Are Hard Right Republicans Fit to Lead the Country? This Republican Woman Says NO!

This collage of comments against Romney is good for a laugh to see how the GOP takes back their words in order to turn into pretzels to support Romney.  Simply amazing but then we are seeing it from some of the same Republicans who trashed Akin and now support him holding a fund raiser for Akin hosted by Senators DeMint, Graham, Coburn, and Inhofe.  Seems getting a Senate seat to flip from Democrat to GOP is more important then any integrity.  Akin has a war on women that is ongoing and Romney has a war on the 47% -- neither should be elected to any office.
If Republican Senators are willing to support someone like Aiken, what kind of an agenda would Republicans have if they took over the Senate, House and the White House?  Would it be a hard right agenda where abortion is outlawed and women would be getting backdoor abortions with no medical care?  What grinds me to no end is this group of white guys being the determining factor on women's health in their minds.  They don't know what women go through or the issues they are facing -- they just want to enforce their agenda on the rest of us and many women including Republican women are not buying their koolaid.
The latest to come out of the hard right wing of the GOP is that all the polling is wrong as too many Dems and leaning Dems are being counted which will depress the vote.  News to those pundits and GOP leadership, there are a lot of Republican women who will NOT vote for a white male Republican this time with their neanderthal thinking starting with Romney.  How many Republican women are going to vote for Scott Brown now when they don't even like Warren?  Would say the percentage is dropping with his rhetoric he can tell by looking who is an Indian and who is not.  What is in the water in the Republican side of the Senate to act like a bunch of jerks this year who are alienating women along with a lot of men with their hard right stance?  
Bottom line is that women are a lot smarter than the white males of the GOP leadership want us to be.  A lot of us have quit swallowing their koolaid of the right and are starting to think for ourselves on who we are going to vote for on November 6th no matter the party.  If there is a women running for office on my ballot, she has my vote after what I have been witnessing.  I don't care the party after seeing the GOP support a man like Akin in MO who doesn't believe in equal pay for equal work.  Aiken also calls student loans a cancer, but when you have a candidate like Romney who says ask your parents for the money for college or to start a business, you know you have candidates who could care less about middle class or the poor.  Guess it is our fault for not being born with a silver spoon in our mouths.  
The GOP stands to lose a lot of women over this election along with minorities and males who don't want to be associated with this type of thinking where women and minorities are supposed to be inferior to the intellect of the white male Republicans like Rush Limbaugh and others.  That is exactly how today's Republican Party is coming across to many in this Country.  The GOP attacks on benefits of our veterans and military, senior's social security and medicare, civil service pay and retirement, teachers, fire, and police along with wanting to destroy all unions seems to be the orchestrated agenda of the wealthy Republicans IMHO.  When the wealth donors say jump to Republican members of Congress, they seem to be asking "How high?" as they are doing everything in their power to keep tax cuts and loopholes for the wealthy.  
This group of Republicans in leadership seem to have little empathy for people as a whole and buy into the 'every man for themselves' ignoring that we are all in this together as We the People.  My prediction for November 6th, 2012, election is that the GOP is going to lose big with their narrow mindedness and refusing to heed Jeb Bush's advice that we have to reach out to minorities -- bet he never figured they would be attacking women too!   
You know it is bad when you are watching a political show of left leaners and they are praising George W Bush for his compassionate conservatism or listening to Nancy Pelosi say that GW was very nice and respectful when she worked with him.  Says a lot about the class of George W Bush who was trashed by the likes of Limbaugh and others on the right.   He had class which we are not seeing out of Republicans in leadership today including Romney/Ryan along with some Republican male candidates for Senate like Akin, Brown, Thompson, and others.  They really don't like running against women for Senate if their comments  debate are any indication.  Yet they want women to vote for them?

Colorado Springs Waldo Canyon Fire Out of Control Threatens Air Force Academy

UPDATE:  Latest News from the Denver Post 06/28:

COLORADO SPRINGS — Mayor Steve Bach told a morning news conference, "we know hundreds of homes have been destroyed" by the Waldo Canyon Fire. 

He said the city is in the process of assessing the areas where homes burned and plans to notify owners on an individual basis starting at noon Thursday. He said officials would be "methodical and careful" in notification. 

Some 32,000 people remain out of their homes in and around Colorado Springs. An aerial photograph of the Mountain Shadows neighborhood taken Wednesday shows approximately 300 homes, all of them inside the Colorado Springs city limits, reduced to charred rubble.

The fire started June 23 and has grown to 18,500 acres. The blaze's cause is not known, and the FBI has joined the investigation. 

Read more: Colorado wildfire: Waldo Canyon Fire officials confirm "hundreds" of homes destroyed - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/wildfires/ci_20962119/colorado-wildfire-waldo-canyon-fire-officials-confirm-hundreds#ixzz1z7XJrG4j  

Some before and after photos of a Mountain Shadows neighborhood from the Denver Post:

There are more before and after pictures at the Denver Post which shows how devastating this Waldo Canyon Fire has been to the residents of Colorado Springs and surrounding areas.  Latest estimate of the number of homes destroyed is 300 according to news reports out of Colorado.  Today's winds are not as heavy and the temps have dropped about five degrees from yesterday but the latest report still has only 5% containment.  Over 30,000 evacuees and the fire is still burning out of control.  He came to the edge of the AF Academy burning about 10 acres but did not destroy any structures as of this afternoon.  The cadet area at the Academy is not near the fire although there have been evacuations from some of the Academy housing areas.

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The Waldo Canyon Fire is threatening not only Colorado Springs and surrounding towns but residences of the Air Force Academy.  This video shows how damaging this out of control fire has become:

COLORADO SPRINGS — Tens of thousands of people fled the neighborhoods north and west of Colorado Springs after the Waldo Canyon fire unleashed waves of flames late Tuesday afternoon. 

Showers of ash fell as traffic gridlocked on Interstate 25 and all major eastbound roadways, clogged full of evacuees and fire equipment. Witnesses flooded the Internet on Twitter, describing the scene as "an apocalypse" and "terrifying" and posting photos of the city wrapped in a sinister orange and black cloud. 

The evacuations covered the entire area north of Garden of the Gods and west of I-25, including Pinon Valley, Rockrimmon and Woodmen valley, home to thousands of residents. The Pine Valley housing area south of the Air Force Academy was evacuated and, about 7:30 p.m., more of the academy itself was ordered evacuated.

Read more: Colorado wildfire: 32,000 people evacuated in Waldo Canyon fire - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20940351/colorado-wildfire-waldo-canyon-fire-near-colorado-springs#ixzz1z0u9qclV 

Without the foresight of the Colorado Springs community as well as communities surrounding them this would be even worse as they had a plan in place in case something like this happened.  I realized how bad it was last night when on Twitter there was a picture of the AF Academy football stadium and on the ridge above the Academy you could see the flames and then the smoke shooting sky high.  

After visiting family in Denver right after Christmas, we traveled to the Insight Bowl in Tempe, AZ, driving I-25 through Colorado Springs and by the AF Academy.  What we noticed was a lack of snow in the Pike's Peak area and the lower mountains.  There wasn't even any along I-25 which seemed odd compared to past years.  We didn't see a lot of snow on the side of the road until we got closer to NM which means that area of Colorado missed the blizzard that had gone across New Mexico.  
The latest class of cadets are reporting to the AF Academy this week who are going through in-processing and orientation.  If this gets much closer, you have to wonder if the new cadets are also going to be evacuated.  The AF Academy older cadets in the summer get leave and then go to camps on Air Force bases around the Country to get a close up view of the active duty Air Force.  Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, for years has hosted cadets from the Academy in the summer.
This area needs rain desperately to get this fire under control as last night you could see houses going up in flames on the ridge in a report from a reporter on a bluff overlooking the city.  It is scary to realize that you need to decide what you will take with you as you evacuate.  Living in an area where fires could break out, you need a plan on what to take.  
When we lived in the foothills in San Bernardino County off I-10, we had a plan -- first was the family and pets, second was family pictures, third was one box for each of our three children of their most precious items, then the paintings and other wall hangings, etc.  We had a truck and a station wagon all set with what to pack if we needed to evacuate.  When fire season would start, the downstairs closet under the stairs was filled with items that meant so much to our family that could be loaded up in minutes.  We never had to evacuate but we had ash all over our sidewalks and back patio the day the moving truck was loaded due to a transfer.  As the movers unloaded the boxes in MA, there was still ash on some of them.  Several years ago a fire came within two streets of where we used to live.  
Our first responders are so important in fighting these wildfires burning across the west.  Those fireman on the fire lines risk their lives fighting these giant forest fires because they never know when the wind is going to shift.  The police are the first ones in to evacuate people from their homes going door to door to make sure everyone gets out and then man the checkpoints which could easily put them in harm's way.  This Country owes so much to the men and women who are involved as fire and police who protect the rest of us.  We need more firefighters and police not less.  The Federal Government at all levels should be taking an active role in ensuring that the National Forest Service has the firefighters and the equipment necessary to fight these fires and have it available immediately.  
The Indian tribes here in Oklahoma and other states have firefighters who have been through the training in addition to having many hours of actual experience fighting forest fires as every summer they are called upon to help fight these fires.  Our military has specially designed planes to be used to fight these fires along with the helicopters  It is a joint operation of some of the bravest people in our Country to fight these fires to save lives and property.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the western states that are on fire right now and sincerely hope the prayers for rain and calming winds come are answered quickly.  

Coast Guard responding to rig fire Gulf of Mexico; people reported in water

With breaking news alerts coming from CNN, NY Times, and others we decided to go to the best source for news from the Gulf -- NOLA.com from New Orleans. Details are sketchy as this just happened but NOLA was quick to point out this is small rig and nothing close to what happened with Horizon. The best news is that everyone is accounted for from the rig.

Coast Guard responding to rig fire Gulf of Mexico; people reported in water
Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 10:10 AM
Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 11:07 AM

Bob Warren

...In an interview with CNN, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said there were 13 people on the rig and that all were accounted for. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits and one is injured, he said.

Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.

All 13 people abandoned the rig after the explosion and are accounted for, but have not yet been rescued from the Gulf, the Coast Guard said.

Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident, but is still on fire. The explosion was reported around 9:30 this morning....

Vermilion Oil Rig 360 is a gas and oil rig in 450 feet of water in South Timbalier Block 316, according to company records.

Vermillion 380 is a fixed, manned production platform. It's not a well being drilled for oil, like BP's Macondo well and it's not a floating rig like the Deepwater Horizon.

Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, said these types of rigs are permanently in place, often with a pipeline or oil and gas and water separation facilities on board.
"It's more like a small offshore refining operation," he said.

Excerpt: Read More at NOLA.com