I think that a lot of this is that they are very, very, very dumb about what this medication is. I suspect that they think that it is the abortion pill since that’s what they are obsessed with. The ones who know that it’s not seem to think that it’s taken like Viagra. We’re dealing with ideologues who bring their special mix of dumb and crazy into the mix so they may not feel like they are bearing false witness, especially since they are used to having someone tell them what their dogma means.

This slander by the right is actionable. Sandra Fluke should file civil suits, and Gloria Alred says that there is a Florida law making it a criminal misdemeanor to “question a woman’s chastity.”

Go get ‘em.

Can we expect the “religious” right to defend the murder of Muslim women and children?

well, Ms. Fluke did inject herself into this controversy which might create a strong defense to a defamation suit…she will probably be found to be a “limited purpose public figure”.. specifically it will raise the bar on her burden of proof from a preponderance to clear and convincing evidence that the publisher of the statement knew it was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

Not as easy as one would think to win a defamation suit in this country…

The “leaders” of these organizations are not the dumb ones. It’s their followers who are led around by their noses.

It doesn’t really matter whether they read Fluke’s testimony or not — her actual words are irrelevant. Limbaugh wrote their script for them, and they’re following it like the good little robots they are.

As for “morality” — to paraphrase a comment I read recently, do they care about honesty? They care about winning. Do they care about integrity? They care about winning. Do they care about fairness? They care about winning.

Got that?

It seems that Rush Limbaugh’s “dittoheads” among the right wing have been rushing to character assassinate Sandra Fluke with lies and calumny. One thing that seems common to the attacks is the idea that a woman’s use of birth control pills is evidence of sexual activity, and that women need to take apill when they are going to have sex, rather than on a regular daily schedule. Apparently, Limbaugh and his dittoheads are ignorant on how birth control works, preferring to analogize on the basis of the kinds of pills that Limbaugh and other otherwise imporent men are otherwise familiar with – Viagra.

On another front, the right wing seems to have discovered other things about Sandra Fluke, most notably that she edited a law review note that discussed Mario v. P & C Food Markets, Inc., 313 F.3d 758 (2d Citcuit, December 20, 2002)

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/313/758/533218/

In the note, there was advocacy for the idea that health insurers should be required to cover transgender people for their medical care.

The right wing critics of Sandra Fluke see the very idea that trans people’s medical care should be covered by health insurance as just as “morally wrong” as the idea that women’s reproductive health should be covered.

Some examples of the criticism:

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=45074

http://catholicism.org/sandra-fluke-insurance-must-cover-transgender-mutilation.html

and the apparent “discoverer” of Ms. Fluke’s published note:

http://mrctv.org/blog/sandra-fluke-gender-reassignment-and-health-insurance

The Republican War on Women is tied to the Republican War on Trans People, and the Republican War on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People as well.

These people cower behind a claim of religious liberty that they believe should only apply to themselves, and not to people who believe differently from them. They attempt to justify their misogynistic assault on women, trans people (and since trans men are usually invisible to them, that is a part of their assault on women) and gay people (similarly, their stereotypical hatred of gay men is also rooted in the same sort of misogyny exhibited by the Men of Sodom), on what they see as “moral” grounds.

When they proclaim that Catholic employers should have a “religious liberty” right to deny medical coverage to their employees, they make short shrift of the religious beliefs of the employees, as well as their legitimate medical needs.

As has been pointed out in other forums, no one ever hears Jehovah Witnesses calling for laws banning all blood transfusions because their religious beliefs see them as immoral. Only Catholics, and some Evangelical Protestants, seem to be making the argument that their religious beliefs should be applied to everyone.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media seems to be ignoring the right wing attack on Sandra Fluke that relates to transgender medical care – perhaps this is a can that needs to be fully opened, examined and addressed. Sooner or later, justice will prevail. It’s good to know that Ms. Fluke is on the side of truth, justice, fairness and reason.

Hunter, you are spot on.

For a t-shirt:

The religious right groups: do they care about honesty? They care about winning. Do they care about integrity? They care about winning. Do they care about fairness? They care about winning.

Got that?

she testified (or tried to testify) at a Congressional hearing and neither her testimony nor anything she has said since supports the statements being heralded as fact. Additionally, the fact that these right wing religious groups continue to not only hurl the accusations which are salacious, unsubstantiated and malicious in nature but expand on them without any evidence to the contrary or without any legitimate/supportable reason other than to intentionally defame her (the statements do not in any way serve to refute her testimony) shows this goes beyond people just making some nasty and inaccurate comments and is a campaign aimed at nothing but slandering her in public.

They aren’t merely spewing lies and bearing false witness, they are uttering patently slanderous remarks, and Ms. Fluke should sue!
Rush Limbaugh is probably gratified that his lies are being defended by lies. I think this is an example of using the ‘Overton Window’, and it will be interesting to watch how far over the ledge these morons go.

Good point about the Jehovah Witnesses not calling for laws banning all blood transfusions because of their religious beliefs.

It’s not really about religious beliefs at all, it’s about government mandates.

I’ve pretty much come to realize that for a lot of these people morality is exactly equal to sexual morality, as is immorality. That things like telling the truth, checking your sources, cheating, damaging other people, and so on simply are not on their moral radar. Lie, cheat and steal all you want, and if your pants stayed on, all is good.

This is the rightwackos’ (all of them) primary “strategy”.. They attack right into what would have, in less sick, amoral, insane and fucked up times, a moral fortress. Its way past time to let them spit and froth and foam themselves right out of our hair. The “left” in the america has always feigned shock, and then pretended to be too good to stoop such a rank level … but really, KEEP the assholes in the news if they are going to keep saying shit like this RUN the fucking thing into the ground, Stay on the “moral high ground” by not being them. It isnt that difficult,but DO BAIT them into spewing more and more hate and crazy, until they spin out of coherence in spittle and venom flecked, mouth foaming incoherence. ( i know they already are but i mean until all of thier heads explode or they keel over dead from apoplexy)

I love the smell of defamation lawsuits in the morning.

The right wing “Christians” are scum.

That’s some kick-ass irony.

See, they wouldn’t know a sexual anarchist even if I waved my dick in their faces.

Or maybe that’s what they want…?

Chris Rodda’s book ‘Liars for Jesus’ is available for free download at her site http://www.liarsforjesus.com/downloads/LFJ_FINAL.pdf

Explains a good deal, not that we haven’t been aware for a long time, but good on documentation.

Oh, you can be certain that Rush would be “jumping up and down” IF he could “jump up and down”.

Fortunately, nobody with half a brain listens to the right-wing religious nutjobs except other right-wing religious nutjobs. The people are so NOT-Christien it ain;t funny. And, it ain’t gonne be funny when they meet Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates and find them closed and locked.

Poor girl, you just know she’s being tailed 24/7 by RW sex-paparrazi (e.g. Breitbart’s surviving crew) trying to “get” the Gary Hart/Donna Rice moment.

“Inject herself into this controversy” – so, by stepping up one time and testifying before Congress, one loses one’s legal standing to defend oneself against defamation, is that what you’re saying?

Meantime, here on earth, it ain’t gonna be funny if these asses win and run *our* government. Distasteful as it is, we will have to confront and refute this, Xtian by Xtian.

Good point. If the Christian Obama government can “mandate” that private employers pay profiting insurance companies to pay profiting pharma companies to provide meds “free”, then what could a Mormon or Moslem government mandate?

I agree this is a lot of the problem. Particularly since Rush probably can’t have sex WITHOUT ED meds, he just assumes it applies to everyone else since he is so self centered.

They have all equated it to condom use, so they are thinking in that way to start. They don’t want to acknowledge any other use of hormonal birth control and are too ignorant to know the science behind it.

Remember that for evangelicas they can do what they want and just have to ask Jesus for forgiveness and all is good.

I hate myself when I draw inferences I have to right or reason to make, BUT…Ms. Fluke strikes me as a really gentle and compassionate soul. I cannot imagine her mud wrestling and street brawling, but I wish desperately I were wrong. Jesus, I’d love to see her kick ass.

But after all that, I know she would be far more effective and powerful in a push-back if she remained the way she is. I see it as a challenge for the Left to clear a path and serve up some infield chatter. She has the brains and heart, probably the guts too, but no one could or should do this alone.

Thanks for the very unsurprising info. Rightwing think tanks, like AFA & the others mentioned in the post, really are not “Christian” groups in the true sense of the word “Christian.”

They are toxically perverted well-run political propoganda machines hell-bent for the purpose of bamboozling citizens into the attack mode against anything deemed – by them – as “liberal.”

These are charlatans & grifters of the highest order, but they are well run & well-organized outreach/PR/marketing arms of the 1%. They are very effective because they call themselves “Christian,” when, in reality, they aren’t… at least not in the sense of how their so-called “leader” (aka Biblical Jesus) would entreat them to behave.

It’s both sad and thoroughly disgusting how such venal scumbags are ever-willing to mislead the “flock” to believe the most nefarious shit. However, caveat emptor also applies.

People world-wide were shocked when Jim Jones got so many people to drink the Kool Aid. This is just another example of Kool Aid drinking. Personally I cannot relate to it, myself, but it certainly seems that many humans appear to be “wired” in some way to want “authoritarian daddy” to tell them how to think, what to believe, and how to behave up to and including killing others or themselves.

More’s the pity….

And I’d like to state for the record that people who follow these charlatans are not all “stupid” or “uneducated”… many are very highly educated, quite intelligent and sophisticated. Be aware that it’s not just “dumb” people who fall into the authoritarian trap, nor is it just conservatives… albeit this is about conservatives in this instance.

My greatest concern is the tentacles of the catholic church strangling free speech. No amount of logic alters their manufactured beliefs. Another American Taliban, is the way I see it. These monsters are trying to stop the evolution of man. The absent of birth control leads human lemmings over the cliffs. But more important, the female sex can direct that evolution, this is truly what the introverted paranoid society fears. Hopefully Sandra Fluke keeps the flame burning.

Guys, I don’t make the law, I’m just telling you how defamation suits play out. And Ms. Fluke did not confine her public appearances to Congressional sessions only.

I think she will have an uphill battle in the courts because it is damn hard to win a defamation suit in this nation and I say this based on over 25 years of litigation practice with emphasis on First Amendment issues, including defamation.

Bill O’Reilly is untouchable because he ALWAYS LIES and usually his comments are not “factual” but his own blowhard opinion. It is likely Rush Limpdick is going to end up treated the same way.

While it’s true that in some jurisdictions, calling someone a prostitute is considered libel per se, I believe her burden of proof will be elevated by virtue of the limited public purpose figure doctrine. Not saying it’s impossible, but it is a very heavy burden to overcome.

Also, liability issues aside, it is difficult to argue that Rush Limpdick’s screed in fact was damaging to Fluke’s reputation in the community, because HE is the one who came out looking like shit, whereas SHE is something of a national heroine/celebrity. That in turn, will affect any damage recovery she might obtain, as defamation damages are based on damage to one’s reputation in the community.

Rush Limpdick is a blowhard and loathsome but whether Fluke can prevail in a defamation suit against him is far from a sure thing.

I can’t claim credit for the idea, just the paraphrase — IIRC, the original was from one of the posters at AmericaBlog or AmericaBlog Gay.

And let’s make it short and sweet: Republicans: Do they care about honesty? etc.

I think that’s a fair statement at this point.

We’re dealing with people who have been conditioned from early childhood to accept what they’re told by anyone in authority. Curiosity and open-mindedness are not, in their eyes, positive characteristics, and facts are only valid insofar as they reinforce what these people already “know” — they “know” that the world was created in six days, because that’s what they’re told by unchallengeable authority.

The professional gay-bashers work right into this mindset — their message is “biblical” and so they can’t be challenged. They are also past masters at playing on fear — just look at how much of their message is meant to scare people. Someone once said that James Dobson, who is the prototype for these snake-oil salesmen, was a “godly” man. That sort of tells you all you need to know.

Yes, pretty everyone is conditioned in this way. I grew up in such a family, but somehow – by luck, chance, my own personality??? – the authoritarian “conditioning” didn’t “take.”

My family is well educated, well traveled and sophisticated, but they surely do love to live by “the rules.” Speaking just for my family, I think they also enjoy (somewhat secretly) a sense of moral superiority by belonging to the “group,” even though just as often as anyone else out there, including dreaded “liberals,” they often “fail” and don’t adhere to the rules AT ALL.

But as someone else stated, the whole “deal” with Christianity – as it’s mostly preached these days – is that IF you “belong” to the club, then you can pretty much behave, say, do whatever you like… and then all is forgiven because you “belong.”

That’s all very well, but unfortunately, then you have stuff like what’s going on now, where such “Christians” are rabble-roused to be “up in arms” over this whole totally ginned up ersatz birth control “controversy.” The role this plays out right now is to gin up the conservatives to be very ANGRY with the “liberals” as usual… a convenient distraction from the many important problems confronting our nationt today… but hey: don’t worry be “happy” hating on “liberals” and ignoring the fact the 1% have us all by the short ‘n curlies… witness prices at the gas pump for Exhibit A… where are all these “concerned conservatives” on that issue? Oh yeah, right: they’re *insane* with rage at the “N” word in the White House.

And so: on it goes….