{"id":2186,"date":"2010-07-08T04:36:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T11:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2010-07-08T04:36:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-08T11:36:59","slug":"gop-follies-782010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/08\/gop-follies-782010\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Follies – 7\/8\/2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a challenge just to keep up with with the flood of misanthropic behavior by leaders and supporters of the Republican party.  Here are three of the low points.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"8gunschurch\"<\/a> Yesterday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed<\/a> a bill<\/a> into law that will allow people to bring concealed weapons into houses of worship. The Times-Picayune reports<\/a> on the bill: <\/p>\n

[State Rep. Henry] Burns\u2019 bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The pastor or head of the religious institution must announce verbally or in weekly newsletters or bulletins that there will be individuals armed on the property as members of he security force. Those chosen have to undergo eight hours of tactical training each year.<\/span> […]<\/p>\n

The bill also allows a house of worship to hire off-duty police or security guards to protect congregants.<\/p>\n

Burns said that he proposed the bill so that religious institutions in \u201cdeclining neighborhoods\u201d can have extra protection against crime<\/a>. \u201cI was born and raised with Mayberry, riding my bicycle any time of the day or night,\u201d said Burns. \u201cBut we live in different times<\/a>.\u201d To be clear, however, houses of worship can authorize<\/a> any person to receive a concealed handgun permit after eight hours of training \u2014 whether or not the purpose is to help them fight crime. <\/p>\n

Last year, Ken Pagano, pastor of the New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY, invited his congregation to bring their firearms to church<\/a>. \u201cGod and guns were part of the foundation of this country,\u201d said Pagano, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t see any contradiction in this\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

Dang!  I\u2019d hate to be a member of the choir.  Sing off key and BANG!! \ud83d\ude41<\/font><\/p>\n

Seriously, I could not worship in an environment where guns are the instrument of God\u2019s love.  This must come from the gospel of GOP Supply-side Jesus, nit the real one.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"8LindaLingle\"<\/a> Hawaii\u2019s governor, Republican Linda Lingle, has vetoed a civil unions bill that was passed by the state legislature in April. Her <\/span>reasoning<\/a> was interesting:<\/span><\/p>\n

Lingle said voters should decide the fate of civil unions, not politicians.<\/p>\n

"The subject of this legislation has touched the hearts and minds of our citizens as no other social issue of our day," she said. "It would be a mistake to allow a decision of this magnitude to be made by one individual or a small group of elected officials."<\/p>\n

Wait, isn\u2019t that how representative democracy works?\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <PFAW<\/a>><\/p>\n

Her stated reason is a lie.  Were it true, she would have vetoed everything the legislature passed.  The real reason, of course, is that as a GOP bigot, she has no respect for the rights of LGBT people.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"teabag-thomas\"<\/a> Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as a new job, running a think tank she founded to appeal to Tea Party supporters. Liberty Central, according to Kenneth P. Vogel, <\/span>writing in Politico<\/span><\/a>, "appears to be positioning itself as a hybrid think tank\/advocacy group\/campaign arm for the tea party movement."<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas herself explained it this way to Human Events magazine, Vogel reports:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting to know the Tea Party groups and the new citizen activists,\u201d Thomas <\/span>told Human Events<\/span><\/a> late last month. \u201cWhat I think I can bring to the table is a connective (t)issue between the new people and the old people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On the Liberty Central Web site, visitors are urged to sign a "pledge to activism" [Teabaggers delinked] that states the organization’s commitment to small government, saying, in part:<\/p>\n

In an effort to hold their government accountable to its constitutional limitations, many Americans have voiced their opposition to a \u201cBig Government\u201d agenda through protests and election upsets only to be blatantly ignored by many elected representatives,<\/p>\n

Therefore, I pledge to be more informed and more active, and encourage others to do likewise, in order to maximize my impact and influence in preserving, protecting and promoting liberty, freedom, and limited Constitutional government in America.<\/p>\n

Call it the Great Convergence, this coming together of old-guard groups and extremists under the Tea Party brand — something perhaps that only someone very close to a major power center in the U.S. government could pull off. Unlike grass-roots Tea Party organizations that struggle for donations, Thomas got off to a quick start last year with two large donations, according to Politico<\/span> — one for $50,000 and another for $500,000 — whose source the group declines to disclose<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

I see this as a major conflict of interest.  While I fully support Mrs. Thomas\u2019 right to espouse whatever warped views she chooses, her position as the wife of an Injustice [sp. intentional<\/em>] on SCOTUS gives the reception of large contributions, especially from unnamed donors, the appearance of impropriety.  Fortunately, people far more influential than I agree.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It may be completely innocent.  That $500,000 donation may be nothing more than a thank you from the Coca-Cola company for all the publicity they received, when Clarence Thomas put a pubic hair on Anita Hill\u2019s Coke.  But unless we know, Thomas has no business judging cases.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a challenge just to keep up with with the flood of misanthropic behavior by leaders and supporters of the Republican party.  Here are three of the low points. Yesterday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed a bill into law that will allow people to bring concealed weapons into houses of worship. The Times-Picayune reports […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}