Here's something fun for today. BlimeyCow is my favorite vlogger--if that's the right word for his videos--and also, the only one I, uh, watch. Unless Julian Smith counts, but I don't think he does.
And by the way, I finally got to go see October Baby (yay!) and it was amazing. Is it the greatest movie ever made? No, it's not. But it's a beautiful story, and the quality was very good, even if it wasn't up to the level of "The Lord of the Rings" or "It's a Wonderful Life" (two of my favorite movies right there). As another indicator, it was a heck of a lot better than the "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" flop (sorry, Narnia). It also was not pushy about abortion or religion; it wasn't saying "Christianity is right and abortion is the most ultimate evil ever!", but rather "Here's a conflicted young woman who needs to re-discover who she is and how to forgive". As a plus, most criticisms of the movie (coming from the Left) aren't about the quality, but screaming about how the movie dares to oppose abortion. Which pretty much guarantees that the movie's going to be good.
Without further ado, here's BlimeyCow and "The TV Tells Me How to Vote".
Here is my compilation of what seem to be the basic beliefs of the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates. I divided this list up by the following five categories: abortion, the economy, health care, foreign policy, and marriage. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
The way chose things to list was to list only things about the candidates that differed from the other candidates. For example: repealing Obamacare. I do not say "would repeal Obamacare" because it's a given that Republican candidates would repeal Obamacare (or at least convince people they would). So I only mention repealing Obamacare if either 1) there was something unique about how/why a candidate would repeal Obamacare, or 2) if a candidate would NOT repeal Obamacare.
I gathered my information from various articles, debates, and the candidates' campaign website. If I did not list much about what a candidate believes under a certain topic, it isn't (usually) because I'm being lazy, but because I simply couldn't find anything unique or specific about that candidate under that certain topic...or I simply couldn't find much information. I also sometimes give links throughout the list that go to what I found very helpful/detailed articles about the candidate under that topic. Sometimes they are from candidates' websites, sometimes they aren't.
I did my best to not write biased, but I'm only human.
ABORTION
Michele Bachmann
~Would advocate “Personhood” amendment to Constitution, and then use 14th amendment to ban abortion
Mitt Romney
~Would not sign Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life Pledge
~Previously strongly pro-abortion, claiming pro-life conversion in 2004…the following done after he says he converted:
~Supported legalization of RU-486 (the abortion pill)
~Implemented “Romneycare” health care when Governor of Massachusetts, which funded abortion
~Supports embryonic cell research
~Repeatedly flip-flopped on whether he was pro-life or pro-choice, depending on where he was running.
Ron Paul
~Repeal Roe v. Wade
~Define personhood as from conception with “Sanctity of Life” act
~Wouldn’t support abortion as president, but believes banning it should be left up to the states
Rick Santorum
~Does not believe rape and incest should be an exception if abortion is made illegal
~“Rick was the author of legislation outlawing the heinous act known as partial-birth abortion and he championed the fight to pass the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act” and the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act.”
~Supports Federal banning of abortion
Jon Huntsman
~Would not sign Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life Pledge
~Believes abortion is acceptable in the cases of rape and incest
~ “He wasn’t a governor who was pushing, cheerleading those who were opposed to reproductive rights. He wasn’t a governor that spearheaded either an anti-choice or reproductive rights agenda.”—Karrie Galloway, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Utah
Rick Perry
~Signed legislation as Governor of Texas that de-funded Planned Parenthood
~Supports the creation of a “human life” amendment to the Constitution
Newt Gingrich
~Supports federal funding of abortion in cases of rape or incest
~Once stated that life begins at implantation (as opposed to conception), and then amended it later to conception
ECONOMY
Michele Bachmann
~Repatriate corporate profits
~The most pushy candidate about repealing Obamacare
~Repeal unnecessary regulations and cut unnecessary taxes
~repeal Dodd-Frank
~Open up foreign trade
Mitt Romney
~Cut corporate income tax rate to 25%
~Implemented universal “Romneycare” when governor or Massachusetts, but says wouldn’t do that as president because it should be left up to the states
~Cutting non-security discretionary spending by 5%
~Give control of “retraining” programs back to the states
~Sanctioning China for unfair trade practices
~Cut and cap federal spending to 20% of the GDP
Ron Paul
~Very gung-ho about auditing the Fed
~Supports sound money
~Has plan for cutting 1 trillion of spending during 2013
~Cut five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, Education)
~ “Avoid long and expensive land wars that bankrupt our country by using constitutional means to capture or kill terrorist leaders who helped attack the U.S. and continue to plot further attacks.”
Rick Santorum
~Don’t call it “war on terror”…call it what it is! War on radical Islam!
~ “authored and passed the“Iran Freedom and Support Act” in the face of Democratic and Bush State Department opposition, which authorized Federal monies to support pro-democracy movements in Iran and keep the tyrannical dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from obtaining a nuclear weapon”
~ Was on the Senate Armed Services Committee for eight years
~Does not support withdrawing from Afghanistan
~Not too concerned about foreign aid, since it’s “less than a half a percent” of the federal budget
~ “Our foreign policy is only as good as our ability to project power”—fix economy, defend borders, etc.
~ “War on Terror” can’t be fought in any one country; we have to move around as the terrorists move around; be “quick on our feet” and able to deploy on a moment’s notice
Rick Perry
~ Would reset all of our foreign aid to all countries to zero—including Israel—and then build from there.
~Very gung-ho about putting up a fence along the boarder—did so in Texas
Newt Gingrich
~”Incentivize math and science education in America to ensure the men and women of our Armed Forces always have the most advanced and powerful weapons in the world at their disposal.”
~ “Understand our enemies and tell the truth about them.”
~Re-do the Visa program
~ “Allow foreigners who want to spend money, invest and create jobs in America to do so.”
~Should have an “earned citizenship”program for illegals
~Implemented similar-to-Obamacare (though less extreme) “Romneycare” when governor of Massachusetts
~Let states do whatever they want/decide what’s best for them
Ron Paul
~Give various tax credits, deductions, and exemptions for medical expenses and those with terminal illnesses.
~ “Ensure that those harmed during medical treatment receive fair compensation while reducing the burden of costly malpractice litigation on the health care system by providing a tax credit for “negative outcomes” insurance purchased before medical treatment."
Rick Santorum
~Supports Ryan Plan
~Once voted yes on expanding Medicare to help seniors afford prescription drugs; now says that vote was a mistake, because the money isn’t used effectively
Jon Huntsman
~Leave things up to the states
Rick Perry
~Reform Medicare and Medicaid
~ “the best way for the federal government to improve health care in the near term is to stimulate job creation so more Americans are covered by employer-sponsored health plans”
Newt Gingrich
~ “make health insurance more affordable and portable”
~ “Create more choices in Medicare”
~ “Reform Medicaid by giving states more freedom and flexibility”
~Supports Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman
Mitt Romney
~Supported gays serving openly in the military
~Supports federal amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman
Ron Paul
~Doesn’t personally support homosexuality, but believes the states should make their own laws, and the federal government should ignore the issue altogether.
Rick Santorum
~ Supports Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman
Jon Huntsman
~Supports civil unions
~Believes choices about gay people should be left to states
~Thinks this country could “show a little more equality” when it comes to gays
Rick Perry
~ Supports Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman
Newt Gingrich
~ "I certainly think that we have every right to defend traditional marriage...whether it's by passing a law or a constitutional amendment."
All images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.
I wanted to give you this short post so you could know what it is I’m planning for future posts.
First of all, after the somewhat explosive Ames Presidential Debate last Thursday, I want to compile a GOP candidate list that would summarize what each candidate believes about the big issues of today. I’ll be compiling this list for my own benefit anyway—I won’t be old enough to actually vote in 2012, but I have a somewhat rabid obsession with knowing who is right and/or why I believe what I believe, and this list will help me get the pros and cons of each candidate down on paper—so if you would like me to post this list (or not), please vote in the poll.
Also, I semi-recently ran across what I’ve been calling in my own mind “The Ultimate Pro-AbortionArgument”. I call it ultimate because the woman who wrote this essay accepted the pro-life argument premise that the fetus is a person…and still made an extremely convincing argument for abortion. Hard to believe? Well, yes. But take it from me, it’s downright scary how convincing she makes abortion. I read it once, was astonished, and then read parts of it again…and that’s when the hidden fallacies began to emerge. Once again, I’ll be dissecting this essay for my own benefit anyway, but I would like to post it, because if you can shoot down this lie for abortion, you can shoot down any lie. The only downside is that the essay is 8500 words long, so it would take multiple posts to get through it, since I would be adding my own “dissection” words to that. I won’t lie. It’ll take serious commitment (for you and me both!) to actually wade all the way through it. (Of course, you’d be free to stop reading it whenever you like.) (It wouldn’t be just this dissection as blog posts for weeks. I would still post “normal” posts, these will just be mixed in.)
So basically, this is a post asking you to vote in the polls so I can see how I can best serve you as the blog-readers. (I like multi-tasking…if I can serve you while serving myself, so much the better.)
Thanks for reading and participating in the polls!
Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.
Summed up in one sentence, Mr. Romney makes me nervous. I’ve always felt a little uneasy about him, though I can’t pinpoint why.
The Susan B. Anthony List recently released a pledge for the 2012 Presidential "hopefuls" to sign stating pro-life measures, such as de-funding health centers that are involved with abortion, and appointing pro-life people to the appropriate positions. Mr. Romney wouldn’t sign this. (To be fair, Herman Cain and Gary Johnson wouldn't either.) I guess I can understand what he means in his explanation [paragraph 2 and 4], but it isn’t enough. So Mr. Romney doesn’t want Planned Parenthood (PP) de-funded? Or does he? I’m confused now. The only reason the pro-life movement is going after PP specifically is because it’s the biggest abortion provider in the US. If we could de-fund all abortion clinics, so much the better. So why is he uneasy about that? It also seems very strange that he practically repeated the PP argument against de-funding: that women will lose access to vital health services. Hmmm.
He also thinks that appointing only pro-life appointees to relevant federal positions would "strictly limit his choices" [paragraph 4]. Why? Does he intend to not appoint pro-life people? Who else then, except pro-abortion?
Besides this statement, Mr. Romney is still a little dangerous because of his past strong support for abortion and his slowness to take up the “De-fund PP!” battle cry. Never trust a politician who switches his views. Never. Even if it’s for the better. Because we have absolutely no way of knowing if that is what they really mean or not. I hate politicians who flip-flop. If he becomes pro-life and stays pro-life and consistently does dangerous things (politically) for life, then I might consider actually believing him. I have a rule about whether to believe flip-flopping politicians or not: are they going to gain anything from suddenly stating such-and-such? And if they do, do the risks they take outweigh that statement? Do they hover in the background or do they shout from the rooftops, even when the shouting is unpopular?
Enough about the pro-life issue. Here is the rest of my analysis:
Mr. Romney’s saying all the same things everybody else is. He’ll replace Obamacare, he’ll create jobs, he’ll stop the out-of-control spending. I got bored reading his website simply because it was all the same things I’d heard before.
One thing I just recently found out (so is not the reason he makes me nervous) is that Mr. Romney is a Mormon. I don't think he's evil or anything, and it may have absolutely no impact on how he does as President, but that's another thing to add onto my why-Romney-makes-me-nervous list.
I listened to Rush Limbaugh interviewing Rick Santorum a few days ago while I was painting the kitchen. I liked what I heard, so when I finished painting, I Googled Mr. Santorum to find out more about this presidential candidate. I found his website, and, out of curiosity, I took a look at another Google result that was titled “Rick Santorum’s 12 Most Offensive Statements”. I read through them all, and at the end, thought happily, “I think I like this guy!”
In my book, offensive=politically incorrect=good. Most of his comments I didn’t find offensive, just true, and many of them made me think that the “other side” was just trying to twist something he said into something that was offensive. Even if some of his views were offensive (nobody’s perfect), at least he doesn’t hide his true beliefs and is brutally honest.
Anyway, I’ve been researching Mr. Santorum, both from positive and negative sources, and I’ll “break him down” for you here.
He served as the Pennsylvania U.S. Rep in 1990, and then in the U.S. Senate from 1995-2007. This despite his being a Conservative in a usually blue state. In twice of his four winning races (he lost one) he won running against an incumbent Democrat.
Overall, Mr. Santorum seems to have no qualms saying exactly what he thinks, despite how unpopular it might be, which is why I’m impressed with him. He has a 0% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, meaning he has a very pro-life voting record. He’s against Obamacare and wants to change Medicare, but I’m afraid I can’t get more specific than that, because I’m still trying to figure out exactly how it (Obamacare and Medicare and health care in general) works. However, all you smart people can watch his interview on Fox to hear him explaining his stance on it. He proudly declares that he calls “The War on Terror” “The War on Radical Islam” instead, because that’s what it is. He’s very unpopular with pro-gay people because he’s very loud about his opinion that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Another fun little “plus” about him is that he has seven children, and I believe he homeschools at least some of them.
Mr. Santorum gets a lot of negative media, and considering that the media tends to be left-leaning, and he’s a Conservative, that may very well be a good thing. I may end up supporting Mr. Santorum, but I really wish Sarah Palin would let us know if she was running or not first…
