plays it straight–I’m just including the actual quotes themselves. Feel free to repost on Facebook, TW or wherever you wish.

So, without further ado, I present the updated Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart:

Anyway, just to reiterate, since I’ve had at least one person contact me directly about it, please feel free to repost the graphic anywhere you wish, and don’t worry about “credit” or “attribution”…the color-code chart idea was someone else’s, as noted above, and I certainly don’t want “credit” for the disgusting statements by the GOP jackasses in the chart.

Also, if you want to attach a link to the chart, I’d recommend either a) ANY of the Democrats running against the scumbags who made the quotes (there’s too many to list again) or, alternately, RAINN or Jamie Leigh Foundation, both of which seem appropriate.

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network

The Jamie Leigh Foundation

In case the name Jamie Leigh Jones doesn’t ring any bells, here’s a reminder…it’s the 10 most riveting minutes of video you’ll watch today, believe me:

I should probably also note that the chart above is far from all-inclusive. Several additional quotes are listed in the comments, and there’s many (far, far too many) more that haven’t been yet.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Photoshop could handle that large of an image file if I tried to include them all, and I’d quickly run out of background colors to use.

To fight back against the Republican war on women, please contribute to these progressive women who are running for House and Senate.

Santorum’s concession speech is the closest he’ll ever get to an “It Gets Better” video

Of all this President’s many progressive achievements—the Lilly Ledbetter Act, Student Loan Reform, Health Care Reform, pulling out of Iraq—the one that isn’t mentioned enough in the feeds I follow is the the ending of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’

The DADT compromise enacted during the Clinton Administration made the closeting of gays and lesbians policy for the US military. It sent a message that homosexuals needed to lie or risk losing everything.

In one of the last acts of the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, this ridiculous policy was ended. And the President signed the bill into law. It was a long overdue yet historic achievement for decency and equality.

Two years later, as the weakest field of candidates most adults could imagine gathered to seek the GOP nomination, two candidates declared that they wanted to return to the dark days of DADT. Michele Bachmann, who apparently uses the policy to great success in her marriage, wanted it back, as did Rick Santorum. Most people chuckled because we assumed both were joke candidates. We were half right.

To Fred Phelps’ chagrin, Rick Santorum is America’s most famous homophobe. Under the premise that he is speaking for the big Homophobe in the Sky, Santorum has put together a record of unabashed anti-gay rhetoric that it even embarrasses Republicans. Santorum’s view of homosexuality is so backward and offensive that millions cheered as Dan Savage led a movement to tie Santorum’s Google search results to the filthiest word picture one would want to imagine.

Don’t get me wrong. All of our conservatives have barbarous policies, especially when it comes to women’s choices, war, health care and climate change. But when Dick Cheney, Howard Stern and a majority of all Americans are for gay marriage, the argument is over. And those who still argue do so to an increasingly smaller audience.

Rick Santorum’s record of saying ignorant, hateful things about gays and lesbians, his record of comparing the desire of two adults of any gender who want to be united under the law to every perversion he can imagine, it should disqualify him from a place in public discourse. (It would normally have if conservatives didn’t have an overwhelming desire to shame Mitt Romney.)

I’m not saying Santorum should be censored. In America you have a right to be a dick. But you have no right to expect to be rewarded for it.

Rick Santorum’s homophobia will not be acceptable in 2016. And the fact that it was in 2012 is a shame.  And I’m sorry I didn’t do more to help make this country the kind of place where people exploit the fear of gays and lesbians are never given a national platform.

[CC image by smoMashup_]

Missed it by THAT much

As of this afternoon, we won’t have Rick Santorum to kick around anymore. He has suspended his campaign which, in politispeak, means he reserves the right to get back in if Romney crashes and burns. It’s a shrewd move because if anyone could crash and burn when he has the advantage, it’s Mitt Romney.

So, good-bye, Rick. Goodbye to the teleprompter-using candidate who thinks teleprompters should be illegal.

Goodbye to the guy who fought tooth and nail in Michigan for one lousy delegate (smart!)

Goodbye to the man aspiring to be the Leader of the Free World™ who thinks wanting American kids to get a college education if they want one is “snobby”.

Goodbye to the candidate who boldly stood with the 1%.

Goodbye to the politician who lost his last election by 18%.

And, finally, goodbye to the guy who got played and played again by Mitt Romney, the worst Republican candidate since forever.

Goodbye, Rick. We’ll miss ya.

Now it’s just Mitt and Newt. And the whole damn world is laughing at us.

Women make ALL the difference

Barack Obama has taken a 4-point lead over Mitt Romney in Gallup’s latest national poll, up from a 47-47 tie in their last poll.

He’s up over Rick Santorum by an even larger 51-43 gap.

The big change came mainly from from women under 50 years old where President Obama enjoys a more than 30-point lead. This confirms recent polling by the Pew Research Center showing the gap between the president and Romney among all women at 58-38.

In other words, the latest Republican attacks on women appear to be taking their toll on the GOP candidates and that is exactly as it should be. If you are a warrior in the War on Women, you should pay those consequences.

#YouAreARepublicanWhen you forget that women can still vote

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) April 2, 2012

Also telling is President Obama’s 51-42 lead in Swing States. In the last poll, he was down 2 points in the last poll. Additionally, the president also leads among independent voters 48-40.

Keep it up, Republicans. I love what you’re doing to your own chances.

[Obama image credit: Anne C. Savage, used with permission]

Rick, you’ve been Romney’d

All the headlines this morning are blaring “RICK SANTORUM WON THE DAY AND YES I’M SHOUTING!!!

[Image credit: Daily Kos via Newseum]

But they are wrong. As it turns out, even in Mississippi where Santorum got the most votes, Mitt Romney walked away with more delegates that poor Rick. In fact, yesterday Romney ended up with 43 delegates and Rick Santorum got only 36. (Newt Gingrich got 24 and Ron Paul got 1.)

That’s what happens when you have rich friends who are Superdelegates and you and your SuperPACs outspend your rivals by leaps and bounds:

[Chart courtesy of Zeke Miller | Buzzfeed]

And yet Mitt still can bring it home, can he? In Alabama, he outspent Santorum and Gingrich combined nearly two-to-one yet they both got more delegates than Romney did there.

The Republicans don’t need the Democrats to tinker with their primaries. They are making a complete Clown Show hash of it all on their own.

Adding… Let’s not forget that Mitt’s tax proposal, which is supposed to reduce the deficit, is lopsidedly in favor of the über-rich:

The central feature of Romney’s new plan is an across-the-board 20 percent tax cut — on top of continuing the Bush tax cuts, by McIntyre’s reading. For the top earners, that means the tax rate drops to 28 percent. The plan also cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, repeals the estate tax, and maintains the current tax rate of 15 percent on income from capital gains.Bottom line?“The wealthy will pay far less in taxes than they do now, including a wealthy person named Mitt Romney,” McIntyre says.

As Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina put it:

Mitt Romney yesterday on how to reduce the national deficit: “Planned Parenthood, we’re gonna get rid of that.” THAT’S his solution?

— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) March 14, 2012

And, as my blogging partner LOLGOP responded:

Anyone who would pretend to go from pro-choice to shutting down Planned Parentood in less than a decade is corrupt beyond all hope.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) March 14, 2012

Hypocrisy, thy name is Rick Santorum

Good goddess, are you freaking kidding me??? Rick Santorum actually said, “it should be illegal to read off a teleprompter”. No, seriously.

You mean like this, Rick, when you were at CPAC?

Photo credit: Washington Post

Let’s review, from my post last month:

Here’s Joe Scarborough with his teleprompters.

And Marco Rubio with his.

And House Speaker John Boehner with his.

And Senator Jim Demint with his.

And Senator Mike Lee with his.

And Herman Cain with his.

And Michele Bachman with hers.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with his.

And Ann Coulter with hers.

And Mitt Romney with his.

And Sarah Palin with heres.

You think Romney’s the only say-anything-to-get-elected candidate? You couldn’t be more wrong.

(And, yes, I’m breaking my rule against using non-creative commons images just this once. Ya gotta have the photo for this post, though.)

The never-ending Clown Show™

As I wrote about yesterday, Rick Santorum is fighting tooth and nail for that one Michigan delegate that they believe was inappropriately awarded to Mitt Romney. So, they staged a protest rally outside the headquarters of the Michigan Republican Party (MRP) headquarters.

It drew three. Not three busloads. Not three dozen.

Three. People.

These Republicans could sure learn a thing or two about how to protest, amirite?

Only three people showed up to a rally at Michigan GOP headquarters in Lansing to show their dissatisfaction with the party’s allocation of delegates between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum following the Feb. 28 primary.The three people talked to leaders inside GOP headquarters.State GOP leaders apportioned the at-large delegates on the day after the election, saying that Santorum would get 14 and Romney would get 16.

Leaders explained to the three Santorum supporters that the AP erroneously reported that both candidates would receive 15 candidates.

More from MichiganRadio.org in their piece “Santorum rally in front of GOP headquarters fizzles”:

A rally was scheduled for last night to protest the Michigan Republican Party’s decision to award both of the state’s at-large national convention delegates to Mitt Romney. Supporters of Rick Santorum say he was denied his fair share of the delegates because he won almost half the statewide vote.But only a handful of people showed up at the state Republican headquarters in Lansing, and they were quickly invited inside for a closed-door meeting with party officials.One of them was Spencer Austin, who said he was with Students for Santorum.“I’m here to, uh, I’m not going to say protest — because I think that’s a flaky term – I’m here just to prove a point: I feel that Santorum was cheated out of delegates,” Austin said.

Yup, iamrite.

My buddy Bruce Fealk did manage to get MRP Communications Director Matt Frendewey to speak to him briefly.

“I gotta talk to real reporters.” LMAO. (Bruce Fealk is a reporter for the Rochester Citizen.)

In other news, the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, Robert Schostak, is taking full responsibility for the confusion surrounding their robbing denying Santorum the extra delegate by what appeared to be last-minute rule changes. Easy to do when there are only three people in the state that really seem to give a damn, I suppose.

[CC photo credit Shown By Photos.]

Dele-gate

Honestly, I never thought that Michigan GOP Primary Clown Show™ would still be the gift to Democrats that keeps on giving a week later but, well, it is.

Though the state’s primary was almost a week ago, the Rick Santorum campaign is continuing to dispute the primary’s results. The campaign has taken their fight over the way the Michigan Republican Party apportioned two of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Committee.The campaign is also organizing a rally to be held later today in front of the Michigan Republican headquarters in Lansing. Santorum supporters will call on Michigan GOP leaders to reconsider their decision to award both the party’s statewide delegates to Mitt Romney.They say party leaders changed the rules to avoid awarding one apiece to Romney and Santorum, who ran a close second in last week’s Michigan primary and won half of the state’s congressional districts.

Hah hah! A rally! Sponsored by the tea party! To fight for ONE delegate! Bring your lawn chairs! That’ll change the minds of all those establishment Republicans who were in the bag for Romney from the start.

By the way, it starts at 5 p.m. and is at the Michigan Republican Party Headquarters at 520 Seymour, Lansing, MI in case you want to watch the fun.

Maybe all of this is the reason for the results obtained in a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out today:

Four in 10 of all adults say the GOP nominating process has given them a less favorable impression of the Republican Party, versus just slightly more than one in 10 with a more favorable opinion.Additionally, when asked to describe the GOP nominating battle in a word or phrase, nearly 70 percent of respondents – including six in 10 independents and even more than half of Republicans – answered with a negative comment.Some examples of these negative comments from Republicans: “Unenthusiastic,” “discouraged,” “lesser of two evils,” “painful,” “disappointed,” “poor choices,” “concerned,” “underwhelmed,” “uninspiring” and “depressed.”

And perhaps most significantly, the GOP primary process has taken a toll on the Republican presidential candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, who is seen more unfavorably and whose standing with independents remains underwater.

Between the fight to deny women contraceptives and other basic health care and the characterization of Rush Limbaugh’s odious anti-women comments this week as “a poor choice of words”, it’s frankly a wonder there are any women left in the country that will support a Republican anywhere on the ticket. I wonder what Republicans think the right choice of words actually is when you are calling a woman a whore or a slut?

During the coverage of the Michigan primary last week, Santorum’s people were defending Democrats who crossed over to vote for him, saying that Santorum’s message is resonating with Republicans, Independents AND Democr- BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! [Sorry.]

What did we do to deserve this magnificent Clown Show™? Must be good living.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Bruce Fealk who informs me that the protest rally at the Republican Party headquarters drew three. Not three dozen. Three. People.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

[CC photo credit Shown By Photos.]

Hypocrisy, thy name is ‘Santorum’. Wait. It’s ‘Romney’. No, it’s BOTH!

Both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney rant and rave about the use of government funds for all sorts of things. However, neither has much of a leg to stand on in this regard.

Rick Santorum took federal funds to home school his kids.

As he presses for the conservative votes he needs to overtake GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum is hammering away at the role state and federal governments play in running schools.Santorum plays up how he and his wife have home-schooled their seven children and says parents should be the ones responsible for educating their kids.

Yet back when Santorum was a senator from Pennsylvania, he got a Pittsburgh-area school district to help pay tens of thousands of dollars in tuition for his children to receive online schooling.

It’s a bit of history that’s unknown to many voters outside Pennsylvania as the Republican nomination race closes in on the 10 Super Tuesday contests next week.

Santorum says he wants to curtail dramatically the power of states and the federal government in public education. [...]

In the fall of 2004, Santorum’s use of tax dollars to pay for his kids’ home schooling became controversial because his family was primarily living in Leesburg, Va., west of Washington. Following a local newspaper report, the Penn Hills School District near Pittsburgh tried to recover about $73,000 that it contended the state wrongly sent to an Internet-based charter school. Although the Santorums owned a house in the school district, officials argued, they were living out of state. The Pennsylvania Education Department in 2006 agreed to pay the district $55,000 to settle the dispute.

Romney is no better. A tape from 2002 has surfaced with Romney bragging about how much money he was able to score from the federal government for his own projects. ABC has an exclusive report.

In a long-forgotten tape from the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race obtained by ABC News, Mitt Romney is seen touting his Washington connections and his ability to get millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal government.“I am big believer in getting money where the money is,” Romney says on the video, “The money is in Washington.”

The video, which was surreptitiously shot by Democratic opponents of Romney on Oct. 16, 2002, shows him addressing a group called the New Bedford Industrial Foundation. The Power Point presentation he uses lists ways to improve economic development in Massachusetts, including “boost federal involvement.”

“I want to go after every grant, every project, every department in Washington to assure that we are taking advantage of economic development opportunities,” Romney tells the group.

And while Romney now often criticizes his opponents for being Washington insiders, in this video he touts his Washington connections.

“I have learned from my Olympic experience that if you have people who really understand how Washington works and have personal associations there you can get money to help build economic development opportunities,” Romney says. [...]

“We actually received over $410 million from the federal government for the Olympic games. That is a huge increase over anything ever done before and we did that by going after every agency of government,” he says.

He even cites money one his colleagues managed to get for the Olympics from the Department of Education.

“She said, ‘Why don’t I get the Department of Education to buy tickets to the Paralympics so that high school and grade school kids can go to the Paralympics?’ She literally got, I believe the number was over $1 million from the Department of Education, funding to buy tickets for kids,” Romney said. “This way we got kids there and we also got additional revenues that we wouldn’t have had. That kind of creativity I want to bring to everything we do.”

All politicians engage in a little hypocrisy from time to time but the heated rhetoric these days begs us to look deeper. And, when we do, this is the type of thing we find; utter, rank hypocrisy.

It’s like they don’t know about the internet or something.