The conservatives in this country will not be happy until the entire country has turned into the fabled days of the Wild West, a literal and figurative Tombstone (like most of their nostalgia, it is rarely based in fact). It is an odd psychology, this need to blame victims. It's the poor's fault that they haven't succeeded. Those who suffer from chronic diseases and want to rely on universal health care are purposely not taking care of themselves. Those seniors should have planned better for their retirement so that Social Security benefits can be cut, for the betterment of future generations. And rape victims should most definitely be armed to prevent sexual assault.

And so it was in this looking glass world that Democratic strategist and rape survivor Zerlina Maxwell entered this week, appearing on the Hannity show with a radical notion: rather than tell women to avoid being raped, how about we teach men not to rape?

This is not without precedent. In Vancouver, an anti-rape campaign, Don't Be That Guy, actually saw number of sexual assaults drop the following year by 10%. And for a party that claims to be all about "personal responsibility," this would seem to be the most logical tactic to take. But then, when has Hannity been about logic?

Absolutely, sometimes the rapist is the guy with a ski mask who jumps out of an alley. And no, he doesn’t care about learning to be a better person. But Hannity’s offhand remark that “evil exists in the world” reduces the experience of rape to one particular type – the violent stranger attack. Absolutely, we need to continue to empower women to avoid high-risk situations, to get themselves out of them when they’re in them and to defend themselves however they best see fit. But when rape is overwhelmingly an act perpetrated by men upon women, we also sure as hell need to stop thinking of it exclusively in terms of what women have to do to prevent it. We need to involve men and boys. We need to remember, as a revealing Reddit thread last year proved, that a rapist can be your friend or your boyfriend or your co-worker. We need to acknowledge that a rapist can be your husband. That, as chilling as it is to admit, as Maxwell says, “Those kids in Steubenville were average guys.”

Maxwell says, “I don’t want anybody to lecture a rape survivor about anything. And I don’t want anybody telling women that if you don’t wear a skirt or don’t drink at all you’re going to be safe. That is a lie.” What she wants instead is more training, more dialogue and a process that is much longer and harder, and infinitely subtler, than just telling women to get a gun or not wear high heels. Maxwell says, “I knew that [doing "Hannity"] was going to be hard, but I did it because I knew that I wasn’t speaking just for myself. I’m not alone. Clearly, what we’ve been doing isn’t working. We’re telling women to be afraid of the person in the bushes when it’s the person in your house. We need a reality check. We’re talking about the wrong things. We’re asking the wrong questions.”

And if you're a Fox News viewer (or a reader of Glenn Beck's The Blaze, which did an article as well), you are apparently also internalizing the wrong message, because what happened to Maxwell after this appearance just proves how far we have yet to go:

In the wake of her appearance, Maxwell was bombarded with harassing messages calling for her to be raped or murdered, often in explicitly racist terms.

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Why do you people keep insisting Republicans have a problem with women?

Take The Combover. When he's not peddling racist dog whistles, The Combover likes to tweet bald-faced lies -- and, apparently now, misogyny.

But this tweet is an especially awesome two-fer: a little gay bashing (if only Ariana had been hotter, Michael wouldn't have "turned gay") to go with the woman bashing.

Way to keep it classy, Republicans.

I really try not to pay attention to Rush Limbaugh after his ludicrous, ugly, venomous attacks on Sandra Fluke. Now that he's out of the limelight a bit, he's going straight back at it with a vengeance.

Today's little gem comes courtesy of Media Matters. On the same day that Slimeball Joe Walsh tried to swiftboat Tammy Duckworth, Rush thinks it's just a great idea to say that the country was great until women got the vote.

The segment begins with a caller whipping out his pocket Constitution and arguing that "Obamacare" is really the fault of young people. In his mind, those 18 year olds are the reason we've elected "someone this foolish."

Limbaugh counters with "Nah, I can do one better than that. When women got the vote is when it all went downhill."

That's right, Rush. Women got the vote and women spend the household money, and so you just keep flapping your ugly misogynistic mouth off about how much we've screwed up the country. If you keep insulting women, you'll end up with no sponsors, and then they won't be able to keep your bloviating bad self on the air.

By the way, that's not robbing you of your right to free speech, Rush. You've got the right to say whatever you want. What you don't have is the right to the microphone paid for by people who buy products advertised on your airwaves.

Both of these guys could use a lesson in the First Amendment and the Constitution. But in Rush's case, it isn't the first post-Fluke Moment of Misogyny, and it won't be the last, I'm sure.

Despite Limbaugh's protestations that he was (ha ha ha) just kidding, there's no reason at all to believe he was.

I disagree with Meghan McCain on many things, but I respect the way she stands up to the insanity within the party she belongs to. Last week she made an appearance on Al Sharpton's show to discuss the discontent within the Republican Party. None of this is really news, after all. It's a given that the GOP has been overtaken by irrational, insane, and very rich human beings who are willing to throw just about everyone under the bus in order to restore America to the state of oligarchy which will benefit them most.

But when Meghan McCain says it, people crawl out from under their online rocks to give her heartburn, and evidently her biggest sin was daring to diss the Great and Mighty Breitbart and Michelle Malkin. In death, Breitbart has been whitewashed into some kind of right-wing hero-icon who Must Not Be Challenged or Criticized Ever. If one dares to do it, they get a barrage of nasty, like McCain got. Here are a few small examples:

@greggutfeld Breitbart had more class in his pinky finger than @McCainBlogette has in her entire 4 foot, 300 lb body.

— Levin Inches™ (@LevinInches) May 25, 2012

@ChrisLoesch, @McCainBlogette is an anit-american extremist who hates her country or origin.

— TipOfTheSpear (@CHOWSTL) May 25, 2012

I know @McCainBlogette is a hate filled extremist who seeks favor with the left so republicans will lose elections.

— Chris Loesch (@ChrisLoesch) May 25, 2012

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You have to wonder when people will begin to notice that Sean Hannity's incessant attempts to paint Barack Obama as a flaming radical by associating him with various supposed extremists is actually a classic case of projection.

After all, there's no one in the mainstream media who has quite the array of running associations with far-right nutcases that Sean Hannity has—going back to the days when he palled around with white supremacist Hal Turner, and continuing through his ongoing sponsorship of wackos like Birther extraordinaire Jerome Corsi. Most notably, Hannity continues to promote and support another WorldNetDaily nutcase, Jesse Lee Peterson.

Last night, however, even a Fox Democrat like Kirsten Powers found it too hard to contain herself when seated next to Peterson. As Ellen at NewsHounds points out, Powers completely derailed Hannity's planned Obama-bashing segment by turning to Peterson and demanding he explain himself for his recent declaration that most women are "little whores".

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As the gender gap threatened to undermine their crusade for a one-term Obama, the GOP turned to Twitter to un-sink the Titanic. Don’t worry your pretty little heads about our party’s mandated transvaginal rapes and birth control bans, a host of Republicans shrieked. It is President Obama who is waging the war against women by sentencing two of them to life…on the Supreme Court.

FullofMitt: There’s no war on women coming from me. I’m so committed to protecting equality that I promise to lock Lilly Ledbetter in an airtight kennel. #TheDogLovedThat

JohnMcMaverick: War, you say? Well, we must bomb Womanistan before they force us to swallow their nuclear pill. #AlsoBombSyria #AndIran #AndCanada

ReinceStag: Who cares what the marketplace pays women? I need my wife to stay home to wage war on all these damn caterpillars clogging up my tax loopholes. #1%TopRateForThe1%

GovNikki: Women don’t care about birth control. They care about the rising cost of a decent mani-pedi & a vacuum that doesn’t lose suction.

Limpbaugh: Quit having so much sex! Or else send me your sex tapes. See, we stand for choice even more than them. #SoMuchViagraSoLittleCatholicBabePorn

GreatStateOfArizany: You can get the pill from your doctor only if you obtain permission from your boss. Also be sure to ask your boss whether your lunchtime BLT offends his faith.

FullofMitt: Contraceptions are people, my friends.

VomiSantorium: We’ll get the sluts next time. #Theocracy2016

MrsMitt: It’s grueling work managing five kids, five houses, a herd of dressage horses…not to mention all those nannies, undocumented gardeners & accounts in the Caymans.

FullofMitt: But Moms without $100 million IRAs must learn the dignity of minimum wage work. Also, let’s get rid of the minimum wage. #AndPlannedParenthood

VirginiaGOP: If a woman is pregnant, she’s ipso facto been penetrated before. So why would she object if the state shoves this transvaginal stick up in there too? #DoesntSheLoveHerHomeState?

GovofPenn: If a woman doesn’t want to look at the ultrasound screen, she can just close her eyes. It’s worked for my wife in our bedroom for nearly 40 years.

Dubya: The people of the United States will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with IUDs. #HeMustHaveHidThemInASecretWomb!

UndisclosedDick: The vaginas will treat us as liberators.

Rape, apparently.

I'm not sure who the ad wizards are that came up with this one, but they've clearly modeled themselves after Don Draper and his well-known respect for women. Reportedly, the Draper-wannabe is with Last Exit Agency.

With all the controversy over attacks on women's rights and slut-shaming of women in the media for daring to speak out for their rights, I have to wonder why Belvedere Vodka (@belvederevodka for those of you active in the Twitterverse) would come out with an ad showing a man grabbing a woman with a horrified look on her face from behind with the copy, "Unlike some people, Belvedere Vodka always goes down smoothly."

Unsurprisingly, people who find rape an unpersuasive marketing ploy for alcohol took offense and started tweeting Belvedere Vodka with their displeasure.

This sent Belvedere HQ scrambling—something that layers of bureaucratic approval might have mitigated before releasing the ad—and they released this statement:

I am Jason Lundy, SVP of Global Marketing for Belvedere.
Unfortunately, a Facebook & Twitter posting was made today that has offended many of our fans and followers – and indeed the people who work here at Belvedere. The post is absolutely inconsistent with our values and beliefs and in addition to removing the offensive post we are committed to making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again. As an expression of our deep disappointment and regret, we are making a charitable donation to a women’s support cause. We deeply apologize to our fans & followers.

Gosh, I hope they're not donating money to Susan G. Komen. That would be really ironic.

I had sworn never to do another Rush Limbaugh post. Never say never. Here is the coward called Rush Limbaugh attacking law student Sandra Fluke for testifying about the cost of contraception. And here is what that lowlife scum had to say about her:

LIMBAUGH: What does it say about the college coed Susan [sic] Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.

She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.

The johns, that's right. We would be the johns -- no! We're not the johns. Well -- yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word.

OK, so, she's not a slut. She's round-heeled. I take it back.

Rick Santorum's SuperPAC, funded largely by that good ole boy Foster Friess, jumped right on it. They actually sent a mailer out quoting Limbaugh to raise money. Just. Wow.

For the record, here is what she actually said about the cost:

Without insurance coverage, contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary. Forty percent of female students at Georgetown Law report struggling financially as a result of this policy. One told us of how embarrassed and powerless she felt when she was standing at the pharmacy counter, learning for the first time that contraception wasn’t covered, and had to walk away because she couldn’t afford it. Women like her have no choice but to go without contraception. Just last week, a married female student told me she had to stop using contraception because she couldn’t afford it any longer. Women employed in low wage jobs without contraceptive coverage face the same choice.

House Democrats are calling on Republicans to condemn his remarks. If Santorum is any indication, they won't.

Please feel free to rant on my behalf. He has made me so angry I can't even find the words to say much that would be safe for work.

Mike Huckabee smiles like a nice guy and looks like a nice guy, but when it comes to his views on being a single mother, he's not such a nice guy. You've probably heard about his remarks concerning Natalie Portman having a baby, but Heavens to Betsy, she's not married...

During her speech, Portman thanked "Black Swan" co-star turned fiance Benjamin Millepied for "the most wonderful gift," -- their baby, due later this year. Huckabee took issue with that statement, and the entire premise of her pregnancy, in an interview with conservative radio host Michael Medved on Monday.

After a set up from Medved saying that most wonderful gift should have been "a wedding ring," Huckabee slammed the star actress -- and then all single mothers.

You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.

You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering.

He failed to mention that Natalie has a fiance, but forget the facts, Huckabee needed a platform to become the new Dan Quayle and trot out his insipid Murphy Brown argument all over again so he could attacks single mothers everywhere. That didn't work out too well for Qualye, who was being groomed by Bill Kristol to become a "Ken Doll" matinee idol for Conservatives.

Huckabee released a statement that was pretty much the same thing he said on Huckabee's weekend FOX show.

Natalie is an extraordinary actor, very deserving of her recent Oscar and I am glad she will marry her baby's father," Huckabee said. "My comments were about the statistical reality that most single moms are very poor, under-educated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death. That's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that society often glorifies and glamorizes the idea of having children out of wedlock."

So after being called out on it, he tried to downplay what he said, heaped lavish praise all over Natalie, but said he was only talking about the problems single mothers face. Back to reality, how does Portman's acceptance speech glorify and glamorize having children out of wedlock? It's ludicrous and anyone that could draw that analogy is seriously delusional.

The assault on women continues with great fury by conservatives since the Tea Party got popular, and it's a f**ked up thing to be doing."The family," which Huckabee says is the true form of government, is being tarnished because of Natalie Portman? In other words, he took the cowardly way out. He must have been truly offended by Portman being pregnant and not married so he should have backed up what he said. We all make mistakes, but being as public a figure as he is, this was calculated. He apologized for his "Obama is from Kenya" crap earlier last week:

On Monday, the ex-governor mistakenly suggested in an interview that President Obama had grown up in Kenya. Huckabee later insisted he had simply misspoke, saying Kenya when he had meant Indonesia, and he slammed the media for the "sensationalized" way reporters covered his remarks.

Notice the victim-apology. In the end, he's really the victim because the media reported what he said which is a typical ploy. David Neiwert busted him on that twisted crap too last week.

Huckabee just digs that hole in Kenya deeper. Why not just admit he got his misinformation from Fox?

Of course, it didn't exactly help his cause that he blatantly lied on O'Reilly's show, claiming he had described Obama's Indonesian childhood in his book -- which has no mention of it at all! Why are these supposed Christian Conservatives so frakkin' nasty? Why do they need all these lies to make their arguments?

If you're a woman in Oklahoma who wants an abortion for any reason, including rape and incest, steel yourself. The Oklahoma state legislature, following in the footsteps of its Utah and Kansas brethren, has just mandated vaginal probes before any abortion procedure can be done by any doctor in Oklahoma. When the governor inks these little gems into law, women can take their rightful place as second-class citizens with second-class rights.

One of the laws headed to the governor would require doctors to use a vaginal probe in cases where it would provide a clearer picture of the fetus than a regular ultrasound. Doctors have said this is usually the case early in pregnancies, when most abortions are done.

There's only one reason to get a "clearer picture". They want to heap a coal bin of guilt on any woman who dares to seek an abortion. If the probe doesn't keep her away, the 38-question cross-examination of her motives, background, race, education, and number of previous pregnancies might. If the probe and the questionnaire don't do the trick, the mandatory signs with mandatory font sizes with mandatory anti-abortion reminders might. And if all of those don't do the trick, maybe the cost of the procedure, which would likely double with the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound tacked on might, because they also voted to ban abortion coverage under state insurance exchanges under the new health care law.

Did I mention there were no exceptions for rape and incest? Imagine your daughter going through something like that. In typical religious right hypocrisy, these laws are intended to reflect "society's" belief that all children should be born even when 20% of them will be born into poverty and want, where society will abandon them to their own devices. The right is terrific at protecting fetuses. Children? Not so much.

The ultimate irony to hearing the teabaggers whine about government-run health care? Watching their state legislators create government-run health care. But only for women, of course. The men are secure in their right to Viagra.

UPDATED 4/23/10: Via NewsOK:

Gov. Brad Henry on Friday vetoed House Bill 2780, the ultrasound measure, and House Bill 2656, which would have banned lawsuits that claim a baby was better off aborted.

But it's not over till it's over...

An attempt will be made to override the governor’s vetoes of two anti-abortion measures, including one that would have required women to hear a description of an ultrasound examination before an abortion could be performed, House Speaker Chris Benge said Friday.

An override may not be all that difficult:

It will require more lawmakers to override this year’s vetoes. A two-thirds majority was needed in each chamber to override the 2008 veto. Because both HB 2780 and HB 2656 contained clauses that would have made them take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature, it will take a three-fourths majority in each chamber to override either veto.

Both bills passed the Oklahoma house with a 90% margin. But to override the governor's veto in the Senate, 36 votes are needed. Both measures passed the senate on a 35-11 vote. They'll have to pick up one more vote to override. Who knows whether they will or not.