Arsalan Iftikhar's Thank You Letter To Don Lemon

Fox News anchors work heard to be ignorant and offensive. For Don Lemon, it just comes naturally. Lemon unsurprisingly placed his foot in his mouth when he asked Muslim civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar if he supported ISIS.

“Again in August, 16 percent of French citizens support ISIS,” Lemon pressed. “Would you describe those who support ISIS as Islamic extremists? Do you support ISIS?”

The question stunned Iftikhar.

“Wait,” he replied. “Did you just ask me if I support ISIS? I just answered your question. I said that obviously these 16 percent of people support the ideology, but again, I don’t think that would necessarily extrapolate to supporting of killing of innocent people.”

Imagine asking a German civil rights lawyer if he supports the Nazi Party. That gives you an idea of how tasteless Lemon's question was to Iftikhar.

In Islamic Monthly, Iftikhar thanked Lemon in an open letter. Get ready for the snark.

“Now to be completely honest with you,” Iftikhar wrote, “I totally thought that I had misheard him because surely there was no respectable journalist in the world who would ask a Muslim human rights lawyer whether he supports an organization which violates human rights each and every day.”

“But then I remembered that I was dealing with Don Lemon,” he said.

Just reading that made me flinch. Iftikhar delivered a serious burn to Lemon. Unfortunately for Lemon, Iftikhar is just getting warmed up.

Iftikhar wrote, “In less than 24 hours, there were nearly 5,000 media articles written condemning Don Lemon for his asinine question in major publications such as BuzzFeed, Deadspin, The Hollywood Reporter, USA Today and more. Most of these articles called the ISIS question just the latest in a series of major Don Lemon on-air gaffes; including his previous theory about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 perhaps flying into a “black hole” or once asking an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim why she didn’t bite off the comedian’s penis whilst being allegedly raped by him.”

Iftikhar finishes off Lemon with these paragraphs.

“I can honestly say that I have never become more ‘famous’ than after this latest Don Lemon gaffe,” Iftikhar said, before implying that Lemon has perhaps brought enough embarrassment on CNN that he may be following the likes of Ed Henry over to a different news network.

“It is a sincere honor to be added to the litany of famous ‘Malaysian-black-hole-penis-biting’ Don Lemon media gaffes which can be added to his audition tape for his next job at FOX News Channel,” Iftikhar wrote.

“So from the bottom of my heart,” he concluded, “I want to publicly thank Don Lemon for making me famous with his patently offensive racist dumb-ass question.”

Let's recap Lemon's other lowlights.

Lemon was actually stupid enough to ask Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, if Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in a black hole. Lemon finds a way to trivialize a tragic plane disappearance.

Lemon projected blame on alleged Bill Cosby rape victim, Joan Tarshis, for not defending herself. If you wonder why more women don't come forward about being rape than just watch this interview.

Lemon: Can I ask you this, because—and please, I don't mean to be crude, OK?

Tarshis: Yeah.

Lemon: Because I know some of you—and you said this last night, that he—you lied to him and said, "I have an infection, and if you rape me, or if you do—if you have intercourse with me, then you will probably get it and give it to your wife."

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: And you said he made you perform oral sex.

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: You—you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it.

Tarshis: Oh. Um, I was kind of stoned at the time, and quite honestly, that didn't even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.

Lemon: Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?

Tarshis: Yes, that's what I'm thinking you're ...

Lemon: As a weapon.

Tarshis: Yeah, I didn't even think of it.

Lemon didn't have to ask that.

1969 Bill Cosby Date Rape Comedy Routine

Bill Cosby have come under public accusations of drugging and raping women. Andrea Constand accused Cosby of raping her when she was a teenager.

Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously. So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times. In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal. The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event. I was staying in a separate bedroom of Cosby’s hotel suite, but he pinned me down in his own bed while I screamed for help. I’ll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off. I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me “a baby” and sent me home to Denver.

A total of 13 woman have come forward with claims of being sexually assaulted by Cosby. The common theme in their stories is being drugged by Cosby. Technically, this comedy routine doesn't prove or disapprove the allegations against Cosby.

In 1969, Cosby did a comedy bit on drugging women with the mythical Spanish fly. Technically, this comedy routine doesn't prove or disapprove the allegations against Cosby. It does make me wonder why Cosby thought date rape was amusing.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Bill Cosby

Via Feministing: Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress did a bit on alligations of Bill Cosby being a serial rapist. 13 women have accused Cosby of rape. Andrea Constand has brought a civil lawsuit against Cosby. That lawsuit was settled out of court.

What Cosby never mentioned was the civil lawsuit he settled just two days earlier with Andrea Constand, 32, a former Temple University employee who claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Constand's lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz ended up with 13 witnesses, most referred to in court documents as "Jane Does," who came forward voluntarily with strikingly similar claims of drugging and or abuse by Cosby. Terms of the settlement, reached before any of the women could testify, were not disclosed. But PEOPLE reporters have interviewed five of the women and share three of their stories now.

Cosby defenders can say why didn't these women press charges? The other view is if Cosby is innocent why settle? If true this is highly unsettling. Barbara Bowman says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby.

A month or two later, she was in Atlantic City and says she was given another glass of red wine and felt "completely doped up again." Confused, Bowman somehow made it back to her room, but the next day Cosby summoned her to his suite. After she arrived, Bowman says, Cosby "threw me on the bed and braced his arm under my neck so I couldn't move my head, and he started trying to take his clothes off. I remember all the clinking of his belt buckle. And he was trying to take my pants down, and I was trying to keep them on." Bowman says that not long after she resisted the assault, Cosby cut off contact with her and had her escorted to the airport for a flight back to Denver. She didn't tell authorities about what happened, but she did approach an attorney who "wouldn't take it seriously," says Margo Singagliese, 52, the friend who went with her to see the lawyer.

This is something to think about the next time you hear Cosby lecturing others on the standards and morality.

Rape is Not Okay

Via Feminist.Girl: these rather disturbing results of a survey of high school students on when rape is okay. The answer to every question shoul be NEVER.

Quote of the Day: Woody Allen Edition

"I'm open-minded about sex. I'm not above reproach; if anything, I'm below reproach. I mean, if I was caught in a love nest with 15 12-year-old girls tomorrow, people would think, yeah, I always knew that about him."

Woody Allen, from an interview he did when he was 40 years-old.

Allen has been accused by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow of child molestation.

From Farrow's open letter in The New York Times.

For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.

It is getting harder to believe that Woody Allen is innocent. Dylan Farrow is now a grown woman living under a new name. Why would she open herself up for potential attacks on her character unless her accusations are true. It is certainly obvious that Dylan Farrow's relationship with Allen is strained. That didn't happen by accident.

Online Stalking Is Real Just Ask Jill Filipovic

Jill Filipovic of Feministe has written about how she was the target of online harassment from the online message board AutoAdmit. People on the board started making comments that they were seeing her on the NYU campus. Obviously, Filipovic felt vulnerable and spent as less time as possible on campus.

It was generally harmless, if a little creepy — stuff like “Jill F is my future wife” and “Any Jill F sightings yet?” It seemed to come primarily from one poster. So I ignored it for a while again, until someone else mentioned it to me. So I went back and read it, and saw that it was getting weirder and grosser — there were mentions of “tag teaming” me, people who said they saw me around school and I was nothing special, comments that I was a feminist bitch and assorted other names, and finally one saying that he “would hate-fuck that cunt.” That put me a little over the edge, and I skipped a day or two of school and started studying at home for about a week, just so I wouldn’t have to walk around campus. I know it sounds crazy (and I definitely felt crazy), but everywhere I went at school I felt like people were looking at me, and like they were evaluating me — like they must have been thinking, “Oh, she isn’t pretty at all” or “Those guys on the board were totally wrong” or “She’s fat” or “I’d fuck her” or, the worst, that they were the people doing the posting, and they were going to go home and write about how they saw me and I was indeed ugly, or I was fuckable, or I was a bitch. It wasn’t so much negative comments that got to me — it was the evaluation of something that I have no control over, in a space where I’m not putting myself out to be evaluated. Nothing I can do is going to change their opinion of whether or not I’m attractive, and I don’t really care all that much if they think I am or not. But I do care when I feel like I can’t walk to class without people looking at me and then anonymously posting their thoughts online, and when they aren’t taking on what I say or what I believe, but what I look like — and when I’m being put in a position where I can’t fight back. If they say, “You’re wrong about feminism,” I can say, “No I’m not” and I can explain why. But if they say, “You’re ugly,” I can’t really say, “No I’m not.” It’s a feeling of powerlessless, and it’s a position that I’m not used to being placed in.

This is the kind of comments Filipovic received in a long thread on AutoAdmit attacking her.

Date: August 9th, 2008 11:13 PM

She's in Southeast Asia, killing babies and getting fucked up the ass by rice farmers.

Anybody here know that bitch?

Filipovic wrote about the sexist comments made about her on AutoAdmit on her blog and was interviewed by the media. Filipovic and other female law students received harassing comments on AutoAdmit.

AutoAdmit webmaster blamed Anthony Ciolli blamed Filipovic for having a job offer rescinding.

My impression from the phone conversation was that this was the chronology:

1) Jill Filipovic from Feministe tells WSJ that I worked at EAP&D

2) WSJ reporter calls EAP&D, and the firm says I had my offer rescinded.

3) WSJ reporter emails me saying they’re going to run a story on it tomorrow.

Believe me, the last thing I wanted was this to be public. I just want to be left alone.

Filipovic explains that she played no part in the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its offer to Ciolli. Unlike Ciolli, Filipovic takes responsibility for what is posted on her website.

There are many things I’ve written that I no longer agree with, and many issues that I’ve changed my mind on. There are many things I’ve posted here that I wish I hadn’t. But they’re mine, and if I’m called out on them, I’ll take responsibility for writing them — I won’t blame Lauren or Zuzu or Piny for owning the site with me, or for not taking them down.

Filipovic has a op-ed at Talking Points Memo that lists the nasty comments made about her at AutoAdmit.

"Official Jill Filipovic RAPE thread"

"I want to brutally rape that Jill slut"

"I'm 98% sure that she should be raped"

“that nose ring is fucking money, rape her immediately”

“what a useless guttertrash whore, I hope that someone uses my pink, fleshy-textured cylindrical body to violate her”

“she deserves a brutal raping”

“Legal liability from posting pic of Jill fucking?”

“she’s a normal-sized girl that I’d bang violently, maybe you’d have to kill her afterwards”

Now imagine being a young woman and wondering if one of those AutoAdmit commenters is stalking you around campus. It is no wonder Filipovic skipped a few classes. I'm not a First Amendment attorney but the AutoAdmit comments are probably protected free speech. We have Constitution in this country. That doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole online.

Quote of the Day

"I have gotten one question repeatedly from young men. These are guys who liked the book, but they are honestly confused. They ask me why Melinda was so upset about being raped. The first dozen times I heard this, I was horrified. But I heard it over and over again. I realized that many young men are not being taught the impact that sexual assault has on a woman. They are inundated by sexual imagery in the media, and often come to the (incorrect) conclusion that having sex is not a big deal. This, no doubt, is why the number of sexual assaults is so high."

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak.

It is amazing some young men would be shocked that a 13 year-old female character in Anderson's book would be upset about being raped. Sadly, I have blogged about rape culture so many times that I am not even shocked by the level of stupidity some men have about rape.

All India Bakchod Takes On Rape Culture In Comedy Video

This video comedy sketch was made by All India Bakchod. The comedy group is from India and made this video about men in India blaming rape on women. Hat tip to David Garber.

Director: Ashwin Shetty

Cinematographer: Ankit Mhatre

Written by: AIB.

Editors: Ashish Heblekar & Shashwat Datta

Music: Mehar Chumble

Assistant Directors: Shruti Naik & Geethika Chandran Kinakkal

Line Producer: Achal Manglik

Assistant Producer: Melbun D'souza

Live Sound: Rinku Pathak

Photo of the Day: Feminist Edition

Anyone that blames a woman for her being raped and makes excuses for the rapist is an idiot.

Hat tip to the Tumblr Rabble Pro-choice.

No Surprise: Contraception Prevents Unwanted Pregnancy

The Guttmacher Institute has released this their findings on how consistent use of contraception prevents abortions.

The two-thirds of U.S. women at risk of unintended pregnancy who use contraception consistently and correctly throughout the course of any given year account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies. The 19% of women at risk who use contraception inconsistently account for 43% of unintended pregnancies, while the 16% of women at risk who use no contraceptive method at all for a month or more during the year account for 52%.

These simple statistics demonstrate how effective contraceptive use can be. They also categorically refute claims by anti-contraception activists that access to contraception somehow leads to more unintended pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

Only five percent of women that properly use contraception account for abortions. Conservatives would have you believe that contraception will lead to the downfall of mankind and abstinence is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Never mind that when (then comedian) Al Franken sent letters to Bush administration officials asking for their stories on how they abstained from sex until they were married, he never got an abstinence confessional.

In bizarro world: Fox News host Laura Ingraham absurdly claims that rapists will give their victims Plan B. Stupidity ensues.

It’s a good deal for pedophiles, a good deal for people who commit statutory rape against young girls. If mothers and fathers across this country hear this, and they think, ‘Well, I guess my daughter or her boyfriend or her rapist can go out to a pharmacy and get a bunch of, you know, hormone pills to give a little girl’... We don’t really know the effect of a spiking or dropping a little girl’s... in many cases a young woman’s or a little girl’s hormonal levels. It’s outrageous!

Of course, Ingraham provides no evidence to back her conspiracy theory. Other conservatives, such as Trent Franks, thinks that women rarely get pregnant after being raped.

"The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low," Franks said, according to a transcript.

Franks made this argument in defense of a DOA bill to ban abortion nationwide after 20 weeks of gestation. This falls under the same form of bogus science as Todd Akin's infamous comment.

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

The reality is Ingraham, Franks, and Akin want women to have no control over their own bodies if they are raped. They also don't want women to have access to birth control. It is a fact that the pill lowers the amount of abortions in this country. If conservatives really want to eliminate abortions then they would back access to the pill. Conservatives don't because they are held hostage by the Christian Right that views sex as a dirty thing.

Update: Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez (R) distances himself from Trent Franks.

"I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News on Wednesday. “I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that ... These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit."

Unserious Men At the Armed Services Hearings

This goes to how Republicans refusing to learn about the policy issues are hurting the country. Sen. Bill Nelson pressed generals on sexual assault convictions overturned by military leadership. On the Republican side, Sen. Jeff Sessions goes on a rant about how Playboy and Penthouse are too blame for sexual assaults in the military.

SESSIONS: Mr. Chairman, I’d just add a letter, a document here that was given to me from Morality in the Media. Pat Truman used to be in the Department of Justice. I knew him when he was there. He points out that, a picture here of a newsstand and an Air Force base exchange with, you know, sexually explicit magazines being sold. So, we live in a culture that’s awash in sexual activity. If it’s not sold on base, it’s right off base. There are videos and so forth that can be obtained, and it creates some problems, I think.

This is the same kind of ignorance that caused Sen. Saxby Chambliss to blame hormones for military sexual assaults.

“The young folks coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23,” he pointed out. “Gee-whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So, we’ve got to be very careful on our side.”

Sessions and Chambliss just throw these comments out there without providing a conservative policy solution. Does Chambliss feel that large groups of young men and women should be barred from being around each other? Would Chambliss bar males and females from attending high school together? We all know those kids in high school are crazy mad with hormones?

Does Sessions want to propose a constitutional amendment to ban dirty magazines. The Supreme Court ruled in in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell that pornography is free speech. Sessions and Chambliss don't provide answers because they just say these things because they are poorly prepped for the Armed Services Committee hearings and it shows. This is what happens when voters elects people that are willfully ignorant about policy.

Bill Nelson Questions Air Force on Sexual Assault Case Reversed

During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Bill Nelson asked military officials if they have ever decided to not prosecute an accused enlisted man or officer because of an outstanding service record. Nelson didn't completely buy it. Nelson asked Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh about a sexual assault conviction that was reserved by Lt. Gen. Susan Helms. Ignoring her own legal advisers, Helms overturned the conviction of a captain. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has let Gen. Welch know her displeasure of the Air Force's handling of sexual assault cases.

At a widely watched committee hearing last month, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, narrowed her eyes with disdain as Michael B. Donley, the secretary of the Air Force, expressed regret about recent assault cases. She then excoriated him and Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the chief of staff of the Air Force, when they suggested that they were making progress on the problem.

“I do not think you should pat yourself on the back,” Ms. Gillibrand admonished them. Sexual assault, she said, is “undermining the credibility of the greatest military force in the world.” She has since introduced legislation that would give military prosecutors rather than commanders the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Her goal is to increase the number of people who report sex crimes without fear of retaliation.

Pay no attention to the happy talk by generals at the Armed Services Committee hearings. There is still much work that needs to be done to make women safe in the military.

The Misunderstanding Saxby Chambliss has on Sexual Assault

At the Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Saxby Chambliss can't tell the differences between consensual sex and sexual assault. Chambliss asks a sensible question about if there was a study to find out the pregnancies of first women serving on aircraft carriers were the result of consensual sex or sexual assault. Chambliss then inserts his foot in his mouth.

“The young folks coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23,” he pointed out. “Gee-whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So, we’ve got to be very careful on our side.”

Chambliss understands that not enough is done by the military or Congress to stop sexual assault. Chambliss is smarter than most of his Republican colleagues. Unfortunately, Chambliss partly attributes sexual assault to kids and their crazy hormones. Rape is about one taking power over another person. That has nothing to do with kids wanting to hook up.

Quote of the Day

"And if another Republican man says anything about rape other than it is a horrific, violent crime, I want to personally cut out his tongue. The college-age daughters of many of my friends voted for Obama because they were completely turned off by Neanderthal comments like the suggestion of 'legitimate rape.'"

Karen Hughes, former political advisor to President George W. Bush

The sad thing is I don't see the sexism from old Republican men ending anytime soon. It really says something when former Bush advisors Hughes and Matthew Does think the Republican Party is too extreme. Who would ever think the Bush political team would become the GOP moderates.

Crisis Resources

Ginger Lee, an online pal of Litbrit and I (so be nice to her) has posted a list of crisis center hotlines. We want to spread the word and get people the help they need. So feel free to pass this list along.

IMAlive: An Online Crisis Network: IMAlive is an online suicide prevention hotline where you can chat live, one-on-one, with trained volunteers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

RAINN: the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network: RAINN provides live, one-on-one chat with trained volunteers for victims of sexual violence, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their website also offers extensive, compassionate information that may help you to understand and come to terms with what has happened to you.

The GLBT National Help Center: This organization offers live, one-on-one chat with trained volunteers for people struggling with GLBT issues. Their chat service is available from 4 PM to 12 AM EST Mondays through Fridays, and 12 PM to 5 PM EST on the weekends. This site is also a wonderful source of information, so if you are in pain because of,or confused by, something to do with your sexual orientation or gender identity, this site may offer you something that you need.

Veterans Crisis Line: This organization provides special services for veterans, including live, one-on-one chat with trained counselors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,regardless of whether or not you are enrolled in Veterans Affairs health care. The Veterans Crisis Line is run by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Befrienders Worldwide: Befrienders offers e-mail based crisis support, organized by country, in many different languages. Befrienders is owned and organized by the Samaritans, a UK/Ireland-based humanitarian organization. Their site has compassionate information and first-hand stories relating to suicidal feelings and warning signs, depression, self-harm, and bullying.

Suicide Forum: This is a peer-to-peer support forum for people in crisis. You must be a member in order to post, but membership is free, instant, and asks for no personal information. Every effort is taken to ensure that this is a positive, supportive, non-triggering environment, but the staff of Suicide Forum are not actually trained in suicide prevention. This forum is for meeting and talking to other people who share and understand your pain in a supportive, safe environment. Suicide Forum is not a substitute for professional help,so if you are currently in a state of crisis, please, try one of the other sites on this list first.

Paul Ryan on Abortion

“I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life."

Paul Ryan, making it clear he does not believe that women should be allowed to get abortions in the case of rape and incest.

I'm glad that Ryan didn't duck the question. This gives women a clear choice between a man who would legally exercise complete control over women's bodies and President Obama. The platform for the Republican National Convention makes no exceptions for women to have abortions. Romney is attempting to downplay his party's abortion position and accuse Democrats of making political hay. That doesn't explain why Romney is allowing his party to write a platform that outlaw abortion. Even when the woman's life is at risk.

Rick Santorum defends Joe Paterno

Unsurprisingly, Rick Santorum defends former Penn State coach Joe Paterno. For a politician claiming to be for conservative family values. It shows great hypocrisy to claim Paterno did not cover-up Jerry Sandusky molesting young boys.

SANTORUM: I actually read the Freeh Report. I don’t know if you did or not, but I did. And, my concern with the Freeh report, a lot of the conclusions in the Freeh report aren’t matched by the evidence that they presented and so I’ve been talking to a lot of folks at Penn State and they say, ‘you’re just gonna have to wait for the criminal trial of these two guys at Penn State.’ I think there is going to be a whole new line set on what really went on there. So I’m sort of sitting back and waiting for the facts to come out as opposed to at least I’m being told is a version of the facts. … Let’s get the truth. So I think we’re going to see some things come up a little different in the next six months. I just want to make sure we get it right.

When Santorum says he read a report, that translates into Santorum not reading a report. Santorum claimed he read a jobs numbers report by President Obama's economic advisors. Santorum claimed the report shows that the stimulus failed because it only created 240 million jobs. If Santorum was smart he would realize he is giving President Obama false credit for the greatest job creation in modern history. Of course, Santorum doesn't know this because he never read the economic advisors' report or bothered to learn basic economics. If Santorum bothered to read the Freeh report he would know several emails show Paterno being involved in covering up Sandusky's crimes against young boys under his supervision. Law professor Wes Oliver told ESPN that Paterno would have likely faced criminal charges, if Paterno was still alive.

"If you look at what happened here, it's very clear that they were aware that they had a pedophile on their campus," Oliver said.

Santorum defended the Catholic church, after it was discovered church leaders covered-up priests sexually abusing boys. Santorum blamed people advocating for gay rights for the conduct of the Catholic church. Santorum is a member of the Catholic church and a Penn State alumni. Santorum places more importances on institutions he admires than for the welfare of children. That is an odd position for a man who claims to be pro-life.

Quote of the Day: Rick Santorum

"I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created - in the sense of rape - but nevertheless a gift in a broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation."

Rick Santorum

Santorum actually believes women are receiving a gift by being raped and impregnated by their attacker. In Santorum's world being raped is something women should put on their Amazon.com wishlist. Santorum then tells condescendingly tells women to tough it out and carry the fetus to birth. This man is insufferable.

Reactions from the feminist blogosphere.

Jill Filipovic

The thing is, we don't just "accept what God has given us" in a whole lot of circumstances. Like when God gives us cancer. Or when God gives us problems with a wanted pregnancy. We try to counteract the things that are physically or psychologically harmful to us, or things that we don't want to happen. And plenty of women do choose to give birth when they're impregnated by rape - that's a totally valid choice. But it's not one that should be forced on any woman, rape or no rape.

Robin Marty

Most candidates, when questioned on whether they could honestly force their family members to carry a pregnancy to term after rape, will at the very least hem and haw a little over the issue.

But not former Pennsylvanna Senator Rick Santorum. He says the baby is still a gift, and he would council his daughters to believe the same.

If you think Santorum has an empathy problem then you aren't the only one. Amanda Marcotte notes that Santorum has spent his career trying to deny the medical rights that saved his wife's life.

Most of us, when we suffer from a traumatic situation, find that it increases our empathy with others in similar circumstances, and many of us are driven to become activists fighting to make life easier for people in similiar situations. But for Rick Santorum, trauma drove him in the other direction: It decreased his empathy for others in similiar situations, and caused him to want to increase their pain and suffering. That's the lesson to be drawn from a profile of Santorum in the New York Times, which explains that after his wife Karen, got sick at 20 weeks of pregnancy and was spared the the spontaneous abortion/early delivery (the distinction is more cultural than biological), Santorum got busy making sure other couples in the same situation could never have the options and speedy medical care that helped saved Karen's life.

Santorum has no problem allowing women to die to please his religious worldview. No wonder Santorum views rape as a minor nuisance to women.

Slut Shaming of Jamie Leigh Jones Continues

Attorney Andrew T. McKinney continues the accusation that Jamie Leigh Jones had consensual sex with Charles Bortz.

"The beauty of having no memory is that you don't have to explain what you did and why you did it," McKinney told jurors Thursday. "The problem with getting your memory back is you have to keep your story straight."

The reason Jones doesn't remember is because her drink was drugged by Rohypnol. The KBR press release accuses Jones of being a flirt and enticed Bortz into having sex.

Also in Congressional testimony (and in several media interviews), Ms. Jones stated she only took two sips from a drink. However, several witnesses present at the social gathering outside the barracks observed her having several drinks and flirting with one particular firefighter whom she had socialized with the night before. She was also seen leaving the gathering with this firefighter.

The firefighter admits that he and Ms. Jones had consensual sex. However, he is certain that nobody else was present or had sex with Ms. Jones that night.

This is a sickening legal position for KBR to maintain. KBR would rather defend accused rapist Bortz. Paying Jones for damages isn't even a consideration.

Closing arguments in the Jones case start tomorrow.

Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies

Jamie Leigh Jones finally gets her chance to tell her story in court.

"One of the firefighter, he handed me a drink. He said, 'Don't worry I saved all my ruffies for Dubai," Jones testified. She says she was drugged with what she believes was a sedative Rohypnol, widely known as a date-rape drug" and also known by the nickname "ruffies."

Jones said she woke up the next morning in her room and discovered she was naked, sore and had bruises and scratches on her thighs and wrists.

She said she had no memory of what happened to her. She said she found (Charles) Bortz in the room with her and he told her that they had sex the night before.

"I was putting the pieces together. I was figuring it out. I knew I had been raped," Jones said as she cried. At one point during her testimony, Jones took a short break to regain her compposure.

The firefighters worked for KBR, which was a subsidiary to Halliburtion. The sexual assault against Jones occurred in 2005. Halliburton and KBR severed ties on April 5, 2007. Jones' civil suit is against Halliburton, KBR and Bortz.

Jones was examined by an Army doctor. Shockingly, the Army gave the rape kit back to KBR. Jones' legal team has never seen the rape kit.

Jones testified to being locked in a trailer by KBR after her doctor's examination.

I'm scared to death. I want my dad. He's my protector," Jones said. "As I'm banging on the door, I say I need to get out of here. I need a phone. I need to contact my dad."

Jones got a phone from KBR employee Jamie Armstrong. The latter saw the Army give the rape kit to KBR. Jones called her father. Jones' father contacted Congressman Ted Poe. Jones was released and treated in the United States for her injuries.

Jones testimony, of her injuries, to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Dr. Schultz confirmed that I had been penetrated both vaginally and anally, and that I was "quite torn up down there." She indicated that based upon the physical damage to my genitalia, that it was apparent that I had been raped. She stated that she didn't know if I wanted to hear it or not, but I had "also been sexually assaulted anally." Dr. Schultz took photographs, and completed a form that indicated the bruising on my inner thighs and stomach, and on my wrists. She also took swabs, vaginal combings, and then put the entire kit together in a small, white box. I watched her give this box to the KBR security personnel as I was again turned over to these men.

The security guards then locked Jones in a trailer. Jones wasn't allowed to leave. Apparently, KBR considers being a rape victim a crime.