shortformblog:

• 97% of blacks in Virginia plan to vote for Obama source

» That’s compared to 1 percent for Romney: While that stat (from a Washington Post poll) doesn’t say everything about the election, the lopsidedness of this one stat is pretty stunning. Overall in the state, Obama is ahead of Romney 51 percent to 44 percent, with the president leading among independents, women and younger voters, and Romney leading among whites and men. (hat tip to The Fix)

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In which the WaPo’s opinion section isn’t afraid of pinning the blame for Congress’ ongoing gridlock. Note that this article, by Brookings’ Thomas E. Mann and the American Enterprise Institute Norman J. Ornstein, has 5,000+ comments.

shortformblog:

• yeah … Last week, a spare comment Mitt Romney campaign staffer Eric Fehrnstrom comparing his candidate to an Etch A Sketch seemed to catch fire in the media, and the Gingrich and Santorum campaigns treated the gaffe as a major coup. Or was it?
• … but Despite the comment seemingly being everywhere last week, a Pew study shows that 55 percent of people didn’t even know about the incident. The WaPo’s Chris Cillizza says the poll is evidence of the bubble the political sphere builds around itself. (He’s right.) source

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I didn’t even know what the hell everyone was talking about when I heard references to the etch-a-sketch thing. I still don’t.

bemusedlybespectacled:

This is hormonal birth control.

As you can see on the box, you take exactly one pill per day. To make sure it works, you need to take one pill every day at the same time, or it stops working. You take only one pill, and you keep taking them regardless of what you are doing that day.

Hormonal birth control can be used to treat a lot of different diseases, like anemia caused by excessive menstruation. It is a prescription medication that can cost around $15-50 a month. Because it is a prescription medication, it should be covered by insurance, as it treats legitimate health problems.

This is Viagra.

It, too, can treat legitimate health problems like altitude sickness and pulmonary hypertension, but it is usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction. Unlike the Pill, Viagra is taken every time you want to have sex. A lot of health insurance companies cover Viagra, so it costs about as much as your co-pay.

This is a condom.

It is not a prescription medication, and has no health benefits (besides the prevention of STIs and pregnancy). Like Viagra, you must use one before you have sex: indeed, before each sex act. They cost about a dollar per condom.

This is Sandra Fluke.

She testified before a small, Democrat-led hearing after she was cut out of the actual birth control/insurance discussion. Her testimony was about a friend of hers who, because her insurance did not cover birth control, lost an ovary due to an ovarian cyst.

This somehow translates into “I, myself, personally, am having so much sex I can’t afford birth control, and so I want the government to pay for it.”

This is wrong for multiple reasons.

1. It was about a friend, not her. To say her testimony was about her personally is factually incorrect.
2. Sex had nothing to do with the testimony - her friend lost an ovary because of medical condition that was left untreated. A medical condition that was completely treatable, but wasn’t, because her insurance wouldn’t cover it. To say that her testimony was about her being “a slut” or “a prostitute” is factually incorrect.
3. Even if she was having loads of sex, she would still only have one pill a day, not one pill per sex act, so to say “I’m having so much sex I can’t afford birth control” is completely erroneous. The Pill is not Viagra or condoms. To say that she is such “a slut” that she constantly needs more pills is factually incorrect.
4. The current political debate is not “should the government pay for birth control?” The debate is “should insurance companies, that people and their employers pay for, on their own, be required to cover birth control?” To say that Sandra Fluke wants the government to pay for her birth control is factually incorrect.
5. Religious organizations do not want to have birth control covered by their insurance, even for employees not of their faith, even if their employees never actually use their insurance to cover birth control. By this logic, they should also not pay their employees, because they could use that money to pay for birth control out of pocket. To say that this issue is about religious freedom and not about women’s health is disingenuous, as Ms. Fluke’s testimony demonstrates.

Hopefully this makes things a little clearer.

soupsoup:

No matter what political beliefs they hold, nearly all parents—99 percent of Republicans, 96 percent of Democrats, and 93 percent of independents—expect their children to go to college, the survey found. That resounding endorsement makes clear that Santorum is all but alone in his opinion that only snobs encourage all kids to go to college. 

shortformblog:

Gingrich predicts Big Oil will hand the election to the GOP

“That’s a pretty big burden while he’s waging war on the Catholic Church and apologizing to Islamic extremists”: In which Newt Gingrich tells CNN’s Candy Crowley that Big Oil will intentionally tank the American economy, placing an insurmountable obstacle on President Obama’s path to re-election. source

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:I

shortformblog:

• cause Last week, a Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, testified in front of Congress on the Jesuit school’s policy on contraception, an issue which has drawn many emotions of late.
• reaction Many on the right attacked Fluke for her testimony, but none as harshly as talker Rush Limbaugh, who called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his radio show. Yeah, that’s not cool.
• result Limbaugh’s comments drew strong reactions from the left especially. Republican House Speaker John Boehner criticized Limbaugh. The president even called her up today. Really. source

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