Mitt Romney seemed to indicate Monday to CBS News that presidents are essentially powerless when it comes to abortion policy. Abortion rights advocates beg to differ.
TPM obtains mugshot of accused Family Research Council shooter Floyd Lee Corkins.
The odd, not-really-opening day of the Republican National Convention in 100 wind-swept seconds:
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From TPM Reader RP …
What Akin said was tremendously stupid and disqualifying, but ultimately based on a misunderstanding of the mechanics of conception from rape. Tom Smith’s statement is pure condescension to rape victims. If faced with a woman impregnated by a rapist, who doesn’t want to carry the rapist’s child, Tom Smith says, “I empathize, my family’s been in a similar situation. My daughter’s boyfriend got her pregnant.”
A federal three-judge panel today began considering whether South Carolina’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act, and TPM’s Ryan Reilly was there.
For more background on creeping voter IDism, we put Ryan in front of the camera to explain.
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith says his daughter’s decision to give birth to a child conceived out of wedlock is “similar” to deciding to give birth to a child conceived from rape.
Isn’t that kind of ridiculous? “Put yourself in a father’s position, yes, I mean it is similar,” said Smith.
A leaked draft of the GOP platform reveals the Romney/Ryan plan to turn Medicare into a no-guarantee voucher program.
In other words, it’s the Medicare equivalent of ‘private accounts’ for Social Security — switching from a defined-benefit to a defined-contribution program.
Let’s be honest: very few working political journalists have any grasp of basic policy details like or particularly care about them. So there’s a decent chance the significance of all this will be almost entirely ignored. But these are mammoth changes which phase out Medicare over a handful of years and replace it with a coupon to buy as much health are as people over 65 can get.