Next Up, The Laws Of Physics

Think Progress: Eighty six years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial opened Tennessee classrooms to the teaching of evolution, the state House is trying to slam the door shut again. Tennessee’s House Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday in the name of “academic freedom,” but in reality, it is a thinly veiled attempt to curtail the teaching of evolution. House Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh (D) has even taken to calling it “the monkey bill.” From the bill’s summary:

This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.

Should this bill pass, Tennessee teachers will have official sanction to teach about evolutionary “controversies” that simply do not exist. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to teach pseudo-scientific ideas — such as creationism or intelligent design — as legitimate scientific theories comparable to evolution.

The neanderthals in the GOP are proof enough of evolution. Our children should be taught about the crusades, not subjected to them.

Taking The Country Back(wards)

WASHINGTON -- Far from places like Ohio and Wisconsin, Maine has become a new battleground in the labor fight. Gov. Paul LePage (R) recently sparked the anger of the union community by ordering a mural depicting workers throughout the state's history removed from the Department of Labor. Now, Republican members of the state legislature are attempting to loosen child labor laws that the community fought hard to put into place.

Seems the GOP wants to party like it's 1899. So it goes in the party of the CEO.

The Religious Police

Republican Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell's nominee for the Alaska Judiciary Council would like to see Alaskans prosecuted for having sex outside marriage. In telephone testimony, Don Haase of Valdez told the state Senate Judiciary Committee that premarital sex should be outlawed because it could "cause violence" and "spread disease," according to The Anchorage Daily News.

Yet another conservative intrusion into our private lives. They talk about freedom but don't seem to want to let anybody have it. To be honest when we hear about a conservative getting caught in a normal affair with an adult it elicits a sigh of relief. This is because so many of them seem to be into molesting kids or doing drugs with gay prostitutes.

Killing Upton Sinclair

Headline: Maine Gov. Paul LePage Orders Labor History Mural Removed From State Offices

Make no mistake, what the GOP is doing is ordering the removal of the middle class. Liberals fought for the worker protections and worker rights that created the great American middle class. Conservatives fought them then and they are still fighting the same battles today. When it comes to voting Republican or Democrat, you can vote for the white, male, CEO or you can vote for the rest of America. Simple as that.

Because They Don't Have Republicans

BERLIN (AFP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday that Germany would speed up the transition to renewable energy as Europe's top economy mulled a "measured exit" from nuclear power after the events in Japan. "We want to reach the age of renewable energy as soon as possible. That is our goal," the chancellor told parliament during a fiery speech that drew frequent opposition jeers, indicating the depth of passion over the issue. Merkel, a former environment minister, called for a "measured exit" from nuclear power and said "everything would be put under the microscope" during a three-month study to consider the future of energy policy in Germany.

If it wasn't for pro-big oil, pro-dirty coal, pro-nuclear Republicans we would be doing the same thing.

The Party Of No Responsibility

Headline: McConnell promises GOP senators will hold debt ceiling hostage ...

Since the GOP is responsible for 80% of the national debt this strikes us as beyond ridiculous. And another thing, blaming Obama for the spending he had to do to pull us out of the meltdown the GOP left behind is rather like shooting somebody in the back and then blaming them for bleeding on the carpet.

Sociopaths

Think Progress: For years, Missouri earned the dubious distinction as the nation’s "puppy mill capital" because its lax humane regulations and enforcement allowed dog breeders to raise puppies at low costs in terrible, overcrowded conditions. Last fall, Missouri voters approved a referendum to finally solve this problem — the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act — which mandates regular veterinarian inspections of breeding facilities and ensures a basic level of treatment for dogs, such keeping temperatures between 45 and 85 degrees. Tea party groups stridently opposed the referendum, arguing it was “just another example of big government meddling in people’s lives.” Now, capitalizing on the big gains they made in November, Republicans in the state legislature are poised to repeal the regulations Missouri’s voters enacted.

It could be worse. They could be crushing kittens.

so·ci·o·path

/ˈsoʊsiəˌpæθ, ˈsoʊʃi-/ Show Spelled[soh-see-uh-path]

–noun Psychiatry.

a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

Republican Terrorists

Five members or associates of a militia group were arrested in Fairbanks, Alaska Thursday in connection with a plot to kidnap or kill state trooper and judges.

No doubt these people walk in the same circles as Sarah and Todd Palin's Alsaka Independence Party. But either way, it's yet another example of right-wing, Republican terrorism.

Cutting Lives

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) today introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government at current rates for three weeks –until April 8 – while cutting $6 billion in spending including:

-$99 million – NOAA – Operations, Research, and Facilities
-$18 million – NOAA – Procurement Acquisition and Construction

NOAA is the agency responsible for Tsunami monitoring and warnings. Yesterday a tsunami killed thousands of people in Japan. Republicans are doing all they can to ensure America is even less prepared than Japan was. The ways in which the Republican party can and eventually will get you killed continue to mount.

Sellouts

Think Progress: The Republican-led Iowa state House is considering a bill that would allow Iowans to carry a weapon openly or concealed in public without a license, permission from a sheriff, background check, or any training. The bill is known as “Alaska carry,” or the “Alaska bill,” because Alaska was one of the first states in the country to implement it. Arizona and Wyoming have similar laws.

In a “snafu” on the House floor yesterday, House Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Kaugmann (R) was caught privately acknowledging the danger of the bill while speaking near a microphone he thought was off, but was in fact turned on:

REP. STEVE LUKAN (R): The Alaska bill – what’s the Alaska bill? [...]

KAUFMAN: The crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill.

AIDE OFF CAMERA: His microphone is on.

[Microphone goes dead]

Apparently it's a "snafu" when a Republican is caught telling the truth.

This is absolute, irrefutable proof Republicans will knowingly get you killed for money and power. More Jared Loughner's are on the way and we should be very clear who's to blame.

Stuck On The Wrong Side Of History

Bypassing Senate Democrats who fled the state, Republican senators in Wisconsin managed to pass legislation Wednesday to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Since it was Liberals that fought for the organizing rights and worker protections that created the great American middle class, it's no surprise it's the conservatives trying to get rid of them. This clearly illustrates Republicans are not out for best interest of the country and as with civil rights, puts them yet again on the wrong side of the great moral issues of our time.

No Comparison

TPM: Wisconsin Republicans are now running into a rough sight in the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill and its anti-public employee union provisions, a sight that might be familiar to Democrats from the 2009-2010 health care debates: Loud, raucous town halls. And when U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R) ran into that ruckus last night in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Sensenbrenner declared the meeting over -- after 27 minutes.

It's wrong to compare this to the intimidation fests that targeted Dems in 2009. These are citizens making valid points on their own. What the Dems were subjected to was Koch Industry funded front groups sending people to shout down valid points. Totally different.

Wrong Target

Peter King: I'll Hold Hearings On Radical Islam

If he's looking for home grown terror threats he should be holding hearings on Glenn Beck fans.

Sock Puppet Radio

Raw Story: The company responsible for syndicating big conservative radio names like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity has been using paid actors to call in to their radio shows.

While there are legions of idiots just dying to call up and talk to these guys they obviously don't trust them to stick to the script. Such is life in the great right-wing bullshit machine.

We Can't Afford REPUBLICANS

Letter to the editor: We can't afford public employee unions

No asshole Republican should be allowed to say we can't afford this or that. They've spent the last 30 years deliberately destroying the tax base though tax cuts and outsourcing and now they're crying crocodile tears. It's like pouring out the pitcher and then saying we'll have to go thirsty because there's just not enough water to go around. The only way to restore this country is the restore the tax base and restore the middle class. The only way to do that is to get Republicans out of government.

Pro-Cancer

Headline: Republicans Push To Eliminate Federal Pollution Regulations

They will shill for their industrial polluter cronies and they don't give a shit if your kids get cancer because of it. And oh yeah, health care is not a right. If a Republican gets cancer it may very well be the case they voted it on themselves. It's too bad they have to take so many of the rest of us with them.

For The Sake Of My Radio Show

Glenn Beck on his radio show yesterday: "If you have the chance to take your children out of school, do it..."

....otherwise they might not believe my bullshit.

Rebuttal

In a move critics have attacked as a "circus" for the media, a nine-week-old fetus is set to "testify" in favor of a bill in Ohio that would outlaw abortion.. Janet (Folger) Porter, President of Faith2Action, claimed that the fetus will be the "youngest ever to testify"

She's wrong. Right after I masturbate we will have 2 million rebuttal witnesses we would like to call to the stand. They will be the youngest ever to testify. Please prepare the microscope and clear the next 5 years to view them all.

Just Not MY Mexican

AUSTIN, Texas -- The latest bill addressing illegal immigration and the hiring of undocumented workers in Texas would broaden the scope of employers subject to scrutiny — and extend the penalties for violators to include possible jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. Maids and gardeners would be exempted.

Because if not, every rich conservative would end up in the clink. What a bunch of assholes.