The Diane Rehm Show

Health care providers agreed to these cuts because they are compensated by additional revenue they will receive through the individual mandate to carry insurance. The Affordable Care Act expands the pool of premium payers.

I'm tired of hearing people (like the 2nd to last caller and one of the guests) saying that Todd Aiken misspoke in his statement about legitimate rape. He did not misspeak... he said what he actually thought... that was his mindset, that women's body's have a way of "shutting all that down" during rape so that they won't be impregnated.

He was wrong, and his sources were wrong and not biologically sound, some on the anti-choice side have been pushing this falsehood.

Jeanne Cummings comments missed the point -- they had NO respect for the unborn child. See the problem here? Shall we discuss capital punishment now? The debate over the rights of the unborn child vs those of the woman will last as long as our species does. Neither can say the other is wrong. You believe one or the other and will not be able to convince the other to change their opinion. For as much as you judge the other for being wrong, keep in mind they are judging you of the same.

There seems to be a continued attempt to bend over backwards and make both parties out to be equal opportunity offenders on the point of compromise, and inflammatory statements. I am not sure where everyone has been over the last two years, but I remember the Dems agreeing to compromise on spending cuts to entitlement programs during the debt ceiling debate. I seem to remember the continuous round tables that Obama put on, the Hawaii compromise on birth control, their willingness to take a look at the Simpson Bowls plan, the Repubs insistence on no new taxes. I don't recall Dems taking a "no new spending cuts" pledge, do yo?.

On to the offensive comments. One of the panelists tried to equate Romney comments on Bain, with Obama's on "you did not build that". Obama's comments were taken completely out of context, Romney's were not. they are not equatable. Then there is the welfare push, again out of context, especially when you consider that Romney, as Governor asked for exactly what Obama i doing.

The trouble with that is Jim that Robme and Lyin agrees with those statements in substance if not in form.

What is sad is the extreme polarization on both sides. I didn't vote for Obama, but I honestly thought some good would come out of his election in reducing partisan tensions, based on his speeches about this nation not being comprised of 'red' or 'blue' states but the United States etc... Plus with an African American president, racial harmony had to increase.

Instead the opposite seems to have happened.

This is traditionally a center-right nation, and outside of the coastal and rustbelt metro areas we pretty much still are -- Bill Clinton understood this. When you look at red-blue maps of the nation based on voting districts or MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas), it's clear that the large urban centers are solid blue. But the small towns, suburbs and rural areas are mostly red.

Some of this is racial or ethnic, but not all. Hispanic business people in the Rocky Mountain West can be as far right as anyone. Living in crowded urban areas seems to lead people to more collectivist political beliefs. In the anthill we become ants.

No matter who wins we will see strong feelings of discord on the losing side, so polarized is the country now. Hopefully the winner will manage this in a compassionate and thinking way such that violence does not result. Law enforcement is understandably more worried about urban areas boiling over than places like west Texas.

Given the Chicago urban tactics we are seeing in the Obama campaign, and the kind of people POTUS has surrounded himself with, I have a lot more faith in a solid Mormon grandfather keeping the lid on.

De oppresso liber.

Here's an open scenario and question for all the MALE bloggers to consider:

Imagine you are physically assaulted by an ALIEN being. The alien roughs you up and threatens your life and the lives of your loved ones if you resist at all. In fact, the alien may even kill or seriously maim you in its attack.
Imagine then that you survive that assault, but you find that something has been implanted inside you, something that will stay in you for many months and distort your body and require significant changes in your daily life and the medical services you need.
Imagine further that at some future point the living thing inside you will work its way out in an excruciating, violent, and painful way - a way that may threaten your life again and certainly will require medical assistance.
Then imagine that the living thing will require of you a lifetime of day-to-day help and financial investment and will be a source of sincere worry and heartache.....and the financial investment might be far beyond your means.
Imagine that you may have to call upon others in society and the government to help you survive both physically and financially.
And imagine too that many in your society and neighbors will cast you as some sort of pariah.....perhaps a person of lesser status or morals. Some may even whisper that YOU could have resisted and prevented the attack, or that you "got what you deserve" based on your behavior or the way you dress.

SO...... what would YOU as a MALE want to do in response to the assault and the complications it brings?

Seems to me that the ENTIRE media has been dropping the ball for years. I am not singling out the conservative media, or the liberal media but all media. I don't seen anything but coverage of the entertainment business and the latest study their big pharma masters want to highlight. We need real reporting on the candidates, their positions, their past POLITICAL lives (I care nothing for what happens in their personal lives) and SOME synthesis of this information.

What we get now is the parroting the talking points as determined by the dominate parties. ATTENTION MEDIA, that is LAZY Journalism. I know these and what the parties represent

Sadly, the best journalism is being done by a basic cable "fake" news show. C'mon journalists you can do better.

"You get the in-laws" That is my main motivator for staying away from Republicans. Their invasive social policies overwhelm any fiscal drum beat they invoke. Fear, hate and control are the tools of the GOP. If they could let go of their narrow views of "traditional values," they may be able to bring some good policy ideas to the table. Until they get their hands off of my personal liberty, they will always be political anathema.

If you want small government, start with getting out of our personal life, then MAYBE we can talk about deregulating the "persons" the GOP really answer to.

I agree with the person who said we need more coverage of third party candidates. I don't care where they are polling now. It's a chicken and egg thing. If the media doesn't cover them, their polling numbers will stay low.

I posted the iSideWith.com questionairre on my Facebook feed. About 20 people answered. Almost everyone either chose Jill Stein or Gary Johnson.

This Republican vs. Democrat charade has gone on long enough. The media has to present us with all of the options.

Eric Zehnder wrote:" Looking at this factually, let's take a deeper look at this survey, shall we? MediaMatters"

MediaMatters is nothing more than a liberal political smear outfit. "Looking at it factually" and then bringing in MediaMatters is a joke.

Why don't you find the survey that says doctors overwhelmingly support Obama's cuts to Medicare doctor services? Not just a few libs but some real numbers.

The caller on Akin’s comments demonstrates much that is wrong with the Republican position on this issue.

First, I don’t care what the caller believes his god’s view of abortion is. My God puts more value on women’s lives than he does. Which, of course, is precisely why we have separation of Church and State in this country: there is no way to resolve religious differences since neither side can prove their beliefs are true.

The caller actually “gives the game away” by revealing what Republican’s passionately deny: that the main reason for their opposition to women’s choice is religious. Well, they no more have the right to impose their religious beliefs on the nation, than I have the right to impose the Kosher rules! As one of the Founders said:

“religion is ever a matter between God and individuals”
- Reverend Isaac Backus, The Debate on the Constitution - Part One (The Library of America, 1993), Page 931 (emphasis added).

Second, Akin didn’t merely “misspeak”. Romany misspoke when he introduced Ryan as “the next President of the U.S.”. Everyone knows he never actually meant to say that. In contrast, Akin meant every word he said, he’s just running from the consequences of it. Ditto for the GOP, many of who’s members have said the same thing, and its platform has adopted Akin’s position (minus the phony “science” of course).

Third, there was no “good part” to Akin’s statement, at least not for those of us who aren’t blind ideologue’s on this issue, and who consider women to be more than just walking incubators!

partisan politics on August 24, 2012 @ 1:51 pm wrote: “Senate rejects Obama budget in 99-0 vote”

I give you credit for one thing: you certainly live up to your name.

Your reading comprehension, however, leaves much to be desired. Anyone who reads the entire article will know this was merely another round of budget games indulged in by both parties!

Tell me, sir, when was the last time a President’s budget was passed exactly as submitted? (I think it may have been during the Washington Administration.) As the article noted, by the way, this budget resolution wasn’t actually what the President proposed anyway, so a more complete headline would have read “Senate rejects Obama budget (as altered by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions) in 99-0 vote”.

Oh, and it’s not the job of the Senate to “put a budget forward”. Budgets start in the House, and then are modified and voted on by the Senate. Of course, with 100% use of the filibuster, Republi-Cons have insured that no budget approved by Democrats will ever get passed there!

Like I said, both parties are playing games, but only a partisan hack blames one side. You certainly are true to your name!

Thank you to Jeanne Cummings and Diane Rehm for their well-chosen words re: Todd Akin. I was especially pleased that someone at least suggested that Mr. Akin's remarks are appalling for a number of very significant reasons in addition to what he regards as a benign "poor choice of words".

Behind the ugly, misogynistic statement that seems to dominate the public discourse around this issue, is a terrifying misunderstanding of, and disregard for, some very basic science from A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE!?!

This is a man charged with dealing with policy as it relates to matters of science, yet he would impose legislation limiting a woman's right to exercise a measure of choice choice regarding her own reproductive biology while demonstrating an ALARMING misunderstanding of women's reproductive biology.

I am shocked and saddened that anyone in MO is still entertaining his candidacy.

Thank You!

PART TWO

By the way, another “commie rag” (Business Insider) provided even more of the context for Obama’s remark:

“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.” (Emphasis added.)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-small-business-government-infrastru...

So, looking at the “entire statement” an honest person can only draw a conclusion opposite what you and the Republi-Cons state.

Ciao, for now.