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A gay man was arrested at a hospital in Missouri this week when he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, and now a restraining order is preventing him from any type of visitation.

Roger Gorley told WDAF that even though he has power of attorney to handle his partner's affairs, a family member asked him to leave when he visited Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Tuesday.

Gorley said he refused to leave his partner Allen's bedside, and that's when security put him in handcuffs and escorted him from the building.

"I was not recognized as being the husband, I wasn’t recognized as being the partner," Gorley explained.

He said the nurse refused to confirm that the couple shared power of attorney and made medical decision for each other.

"She didn't even bother to look it up, to check in to it," the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.

In a 2010 memorandum, President Barack Obama ordered hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding to allow visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners.

For its part, Research Medical Center insisted that it does not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

"We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process," the hospital said in a statement. "And, the patient`s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance."

Gorley cannot currently visit his partner at all due to a restraining order issued after his arrest on Tuesday.

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A Missouri lawmaker on Tuesday expressed opposition to an assault weapons ban proposed by Democrats by taking the bill to a local shooting range and riddling it with bullet holes.

In a shocking video posted to YouTube, Republican state Rep. Eric Burlison explains that House Bill 545 would make it a Class C Felony to possess a military-style assault weapon.

"If you don't relinquish these weapons then you'll be a felon and you'll potentially serve in jail," Burlison says, as the names of the four Democratic state lawmakers sponsoring the bill are displayed on the video.

To gauge community reaction to the bill, Burlison travels to a local gun store and shooting range where he meets a woman who thinks the bill is "confusing" and creates "too much red tape."

"I just found out that they're going to make my grandpa go turn in his guns," the woman frets. "A felon! It's nuts! And who's going to administrate all these laws? You know, we're just building a bigger government."

"What do you make of House Bill 545?" the lawmaker asks an assault weapon-wielding man at the firing range.

"It's a great bill," the man deadpans in a rehearsed cadence.

"Really?" Burlison asks, trying to appear surprised.

"Yeah, it's great target practice," the man replies.

After no less than 20 rounds are fired at the legislation, Burlison presses a button to retrieve the paper from the shooting alley.

"You're right!" the lawmaker exclaims. "It does make for a good bill!"

A law recently proposed by Missouri state Rep. Mike Leara’s (R) would make it a Class D felony to introduce any legislation -- like House Bill 545 -- that “further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms."

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Todd Akin's comments that Democrat Claire McCaskill wasn't behaving "ladylike" drew some reaction on Morning Joe. In particular, Mika Brezinski seemed to take personal offense, calling such attacks "unmanly". Responding to a question by Dee Dee Myers that Akin wants to go backwards in time, that he acts like McCaskill should defer to him, Claire McCaskill didn't disagree, saying "This is somebody who kind of makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie."

Zing.

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Apparently Rep. Legitimate-Rape Akin hasn't learned that he should keep his yap shut when it comes to anything involving women-- Todd Akin: Claire McCaskill Was Much More 'Ladylike' In 2006:

Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin (Mo.) told reporters on Thursday that his opponent, Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill, was much more "ladylike" in her 2006 campaign against Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) than she is in her campaign against Akin.

McCaskill “had a confidence and was very much more sort of ladylike,” Akin told a Bloomberg reporter at a stop on his "Common Sense" bus tour in Jefferson City, Mo. “In the debate we had Friday, she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she was threatened." [...]

UPDATE: 4:35 p.m. -- Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called on the Republican Party to denounce Akin’s remark about McCaskill and revoke its support for the GOP Senate candidate.

"Todd Akin is at it again with another comment that's demeaning to women and offensive to all," she said in a statement. "What's truly astonishing is that the national party embraced Todd Akin yesterday and now refuses to repudiate his statement. Unless the national party condemns Todd Akin and his latest comments, every Republican candidate in the country will be held accountable for their support of Akin's beliefs and sentiments."

And the GOP had this response -- Republicans On Akin’s Latest Flap: We’re Not Touching That One:

National Republicans are keeping a steely distance from Missouri Senate nominee Todd Akin once more after he said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) wasn’t “ladylike” in their last debate.

“Decline to comment,” said a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“I think it’s best if the NRSC weighs in on these questions because we’re so focused on the presidential,” an RNC spokesperson said.

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Depending on your point of view, this development could be either a good or bad thing as it signals that Todd Akin is running out of money in his bid to win the Senate seat from Claire McCaskill. On the flipside though, there may still be time for him to quit and Republicans replace him with a more formidable opponent.

Video and text from KOMU, Columbia Missouri.

COLUMBIA - Republican senatorial candidate Todd Akin's latest round of political ads have been pulled from the airwaves of KOMU 8 and other Missouri TV stations due to a lack of payment as of Thursday.

Akin's camp placed an ad buy that was supposed to run in full through this week.

Standard procedure dictates that political ads must be paid in full before ads will run, but KOMU 8 received half of the payment for the Akin ads and ran half of the ad buy.

When KOMU 8 did not receive the rest of the money in time for the rest of the ad cycle, it pulled the ads.

The ads weren't cancelled by the Akin camp.

KOMU 8 spoke with various television stations in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia, and heard a similar story from each.

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It looks like the Republicans have got themselves a Huckabee problem for their upcoming convention. Democrats Call On Romney To Drop Huckabee From Tampa Over Akin:

Democrats say Mitt Romney has a Todd Akin problem and, by extension, a Mike Huckabee problem. The conservative radio host has reaffirmed his support for the embattled Senate nominee, just before he’s set to speak in a primetime slot in Tampa Monday night. Democrats are urging the GOP to boot Huckabee, one of its biggest social conservative stars, from the lineup.

American Bridge, the Democratic tracking firm, is launching an online drive to push Huckabee from the Tampa podium next week. The group says that keeping Huckabee on the schedule suggests the GOP isn’t serious about distancing itself from Akin and his stated views on female biology.

On Thursday, Huckabee took his party to task for calling on Akin to quit the Senate race in Missouri following Akin’s “legitimate rape” implosion, making the former Arkansas governor the most prominent of Akin’s remaining conservative defenders. [...]

That set up a potentially awkward situation for Republicans, who scheduled Huckabee to speak in the same primetime block Monday night as Ann Romney. (On Friday morning, reports surfaced that Ann Romney’s speech may be moved from Monday night after TV networks said they wouldn’t air it.)

So far, Republicans won’t say whether Huckabee’s support for Akin and will change anything Tampa. A spokesperson for convention organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning. As long as Huckabee’s scheduled to speak, Democrats say they can keep talking about Akin.

Read the rest and check out the new ad American Bridge is going to be running against them over this. It's about time to see Democrats on the attack instead of the other way around.

Huckabee appeared on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox this Friday to defend Akin and as Media Matters noted, HuckaJesus did his usual amount of very un-Christian-like lying on there: Fox's Huckabee Defends Akin By Misleading About Obama And Abortion .

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After the news that for now, Rep. Todd Akin is not going to step aside and resign his senate run against Claire McCaskill, Caribou Barbie and former supporter of Akin's primary challenger Sarah Steelman, urged Akin to still consider getting out of the race. And if that wasn't going to work, she'd wants to see Steelman run on a third party ticket.

I could think of nothing that would make most Democrats happy than to see Steelman take Palin's advice and split the Republican ticket in Missouri, especially after McCaskill now has miles of footage for campaign ads with his fellow Republicans trashing Akin, and the fact that Steelman is as big of a wingnut at Palin and Akin.

Palin is still desperate to stay relevant during this campaign season. Let's hope any attempts to help Steelman out with causing chaos in the Missouri senate race end up working out as well for her as her initial support of Steelman during the primary race. She'd better watch it or that whole Republican game of playing the victim card and crying about the establishment coming down on you is going to come right back on her.

If Akin gets tired enough of this stuff, he's going to play the same game all conservatives do and Palin's going to find herself on the other end of it this time around. Here's to watching the GOP eat their own.

Sarah Palin Urges Rep. Akin To Step Aside: ‘Take One For The Team’:

Continue reading »

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CNN's Piers Morgan was left holding the bag tonight when embattled GOP congressman Todd Akin cancelled as Morgan said, "at the last possible moment, leaving us and you looking at an empty chair. It’s a very nice empty chair, but it remains an empty chair.” He then extended a further invitation for Akin to appear, albeit laced with some venom:

PIERS MORGAN: Congressman, you have an open invitation to join me in that chair whenever you feel up to it. Because if you don’t keep your promise to appear on the show, then you are, what we would call in Britain, a gutless little twerp.

As Morgan went into a piece with Democrat Jan Schakowsky on the meaning of all this they continued to highlight the empty chair in a small corner box on the screen.

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The Republican Senate candidate from Missouri on Monday said he had made "serious mistakes" by claiming that women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape."

In his first interview since telling KTVI-TV that "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," Todd Akin expressed his regret to conservative radio host Mike Huckabee.

"I've really made a couple of serious mistakes here that were just wrong and I need to apologize for those," the GOP candidate explained. "I made that statement in error. Let me be clear, a rape is never legitimate. It's an evil act, and it's committed by violent predators. I used the wrong words in the wrong way. What I said was ill-conceived and it was wrong, and for that, I apologize."

"I also know that people do become pregnant from rape," he continued. "I didn't mean to imply that that wasn't the case. It does happen, and it's also terrible, particularly the most terrible of all."

Huckabee pressed Akin on what he meant by the term "legitimate rape."

"I was talking about forcible rape," Akin said. "It was absolutely the wrong word. ... I've known people who have been raped. I don't know any who have been raped and it turned out to end in pregnancy, but I know that happens too."

"It's a shame, but this has caused such a distraction to your campaign," Huckabee said. "Is it fatal? I mean there are people today, congressman, saying you need to drop out of the race."

"I don't know that I'm the only person in public office that's suffered from foot-in-mouth disease," Akin argued. "I feel just as strongly as ever that my background and ability will be a big asset in replacing Claire McCaskill and putting some sanity back in what's going on in our government."

"The good people of Missouri nominated me and I'm not a quitter," he added. "My belief is that we are going to take this thing forward and by the grace of God, we're going to win this race."

Akin pointed out that no one from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign or any other Republican official had personally called and asked him to quit the race.

"Nobody wants to own your mistake ... and that why I'm apologizing," he said. "On the other hand, there are certain basic principles that we believe in and that I'm just completely committed to. And that is the fact that people and that life are tremendously valuable. That's what has made America such a unique country, it's because we believe that life is something that comes from our creator, we're made in His image, and all across America you see Americans that have a respect for life."

"I remember in Sept. 11th, there were rescue workers running into the buildings that were about to collapse. They grabbed somebody in a wheelchair, pick them up, they don't check their ID to see whether they're important or not. They just take them to safety and run back for more," Akin pointed out.

"That's the very special thing about our country. And that's what we have at risk right now, and we have to defend that."

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Ann Richards campaign ad from 1990

Todd Akin's ignorant remarks yesterday recalled another political race where another Republican candidate managed to torpedo his chances. Clayton Williams was leading in the race for Governor of Texas over Democrat Ann Richards by 11 points in the polling in August, outspending her 2-1, and looked to be cruising to an easy win. He lost, narrowly, by 2%.

Williams is still around, raising $300,000 for John McCain in 2008. McCain later cancelled a fundraiser and returned the money though, as Williams's name is now political poison.

via The New York Times/AP

The Republican gubernatorial nominee apologized today for an off-the-cuff remark suggesting that some victims of rape should ''relax and enjoy it.''

The candidate, Clayton Williams, had initially played down the remark as being a joke.

Women's groups and political opponents of Mr. Williams strongly criticized the candidate for the comment.

It ''questions his ability to understand the kinds of problems faced by the people of Texas,'' said Ann Richards, the State Treasurer and a runoff candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. ''Rape is a crime of violence.''

Mr. Williams made the remark on Saturday while preparing for a cattle roundup at his West Texas ranch. He compared the cold, foggy weather spoiling the event to a rape, telling ranch hands, campaign workers and reporters around a campfire, ''If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.''

Mr. Williams Apologizes

Later on Saturday, Mr. Williams said it was merely a joke and apologized ''if anyone's offended.''

''That's not a Republican women's club that we were having this morning,'' he said. ''It's a working cow camp, a tough world where you can get kicked in the testicles if you're not careful.''

Asked if some people might be offended, Mr. Williams said: ''I'm not going to give you a serious answer. It wasn't a serious deal. It wasn't a serious statement.''

But today his campaign issued a statement in which Mr. Williams said: ''I feel just terrible about this. I had no intention in my heart to hurt anyone, especially those women who have been traumatized by rape.