Double standards? Pretense? Duplicity? Why yes, we DO provide those services!
Americans have been subjected to more than its fair share of far-right hypocrisy in the last couple of years, so much so that the next instance becomes little more than an eye-rolling, head-shaking example.
Given the atmosphere of it's just the far-right hypocrisy du jour, when the story broke that a Catholic-run hospital in Canon City, Colorado, was going to court to argue that seven-month twin fetuses were notpersons when they died in their deceased mother's womb -- due to negligence on the part of the hospital -- caused hardly a ripple upon the mainstream media waters.
Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI)
I have told you people that life begins at conception! Oh, never mind, I quit!
There is nothing ambiguous in the Roman Catholic Church's stand on the question of personhood, and when life begins. In November 2010, Pope Benedict made the following statements concerning this subject: personhood begins at conception. And, he
who will be a man is already one; there is no reason not
to consider him a person from conception. In the event that these statements seemed a bit vague to the hardheaded Americans, the Holy Father went on to say from the moment of its conception, life must be
guarded with the greatest care.
Any questions as to how the Vatican views personhood? Take notes; there may be a test.
There was not much care exhibited in the case of thirty-one-year-old Lori Stodghill. She and her twins died while under the care of a CHI hospital, St. Thomas More, which professes to follow Catholic doctrine to the letter: In accord with its mission, Catholic health care
should distinguish itself by service to and advocacy for … children and
the unborn.
When the widowed father decided to sue CHI for the wrongful death of his twins, the lawyer for the defendants asked that the Supreme Court throw out the suit because, under a long-standing Colorado law, personhood only applies to a person living outside the womb. The Supreme Court agreed, and the suit did not go forward.
Now the wicket gets sticky, so to speak. The Catholic Bishops of Colorado -- who maintained afterwards that they knew nothing about the law suit -- met with CHI and sort of set 'em straight. CHI then acknowledged publicly that yes, it was“morally wrong” for its attorneys to
argue in court that a fetus is not a human being under Colorado law. After all, such a contention directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church. That's sort of like saying Oops, our bad! after the Court has made its ruling.
How very odd that the Bishops did not get involved until after the Supreme Court of Colorado threw out the suit. Remember, this has been going on since 2006.
Of course, it's a good thing CHI didn't try this little stunt in Alabama -- and some other states -- whose Supreme Court ruled in January that it recognizes the unborn as persons.
END NOTE
You can never be accused of hypocrisy when you keep Church and State separate
Welcome back. We got halfway through the parade of states in
our quest to determine if the wingnuts are the fringy outliers or if they’re
actually the mainstream of the Republican Party (I think you know by now what
MY opinion is.)
So let’s pick up where we left off. Sit back and relax—a wee
bit of alcohol might be in order—as we explore the words, wisdom and whackiness
of Republicans.
Montana
Montana has had same-day voter registration since 2005. So
how’s it working out?
Montana
Rep. Clarena Brockie (D-Harlem) told the Missoulian that about 8,000 people
“registered on Election Day in November 2012, including about 1,100 Native Americans.”
Well, we can’t have that now, can we? Republicans
in Montana approved a House committee bill to end Election Day voter
registration, claiming they want to make things more convenient for county
election officials.
Republicans are predictable, if nothing else.
Nebraska
There once was a sane Republican Senator from Nebraska. His
name was Chuck Hagel. Oh, those were the good old days. Now the Republicans
hate him with the heat of a thousand suns because Obama likes him. Surprise,
surprise.
In
this case, she would demonstrate that a candidate endorsed by the Club For
Growth (Stenberg) and another one backed by both the Tea Party Express and
Citizens United (Bruning) can be rendered insufficiently conservative. This leaves the state party on the
ideological scale somewhere to the right of an Uzi.
She won (with the help of you-know-who—Pierce refers to her
as Rootin' Princess Dumbass of The Northwoods) and then went on to best Bob
Kerrey and become Nebraska’s new senator. Deb’s too new to have much of a track
record yet, (although she was the only female senator who did NOT co-sponsor the Violence Against Women Act) but based on Pierce’s prediction…
What else has been going on in Nebraska? Here’s a quick look:
February,
2011: LB 232, was introduced by state Sen. Mark Christensen (a die-hard
abortion foe who is opposed to (abortion) even in the case of rape.) It would allow
not only a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents, or her children to commit
"justifiable homicide" in defense of her fetus, but would apply to
any third party.
April,
2012: Nebraska Gov. Dave
Heineman (R) has signed every anti-abortion bill that has crossed his desk
since he was elected, including one that bans abortions after 20 weeks of
gestation -- the most restrictive in the country.
January, 2013: Nebraska Voter ID Legislation Introduced
And here’s a depressing thought:
Red
Nebraska has turned crimson:
For the first time in 36 years, the state fields an all-Republican
congressional delegation in Washington. Not since 1970 have Republicans held
all the major congressional and statewide offices in Nebraska, including the
governorship.
Nevada
From “second-amendment solutions” Sharon Angle to Senator
Dean Heller (who stepped in when adulterer/hypocrite/blackmailer John Ensign
stepped down) Nevada, despite being home to Harry Reid and Las Vegas is nuttier
than many a fruitcake.
That
was then: Back in July 2006, Heller
told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "I'm a Mormon and I teach Sunday school
every week, but I do back a woman's right to choose abortion. It is the
conservative position."
This is now: Since
entering Congress, however, the GOP lawmaker has voted consistently for
legislation sought by abortion foes.
Heller called the Paycheck Fairness Act a “war on free
enterprise.”
The GOP has
increasingly found itself in positions that do not meet the demographic
realities of the State’s electorate. These positions also conflict with our
party’s historic commitment to civil rights. To that end, Republicans must
become more inclusive, reflecting our desire to secure a better life for all
Americans, and equally important, for our children.
A spark of sanity on the right. Good job, Nevada. Now let’s
get back to reality.
New Hampshire
“Where’s the Girl?” Kelly Ayotte (thanks, Wonkette) has
become the third amigo (amiga?) to John McCain and Lindsey Graham since Deputy
Dawg, Joe Lieberman, rode off into the sunset.
When the three went on their BENGHAZI!!!! Media Tour (rather
than attend the briefings that explained what happened—See Ron Johnson,
Wisconsin for more), Ayotte was front and center. (well, she was actually on
the right.
We all know what a recommendation from
Walnuts brought us the last time around. Matter of fact, the article this comes from is
entitled, “A Romney in Palin Clothing: The Political Style of Kelly Ayotte”
New Jersey
I know Chris Christie has become a media and Democratic
darling for taking a sane stance on Sandy Relief, damning Republicans for their
bull-headedness and being honest about President Obama’s response. But
remember, he STILL supported and voted for Romney; he STILL hates unions and
teachers and anyway, it doesn’t matter if Christie is sane—it just makes the
Republicans hate him more.(He’s the actual No True Scotsman in a roundabout,
rotund way.)
He’s also one of
those who voted against Boehner for speaker. (Before you get too excited, he
was mad at Boehner for negotiating on the fiscal cliff, and wanted Eric Cantor.)
Cathrynn Brown, the legislator who wants to make rape victims give birth because otherwise they'll be "tampering with evidence" is also from NM.
New Mexico does have a GOP Latina governor, Susanna
Martinez, who appears to be mainly sane. Although she is vehemently against granting
driver’s licenses to undocumented people and opposes same-sex marriage, she dud actually called Romney out for some of his crazier crap.
She’s smart, she’s Latina, but she’s a woman, she’s
sane—it’s only a matter of time until the GOP turns against her.
The Daily Beast article also points out how King was a big
supporter of the Irish Republican Army and that
According
to Mother Jones, King refused to condemn an IRA attack that killed nine police
officers. He even complained that the FBI was harassing him for his IRA ties.
North Carolina
“La la la, I can’t hear you” could be the North Carolina
state motto. Not about to believe that “sciency stuff,” North Carolina recently
passed a law that bans the state from basing coastal policies on the latest
scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise. (Did I mention that
Republicans have had complete control of the NC legislature since 2010?)
But hey, that’s small-time stuff. Who’s calling the shots for
NC in DC? Well, lookie there, it’s Virginia Foxx, the meanest woman in Congress
now that Mean Jean Scmidt is gone.
Virginia, who recently threw a hissy fit about sharing an
elevator with mere mortals is
The
same woman who voted against aid for Hurricane Katrina victims and against
the renewal of the Voting Rights Act; the same woman who claimed that Matthew
Shepard’s murder wasn’t a hate crime, going so far as to call it a “hoax”
She’s also an educator who wants zero federal funding for
education, a mother who is against school lunch programs and boy does she hate
people having health care!
"We have more to
fear from the potential of [the Affordable Health Care for America Act] passing
than we do from any terrorist right now in any country."
North Dakota
Heidi Heitkamp, the newly elected senator from ND might not
be the most progressive Dem on the block, but the guy the Republicans put up
against her, Rick Berg, once voted
to imprison victims of incest or rape who chose to have abortions. In 2007,
Rick Berg voted for legislation -- HB 1489 -- that would have subjected a
pregnant 15 year old victim of rape or incest to a AA felony criminal charge if
she chose to abort the product of the rape. True story. He voted with 19 other radical, right-wing
North Dakota Republicans to make it a AA felony for a rape victim to get an
abortion. The bill was defeated 20 to 69
in the North Dakota legislature.
And he lost that Senate election by only 2,836 votes.
Ohio
Oh you Buckeyes. Yeah, mean Jean Schmidt is gone and
Boehner, in comparison to his fellow GOP travelers, doesn’t appear to be
totally insane, but you DID nominate (not) Joe the (non) Plumber for
congress…and you did run that weasel, Josh Mandel (and spent a bloody fortune
on him) for the senate. But the biggest GOP blot on Ohio is Governor John
Kasich. Johnny’s a Wall Street guy who wants to privatize everything from
prisons to development (and
woe be unto anyone who disagrees with him)
and liquor
control. He’s thought about selling off the turnpike and the lottery as
well.
He lost his war against unions, when Ohio citizens rose up,
yelled loudly, and voted
accordingly, but that won’t stop Kasich from doing whatever he can to serve
his corporate masters in the future.
Kasich is sarcastic and arrogant and can be downright nasty.
I believe this little ditty about his feelings for a cop who stopped him for a
traffic violation kind of says it all.
That’s Kasich’s story and he’s sticking to it, but Plunderbund
has the full story, including the video of the actual stop. BUSTED.
Tom Coburn is often portrayed as the guy who can get along
with Democrats. He’s friendly and usually congenial, but don’t let the façade fool
you. Tommy first showed his far-right leanings back when he was in the House
when he protested the showing of “Schindler’s List” on television, saying, TV
had been taken "to an all-time low,
with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." Way to miss the
point.
When John Ensign was conducting his adulterous affair, he
and Tom were housemates in the C-Street
abode. Coburn (who is an ob/gyn mind you) claimed doctor/patient privilege
as well as putting forth than he was a “deacon” to keep from answering questions about Ensign.
He’s also famous for blocking bills in the Senate—including veterans’
bills and, incredibly, a bill to recognize Rachel Carson, because Coburn didn’t
like her views on insecticides. (Apparently, Tom’s a fan of DDT.) He also
single-handedly held up funding for the 9-11 Memorial Museum. He’s blocked a
transportation bill because it included things he didn’t like—like bike paths.
Basically, Coburn is a “do-it-my-way or I’m taking my ball and going home” kind
of guy.
And then there’s his fellow senator, James Inhofe. Here’s
Inhofe’s informed view of the climate change “hoax” (he thinks it’s a
conspiracy and has even written a book
about it.)
“My
point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human
beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me
outrageous.”
Science Week has labeled him an enemy of science, The Daily
Beast calls him The
Craziest Senator. He’s a birther; he’s called the EPA “a Gestapo bureauocracy”;
about Abu Ghraib, he said he was “more outraged by the outrage” than he was by
the treatment of detainees.
As recently as last
week, Inhofe, during the Chuck Hagel hearings,
actually cited an article by total nutball Jennifer Rubin.
Oregon
Whew, Oregon is a welcome break from Oklahoma. Two Dem
Senators, all but one Dem Reps (and even their Republican guy, Greg Walden,
seems pretty sane), the only state in the country with no abortion
restrictions.
Now at the state level, it’s another story. Oh, the Dems
pretty much have things under contro (the GOP hasn’t won a statewide race in 10
years), which is a good thing,. Because the GOP
can’t seem to control themselves at all. After one GOP Rep got caught for
some nasty business with a young staffer, seven others spent a rowdy night at a
topless bar in California. And just this pasat December, one GOP
County chair got bootedwhen he
claimed that Democrats were to be equated with communists seeking “utopian
enslavement” and that liberalism was an atheistic cult.
Pennsylvania
Let’s see, Pennsylvania offers us Club For Growth champion,
Pat Toomey, who was all for shutting the government down during the fiscal
discussions in January; Lou Barletta,
whose opposition to immigration is because immigrants won’t vote for
Republicans (so he’ll insult them to make CERTAIN they don’t). Said the erudite
Mr. B.
“The
majority that are here illegally are low-skilled or may not even have a high
school diploma. The Republican Party is not going to compete over who can give
more social programs out. They will become Democrats because of the social
programs they’ll depend on.”
And don’t forget, Pennsylvania also gave us the charming Rick
Santorum.
Rhode Island
Not much to say about Republicans in Rhode Island. There
aren’t that many and most are moderates. PPP just did a “preview” poll of
potential GOP candidates to run against Jack Reed and recorded the most
lopsided result in their polling history when Reed was pitted against former
pitcher Kurt Schilling—75% to 10%.
But even in a sane state like Rhode Island, Republicans want
to impeach Obama. According
to PPP:
Obama's
approval in Rhode Island is a pretty solid 59/36 spread. But even in a state
known for having comparatively moderate Republicans, 44% of them want to
impeach Obama to 37% who are opposed.
South Carolina
Where to start. How about former Lt. Governor Andre Bauer
(who wasn’t teabaggy enough to get the Republican nomination when he ran for
the House last year) saying:
“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she
told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because
they breed…You’re facilitating the
problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will
reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so
what you’ve got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They
don’t know any better.”
Then there’s teabaglady governor, Nikki Haley:
Haley
threw women across the state under a bus by abandoning funding that
prevents domestic abuse and sexual assault and then added insult to injury by
explaining that battered and assaulted women are a “small portion” of society
and are mere “distractions” who don’t matter.
“Each of these lines
attempts to serve a portion of our population for which we extend our sympathy
and encouragement,” Haley said. “But nevertheless, it is only a small portion
of South Carolina’s chronically ill or abused. Overall, these special add-on
lines distract from the agency’s broader mission of protecting South Carolina’s
public health.”
Add in that the entire Republican contingent (House and
Senate) voted against the Sandy bill because, as you know, being from South
Carolina they’re unfamiliar with hurricanes.
And there you have it. Proof positive that James L. Petigru
could foresee the future, when in 1860 he said, "South Carolina is too
small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
South Dakota
South Dakota has two senators, a Dem and a relatively sane
Republican. SD has only one representative, and in the last election, the
choice was:
Who
do you want representing you, South Dakota? A disgusting hippie who loves
“cap and trade” and taught at the Biosphere and has a master’s degree? Or this
nice lady with the awesome hair who was named “young farmer of the year” by the
“Waterstown JC.
Guess who they chose?
Tennessee
There’s so much crazy in Tennessee, we’ll have to limit it
to one anecdote per wingnut.
Lamar Alexander’s contribution to the gun issue was , “You know, I think video games is [sic] a
bigger problem than guns because video games affect people.”
(They might affect people Lamar, but they generally don’t
leave them DEAD. Ah, I’ll go easy on Lamar, because compared to his TN
colleagues, he’s the sane one.)
Bob Corker’s latest behavior during the Hillary Clinton testimony is, I believe,
summed up quite handily in this one comment at KnoxViews..
Scott DesJarlais was the pro-life,
family-values congressmanwho
worked as a doctor before winning election as a Tea Party-backed Republican and who had
an affair with a patient and later pressured her to get an abortion. He won
re-election in 2012.
Diane Black, not satisfied with ONE defund Planned
Parenthood bill being filed within the first 2 days of the 113 Congress devoted
her precious time to filing an identical bill to the one filed the day before
by…
Marsha Blackburn. And when Blackburn’s not busy trying to
put Planned Parenthood out of business, she’s offering her views about why guns
aren’t such a problem, "But the
problem is that it could be a hammer, a hatchet, a car, a gun.” (It could
be an invasion from out space too, Marsha.) When health care passed, Marsha had
a sad and said, :“Freedom dies a little
bit today.”
Marsha’s latest big concern is the President’s skeet
shooting, because, “If he is a skeet
shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why has he
not referenced it at any point in time as we have had this gun debate that is
ongoing?” (man—she talks like Palin.
And she challenged Obama to a skeet-shooting contest—didn’t Sarah want to race
him? Or shoot hoops? Or something stupid?)
Texas
It’s a big state, so it has LOTS of wingnuts.
Who can forget (dancing star and felon)Tom DeLay who said . "Guns have little or nothing to do
with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who
put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and
working mothers who take birth control pills."
Then there’s Tom Head, Lubbock
County Judge, who had/has great fears about Obama’s second term.
“He's
going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the UN, and
what is going to happen when that happens?,” Head asked.
“I'm
thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And
we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking
Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.
You
may remember Representative Joe Barton as the politician who apologized to the
head of BP in 2010 after the government dared to insist that the company pay
for those whose livelihoods were ruined by the gulf oil spill.
Barton
cited the Almighty in questioning energy from wind turbines. Careful, he
warned, “wind is God’s way of balancing heat.”
Clean energy, he said, “would
slow the winds down” and thus could make it hotter. You never know.
“You
can’t regulate God!”
Terror Babies--Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), greatly fears a diabolical
20- to 30-year plot by terrorists to have babies born in the United States,
then taken abroad and trained as terrorists before eventually returning here as
U.S. citizens (thanks to birthright citizenship) to commit heinous crimes. (The Texas State rep at the beginning of this clip might be even more insane than Gohmert.)
And then there’s the newest Republican ROCK STAR, moron Ted
Cruz, who has been a Senator for one month and has received Kardashian
coverage for every boneheaded thing he says or does.
Chickenhawk, never-served Ted Cruz said about decorated
Vietnam War veterans, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel: “We’ve got two pending
nominations, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel. Both of whom are very prominently…less
than ardent fans of the U.S. military,” Cruz said,
Tea
Party Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made his big-time national debut today hectoring
Defense nominee Chuck Hagel, the former GOP senator, and the righty blogs ate
it up, even if the rest of the world scratched its head, and fact-checkers took
apart his claims.
The right, of course,
ate it all up. “Ted Cruz Stuns Hagel With Al Jazeera ‘Bully’ Bite,” Fox Nation
screamed. “Ted Cruz shows that Hagel slandered both Israel and the U.S.,”
shrieked Powerline. “HAGEL IS AS BIG AN IMBECILE AS OBAMA,” shrieked one
Twitter loon with an Andrew Breitbart avatar.
Then there's Cruz’s Agenda 21, a black-helicopter conspiracy theory. I believe Ted is concerned about golf courses if I remember correctly. Ah yes, here it is, it
(and I have to link to it because I love the title of this blog) Replacedhisbrainwithtatertots.blogspot.com)
says
…that George Soros and the United Nations are actively working to rob us
of our golf courses. And not just our golf courses, but also grazing pastures
and paved roads. Seriously. He really says that. On his own blog. Cruz rants
about the alleged, "attempts to abolish “unsustainable” environments,
including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads."
Cruz never met a camera he wouldn’t make a fool
of himself in front of, and the Republicans love him like the son they never
had. Hey guys, try to control yourself. Even though he’s Hispanic, that doesn’t
mean you’re going to capture the minds and hearts of Hispanics. And he can
never run for president or vice president because he, unlike our current
President, WAS NOT BORN IN THIS COUNTRY. OOPS, I think I'm wrong--he was born in Calgary, Canada, and his father is Cuban, but his mother is from Delaware. Nor sure how the wingers will take to all that once they know, but I still don't think they'll ever nominate him for president or vp.
Utah
“Capital punishment is our way of demonstrating the sanctity
of life.”” ~ Orrin Hatch
Hey, Hatch represents “old school” Republicanism in Utah.
Let’s see what fresh-faced Mike Lee brings to the party.
"constitutional
scholar" Mike Lee, the rookie senator from Utah, who was still crowing on
his website this morning about the great victory he won over the onrushing
hordes of UN curb-cutters, and his signature triumph over common sense…
Mike
Lee is the Senate's leading Tenther, opposed even to federal child-labor laws
on the basis of state sovereignty…
·supports
passing legislation that would change the portion of the 14th Amendment that
guarantees U.S. citizenship at birth,
· favors repealing the 16th Amendment
(progressive income tax), and calls the 17th Amendment (allowing Americans, rather
than state legislatures, to elect their Senators) a “mistake;”
·has
supported and testified in favor of legislation that would allow Utah to
“nullify” federal health care reform;
·aims to
phase out Social Security, and has questioned the constitutionality of FEMA,
and federal poverty and food safety programs;
·declared
the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development to be
unconstitutional; and
·endorsed
the Supreme Court’s widely-reviled decision in 1918 to strike down a federal
law limiting child labor in Hammer v. Dagenhardt, even though that decision was
unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court in United States v. Darby in 1941.
Whew—so glad Utah has upgraded and replaced that “radical”
Bob Bennett with Lee.
Vermont
It figures that in the state where Bernie Sanders keeps on
keeping on, it would be hard to come up with an example of right wingnuttery.
And it was. Vermont has NO Republicans in Congress, just one Republican in
state office, and, according to The Burlington
Free Press:
Vermont
might have seen its last Republican governor when Jim Douglas left office in
January 2011.
Just
wanted to let you know — today I received my 2012 Social Security Stimulus
Package. It contained two tomato seeds, cornbread mix, a prayer rug, a machine
to blow smoke up my butt, 2 discount coupons to KFC, an “Obama Hope &
Change” bumper sticker, and a “Blame it on Bush” poster for the front yard. The
directions were in Spanish. Watch for yours soon.
Virginia
Three quick notes will tell you all you need to know about the
strength of tea in Virginia.
When asked if the birther nonsense was crazy talk, Eric
Cantor replied, “David, I don’t think it’s
nice to call anyone crazy, OK?”
Governor Bob “transvaginal ultrasound” McDonnell, when
naming April Confederate History Month forgot to mention slavery in his
proclamation. When he wrote his master;s thesis at age 34, he said working women and feminists were “detrimental”
to the family and that government policy should favor married couples over
“cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.”
AG Ken Cuccinelli, who changed the state seal to a more
Confederate version to cover up a boob, said while parsing the question of
Obama’s legitimacy, “You know, the
speculation is Kenya. And that doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.”
Washington
Daily Kos describes Cathy McMorris Rogers as a “concern
troll” and it seems like an apt description. At one point, talking about Obama’s
birth, she said she “wouldn’t mind seeing the papers.” Then she batted away the whole War on Women
thingy, saying it was DEMOCRATS who “have
to scare women” and “the
Democrats have been trying to create, manufacture this war on women.”
“When you highlight
just a few of the bills, out of thousands of different bills that [are in play]
at any time at the state legislative level, you're picking and choosing."
West Virginia
West Virginia is a strange place. It has two Democratic senators
(even blue-dog Joe Manchin seems to be mellowing out his harsh lately.) Dems control the State legislature and WV has
a Democratic governor.
Even Republican Rep. Tea Party Caucus member, David McKinley
has bucked his party on some votes, like voting against the Paul Ryan budget. And
a Tea Party guy lost twice in a row to a Democrat for the governorship.
Yet Romney won WV by
about 27 points, while Manchin won his senate race by about the same
margin.
The only thing I can think of is COAL. Coal seems to
influence everything in the state when it comes to voting. If there’s a WV
Politicalgater who can explain your state, I’d love to hear why they vote the way
they do.
Wisconsin
So sad that Wisconsin, once a hotbed of liberalism (and home
of my pretend boyfriend, Russ Feingold) has turned into a breeding ground for
total wingnuttery. Thanks, Koch brothers!
Paul Ryan leads as a high-profile, low-intelligence symbol
(frankly, after my last post about Paul Ryan and the straw man, I’m sick of
looking up info about him, so I’ll just confine myself to one quote.) "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”.
Ron Johnson (I still have nightmares about him beating
Feingold) is a sciency guy
“I absolutely do not believe in the science of
man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the
imagination…It’s far more likely that it’s just sunspot activity or just
something in the geologic eons of time. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
‘gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow.”
And
contraceptives, “My wife actually
went online here in Wisconsin and typed in, “what if I can’t afford birth
control?” Came up, bam. If you can’t afford it, you can get birth control in
this country. That’s a straw-dog argument.”
(Like Paul Ryan, Johnson doesn’t understand what a straw man
is, nor, apparently does he know it’s called a straw MAN and not a straw DOG.)
And then there’s Scott Walker—ugh, I can’t bring myself to
even quote him.
Maybe there’s hope. Roger Rivard (R-WI) of ”Some girls rape easy” fame lost his bid for re-election to the WI
Assembly.
Wyoming
Sen. John Barasso’s Tea Party challenger said Barasso should
be jailed for treason, so I guess Barasso is one step up from the bottom. In
2010, over the course of one day, Barasso blocked
bills for seniors AND the unemployed.
Mike
Enzi (R-WY) and John McCain (R-AZ) even walked out on a hearing in September,
claiming that Democrats are “determined to ‘beat up’ on for-profit colleges.”
THUS ENDS 50 SHADES OF WINGNUT
I’ll wrap it up by
saying if No True Scotsman Republican would say these things, then just
who has that party elected to higher office? Sorry, Republicans—the crazies are
NOT the fringe of your party, they ARE your party—the mainstream, the feature
film, the whole enchilada. They say the very things that you tout in your platform, plank
for plank. Christine O’Donnell said she wasn’t a witch, SHE WAS YOU. And she
was right. And the increasingly few of you who still have a wee bit of sanity
and/or humanity, are just as guilty as the nutjobs, because you cater to them,
you encourage them, and you remain silent while they go off the rails.
Lately we’ve been hearing Republicans talk about how they
need to stop being the party of stupid—although they usually seem to be
implying that it’s okay to think and promote stupid ideas, as long as you don’t
say them out loud.
Then you have Republicans like David Frum, who is either
suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, or has lost his ability to reason, as he
laments the bad acts, idiotic positions and ridiculous comments of Republicans
while seemingly shocked that they are coming from members of the Republican
Party.
davidfrum@davidfrum "A party achieves nothing by boldly and bravely marching
off a well-marked cliff."
davidfrum@davidfrum Post 2012, GOP needed to change on something. I was hoping it
would be on universal health insurance for Americans
davidfrum@davidfrum I agree w Jindal about avoiding gaffes. But "47%"
wasn't a gaffe. It was an idea. That was the problem.
davidfrum@davidfrum If GOP had not wasted past 2 years acting heedlessly, Obama wd
have less leverage over Congress today
davidfrum@davidfrum Frustrated by people who want to march my party over the cliff,
then respond to all objections with: "Why are you attacking your
party?" .
Frum’s new book is described thusly:
WHY
ROMNEY LOST is a forthright analysis that offers a bold, hopeful plan for
Republican success in the years ahead. David Frum urges a Republican party that
is culturally modern, economically inclusive, and environmentally responsible -
a party that can meet the challenges of the Obama years and lead a diverse
America to a new age of freedom and prosperity.
Has David Frum actually met
any of today’s Republicans?
Ah, but you see, Frum and his ilk (with a huge assist from the
mainstream media) seem to insist that the wingut people aren’t “real
Republicans.” It’s the No True Scotsman
fallacy writ large. If you’re unfamiliar with that, it goes something like:
No
true Scotsman is an informal fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an
unreasoned assertion. When faced with a counter-example to a universal claim,
rather than denying the counter-example or rejecting the original universal
claim, this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to exclude the
specific case or others like it by rhetoric, without reference to any specific
objective rule.
A simpler definition:
No
True Scotsman is a logical fallacy by which an individual attempts to avoid being associated with an unpleasant act
by asserting that no true member of the group they belong to would do such a
thing. Instead of acknowledging that some members of a group have undesirable
characteristics, the fallacy tries to redefine the group to exclude them
Is it possible they’re right? That any crackpot with a
conspiracy theory, a complete misunderstanding of science…or geography…or
history…or anatomy….or just about any other subject is NOT representative of
the Republican Party?
Let’s explore the possibility. For argument’s sake, we’ll
exclude
Rush Limbaugh
Ann Coulter
Alex Jones
Bryan Fischer
Glenn Beck
Sean Hannity
Michelle Malkin
Dana Loesch
The Crew at Breitbart
Oh, what the hell,
we’ll exclude everyone on the right EXCEPT elected officials. That’s right,
we’ll just look at what elected Republican officials have had to say on any
number of topics and then decide if they’re just the fringe on top or fringe AT
the top of the surrey party itself.
What’s That You Said?
Without further ado, here they are, alive and kicking, the
Republican “exceptions” that prove the point. NOTE—a few of these wingnuts were
even too crazy for Republicans to put or keep in office, but they all are
current office holders, former office holders (some of whom have gone on to be
convicted felons), or were highly touted candidates who made it past the
primaries on the Republican side of the aisle. Trust me, when I chose a Republican who is not currently serving, it was only because the action/comment/viewpoint was too delicious to pass up. My biggest problem in compiling this report was narrowing down the examples.
I decided to do the listing alphabetically by state, so you
could see the breadth and depth of the derp, and you could easily locate your
local loon.
Alabama
Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (brother of the
Keebler elf), during
climate change hearings in 2012, was more than surprised when informed by
Senator Barbara Boxer that roughly 98 percent of climate scientists, contra
Christy, accepted that anthropogenic warming was real and serious — he was
outraged:
“Madam
Chairman, I am offended by that, I’m offended by that — I didn’t say anything
about the scientists. I said the data shows [sic] it is not warming to the
degree that a lot of people predicted, not close to that much…”
He’s also a big-time racist. For an enlightening background
on Sessions’ racist history, here’s
a good recap.
Alaska
Ha. I’ll bet you thought I’d go with Sarah Palin or Joe
Miller, right. Nah. Too obvious
Alaska’s one and only Representative, Don Young was
wingnutty more than 15 years ago.
“Environmentalists
are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democrat Party.
I'm proud to say that they are my enemy. They are not Americans, never have
been Americans, never will be Americans."
- Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Alaska
Public Radio, 08-19-96
Arizona
”Abortions
make up well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."
A few other gems from the Grand Goofball Canyon
State.
Life begins "from the first day of the last menstrual
period of the pregnant woman."
—Statement from an Arizona bill signed into law by
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer
”He
has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an
enemy of humanity.”
—Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), member
of the Tea Party Caucus, on President Obama’s decision to fund international
family planning organizations that support legal abortion, Sept. 26, 2009
Arkansas
"I have opponents in this race who do
not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change
the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the
Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s
standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other
and how we treat the family." –said former Governor, Presidential candidate, and
ubiquitous spokesman, Mike Huckabee, at a rally in MIchigan on Jan. 14, 2008 (Source:ThinkProgress, Jan. 15, 2008)
California
Gary Kreep, who recently won the race for a San Diego County
Superior Court Judge seat, gained national attention for his birther obsession. After Obama's
inauguration, Kreep took on a so-called "birther" lawsuit demanding
proof of Obama's birth certificate. He is also currently suing the California
Secretary of State, demanding she verify citizenship of all candidates before
they appear on the November ballot.
Kreep earlier created an infomercial entitled, “Where was
President Obama born?”
Rachel covers it all quite well here:
So, just to recap—unqualified AND a grifting birther. Be
proud, San Diego.
Even
if some people say, ‘Well the Republicans should have done this or they should
have done that,’ they will hold the President responsible. Now, I don’t even
want to have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby…
"I
don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I
don't know that," Coffman said. "But
I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an
American."
Connecticut
Not many Republicans to choose from in Connecticut, so we’ll
go with two-time Republican nominee (and big-time loser) Linda McMahon, who has
described WWE as a soap opera, and obviously continued to live in a fantasy
world during her multiple campaigns. After losing twice in two years,
"I
was stunned for a moment," McMahon told Bloomberg News. "I sat there
for a few minutes on my own, reflecting on what the race had been. I thought
about the thousands of people who not only had touched me but whom I had
touched as well. All the notes, 'Thank you for running. Thank you for showing
me that it’s worth putting everything on the line,' and things like that."
Uh, Linda, honey, “thousands” of people did vote for you,
about 650,000, but a whole lot more voted for Chris Murphy and he beat you by
more than 11 points.
Just for giggles—a true statement by Lovely Linda:
“I
have said from the beginning, I would spend what it would take
for the people
of Connecticut to know who I am and what I stand for.”
In her two tries for the Senate,
she spent $97 million. So, I guess the people of Connecticut DID get to know who she was and what she stood for, and they rejected her-TWICE.
Delaware
Christine O’Donnell, never-elected, but often put forth as
the Republican candidate has such a grasp of what constitutes evidence.
"Creationism,
in essence, is believing that the world began as the Bible in Genesis says,
that God created the earth in six days, six 24 hour periods. And there is just as much, if not more evidence
supporting that"
This never gets old:
Florida
Teabag heartthrob, Marco Rubio has said many idiotic things,
and lied while saying many of them, but this is my favorite:
Rubio’s
answered, “I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says,
I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst
theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or
economic growth of the United States…”
Georgia
Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., a member, along with Todd Akin, of
the very science-y House Science Committee, doesn’t have very much respect for
science.
“All
that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory,
all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” (And this guy is a doctor.)
And then there’s Phil Gingrey, whose mea culpa to Rush
Limbaugh pretty much sums up the Republican party.
Following
statements made to Politico yesterday telling Rush Limbaugh to "back
off," Republican congressman Phil Gingrey now has his tail between his
legs. In a groveling call to Limbaugh's conservative radio program this
afternoon, Gingrey offered a humble apology and described Limbaugh as a "conservative giant" who plays an
integral role in maintaining the ever-decreasing Republican base.
Here's
the meat of it, via Think Progress:
Rush,
thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not
exactly the way to I wanted to come on. ... Mainly, I want to express to you
and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made
yesterday to Politico. ... I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on
some of those comments. ... I regret those stupid comments.
Shapiro wrote that Lingle calling
Bush “the greatest president ever” was “an overstatement that makes even some
Republicans cringe.”
Then she confirmed she said it:
Lingle
sent Shapiro an email the day the column appeared in the newspaper. “Thanks for
covering my speech at the convention and the generally upbeat piece,” she
wrote. “You would have to pick up on the `greatest President ever’ line that I
misspoke. It was not in my notes and I meant to say a great president. It was
fair comment nonetheless,
Then, when running for Senate, she flat out denied ever
saying it
“I
would ask that Congresswoman Hirono cite where that was said, because it’s not
a statement I ever made,”
Idaho
Michael
Crapo, a three-term Republican Senator with a reputation as a social and
fiscal conservative, registered a blood alcohol content of .11 percent after
police pulled his car over in this suburb south of Washington, D.C.,
authorities said.
A Mormon, the Idaho Republican told The Associated Press at
the time that he abstains from alcohol, and he pledged to have a root beer to
celebrate if the bill passed.
(See also: Craig, Larry—I am not gay.)
Illinois
The chairman of a subcommittee that oversees issues related
to climate change, Representative John
Shimkus of Illinois is — you guessed it — a climate-change denier.
At a 2009 hearing, Shimkus said not to worry about a fatally
dyspeptic planet: the biblical signs have yet to properly align. “The earth
will end only when God declares it to be over,”
Indiana
Senator Dan Coates:
“It's
more than health care. It's a government takeover of our lives.”
(We already know everything we need to about Richard
Mourdock, so I won’t bore you with another rehash of his brilliance.)
Iowa
Within a few short months last year, Steve King, one of the
dumbest people on the planet, went from:
King
also bemoaned that inability of states to outlaw contraceptives and even said
that King George would not have had the “audacity” of President Obama to
mandate that insurance companies cover contraceptives as part of his compromise
policy with religiously-affiliated organizations.
STATES’ RIGHTS, RIGHT? Well, not so much when it comes to
chickens. Ever the farmboy, Stevie was fighting against California’s
wish to NOT import tortured chickens, actually invoking the commerce clause, which
Republicans usually avoid like the plague..
“I am asking you why should I care
what they think in California? In fact, what—why should I care about the
conclusions that have been brought forward by the Supreme Court?” —Iowa Representative Steve King, February 28
2012
These days, Sam the Sham is pushing
to get rid of income taxes and corporate taxes (making up the shortfall
with, “consumption” tax that disproportionately affect the poor). Democrats are
up in arms, but the Tea Party thinks he’s moving too slowly at "gettin' er done. "
Brownback’s counterpart in DC, Senator Jerry Moran, wants to
do the same thing on a national basic.
Maher was especially
struck by Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s line of questioning during the hearing.
He asked, “Is the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of
weapons, buying, selling, anyhow, transferring weapons to Turkey?”
Clinton at the time
paused notably. “To Turkey?”
Paul later went on
Sean Hannity’s talk show on Fox and said he had no proof and had had no hearing
on anything with regard to Turkey. “In
other words, this is just a bunch of horse shit I heard on TV that I’m going to
bring into the United States Senate,” Maher said.
Here’s the actual story as it unfolded:
Louisiana
Hmmm—Jindal or Vitter; Jindal or Vitter. Oh. Let’s go with
Diaper Dave (who’s rumored to be thinking of running for governor—Yikes!) In 2009,
not that long after his own little prostitute issue and just a month after
fellow Southern Republican Mark Sanford had been “hiking the Appalachian Trail”
Sen.
David Vitter disagreed Wednesday with criticism that Southern Republicans
are ruining the party and said a return to conservative values is the best way
to restore political power. “I'm on the side of conservatives getting back to
core conservative values,” said Mr. Vitter, Louisiana Republican and member of
the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“There are a lot of us from the South who hold those value,
which I think the party is supposed to be about. We strayed from them in the
past few years, and that's why we performed so badly in the national
elections.”
Once governor, he told the NAACP to kiss his butt.
In
February 2011, LePage again gained national attention when he spoke on a
local TV news program saying he hoped to repeal the Maine ban of Bisphenol A,
voted for unanimously by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, because
"There hasn't been any science that identifies that there is a
problem" and added: "The only thing that I've heard is if you take a
plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a
chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little
beards....and we don't want that.
Maryland
Maryland has two Democratic Senators, a Dem governor and all
other top state officials, and all but one Democratic US House reps. So
it figures that their one GOP voice is a doofus. It's likely that he was only elected in the first place because his Dem opponent withdrew right before the election.
GOP freshman, Rep. Andy Harris
(Md.), said he would vote against any tax increase that wasn’t paired with
spending cuts at least 10 times as large. And if Obama rejects such a deal?
"Then we go over the cliff," Harris said.
Massachusetts
Our choice for the Bay State has to be none other than pickup
truck driving centerfold, Scott Brown. First of all there’s that bit about secret
meetings with kings and queens. Then there was his boneheaded assertion that he
saw the Bin Laden takedown (only Scotty got fooled by an interwebz hoax—what are
the odds.) And there was his fundraising effort when he claimed Rachel Maddow
was running for his seat.
So, I guess we can safely say, Scotty is a LIAR. But this
is a new favorite (and I had not seen it until I started researching this
post). Yes, it’s small and superficial, just like Scott Brown.
In
all the brouhaha about Elizabeth Warren's claim of Native American ancestry, a
major item has been overlooked by the so-called liberal media. In the 1980's, after Scott Brown appeared in
Cosmo, he was interviewed by the New York Times. In that interview, he claimed to be the
great-grandson of Arthur Prentice Rugg, a chief justice of the Massachusetts
Supreme Court in the 19th century, and he said he found it amusing to be reading
cases in which his great-grandfather was involved. Here's a snip from the original article:
Until
a few weeks ago, Scott Brown was a 22-year-old first-year law student at Boston
College Law School who frequently ran across opinions written by his
great-grandfather, Arthur Prentice Rugg, former Chief Justice of the
Massachusetts Supreme Court.
"I
read many of his cases this year," he said, "which I found
amusing."
The
problem for Scott? He was not Rugg's
great-grandson, they were only distantly related. The Times had to print a retraction a few
days later.
Michigan
Governor Rick Snyder and the Michigan Legislature share the
honors for their Emergency Manager crappola. In short, these slimebags had created
a way to take total control of any city in Michigan, throw out the elected
officials and set up what amounted to their own little fiefdom. They could
close schools, cancel contracts, disband city councils, fire mayors, etc.
The people of Michigan rose up against it and, although the
Republicans tried to get their petitions thrown out because of the font size on
the paper (no, I am not kidding), the voters prevailed, got the initiative on
the ballot and rescinded the Emergency Manager Law in November, 2012.
Rick and his posse were not to be thwarted. The people may
have spoken, but their overlords the Republicans weren’t listening. As soon as they were back in session
after the election, they enacted another Emergency Manager Law and Snyder
signed it.
Rachel Maddow has covered this story from the beginning,
with particular focus on the ugly treatment of Benton Harbor, MI.
Just go to
her blog and you can follow her stories since it all began. Here, here and here are a few of the stories.
I believe Snyder and the Michigan Rethugs may be the most
heinous group in the country.
Minnesota
Okay, I really tried to come up with someone else—the other
two MN Republican congress critters, while not my cup of tea, do not seem to be
batshit crazy, so I guess we’re left with our long-time favorite, Michele (one
l) Bachmann.
From looking for un-American congresspeople to fighting
against the census to saying vaccines cause mental retardation to not believing
in pretty much any form of science, Michele is definitely the poster-child for
wingnuts on parade at the heart of the Republican Party. (And she’s on the
Intelligence Committee. Oy)
Mississippi
Mississippi’s GOP senators are standard issue wingnuts:
Cochran and Wicker hate choice, hate gays, love prayer in school, hate
healthcare reform, love war etc. etc. (Notice that even though they hold
extreme positions, they don’t really stand out in the crowd in Washington.)
Where MS earns full-blown credit for craziness in on the
state level. Remember, current Governor, Phil Bryant had to step into some
pretty big clown shoes left by former guv Hayley Barbour. But Phil’s up to the
task. One of his big goals is to shut down every abortion clinic in the state
(because MS, with one of the highest number of teenage pregnancies and one of
the lowest standards of living CERTAINLY wouldn’t want to allow abortions.)
Mississippi’s only remaining abortion clinic, the Jackson’s Women’s
Health Organization, is struggling to stay open as it is faced with
unnecessary, complicated restrictions imposed by the state’s Republican
lawmakers… On Thursday, the clinic received its first official notice that the
state intends to revoke its operating license, although the women’s health
organization will be able to remain open while it awaits a state hearing on the
matter…
Mississippi’s governor revealed
the GOP’s true intentions behind over-regulating the Jackson Women’s Health
Organization. “My goal of course is to shut it down,” Gov. Phil Bryant (R)
said.
Of course, Bryant is a rabid opponent of Obamacare, and
refuses to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 200,000 poor residents (and
did I mention that Mississippi is poor). He believes “There is no one who
doesn’t have health care in America. No one.”
But Bryant can’t be worrying his pretty little head about
healthcare, y'all. He’s got embryos to save! Even though Mississippi voters, the most
conservative voters in the country, voted down a personhood bill, Bryant’s not
giving up, because he knows best.
Who can ever forget Todd Akin: “If it’s a legitimate rape,
the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” - mid 2012 Senate
Campaign. That, and his followup “clarifications” caused him to crash and burn
and lose by double digits to Claire McKaskill, who, until that moment, didn’t
have a ghost of a chance of winning.
The double whammy was that Akin had to give up his House
seat to run for Senate, so, for now, he’s outta there!
But don’t fret. MO has plenty more wingnuttery where Todd
came from. Ya got yer Roy Blunt, of the famous (failed) amendment that bore his
name that would allow an employer to deny health services if they conflict with
their 'religious beliefs or moral convictions." (thanks, Roy.) While he was in the House, Blunt
was a member of the "CREW's Most Corrupt" in 2005
and 2006.
In the Senate since
2011, he’s known as a “culture warrior” who loves school prayer, school
vouchers, GUNZ, wants to drill here/drill now (He’s one of the "Dirty
Dozen" lawmakers who had "consistently sided with Big Oil and other
dirty polluters" and (big surprise) doesn’t believe in global warming.
It wouldn’t be the Show Me state if I didn’t highlight Rep,
Vicky Hartzler.
She’s a birther who said, “I
have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of
Americans do.” Vicky, who is considered the MOST anti-gay person in
Congress LOVES sharing her thoughts on same-sex marriage, comparing
it to incest, polygamy and pedophilia.
She's also
compared gay marriage to handing out drivers' licenses to third-graders
(she's against it), and proposing to modify Don't Ask, Don't Tell by forcing
gay soldiers to live in segregated barracks. (I think she might be a wee bit obsessed
with the whole gay thing.)
Oh, and when she was a state rep? She wanted to prosecute
any woman who had a late-term abortion for murder. What a lovely lady.
I Can’t Take It Anymore
That’s enough for one sitting. We’ll be back shortly to
delve further into the stupidity (and
cupidity) that is the Right Wing, In the meantime, I present you with a brief
musical interlude. Sing along to get yourself in the mood for more major league
derp coming up in our next installment.
