Last Call

And the impeach Obama nonsense from the right begins in record time.  Post-election moderation of conservatives lasted all of one week.

The Conservative Majority Fund, a conservative group known primarily for its birther conspiracy spreading, has launched a robocall campaign to gin up support for the president's impeachment.

The call, emailed to The Huffington Post by Shaun Dakin of StopPoliticalCalls.org, reads in part as follows:

Our only recourse now is to move forward with the full impeachment of President Obama. We suspect that Obama is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and that there may be grounds for impeachment as is laid out in the constitution. Further, he may not even be a U.S. citizen because nobody, I mean no one, has seen an actual physical copy of his birth certificate. Impeachment is our only option. And Republicans are already considering Obama investigations. As the nation's most effective conservative group we are launching the official impeach Obama campaign.

Trying to figure out if being "the nation's most effective conservative group" is some sort of dig at Karl Rove, or if the bar for "effective" has been lowered to "somewhere deep in the Earth's mantle".

This is the level of "cooperation" you should expect from conservatives.  Barack Obama will never be "their" President.  Ever.

Tell me again how both sides do it, guys.

Georgia On My Mind (Control)

Georgia Republicans have lost their minds and should resign in abject shame over this complete nonsense.

President Obama is using a Cold War-era mind-control technique known as "Delphi" to coerce Americans into accepting his plan for a United Nations-run communist dictatorship in which suburbanites will be forcibly relocated to cities. That's according to a four-hour briefing delivered to Republican state senators at the Georgia state Capitol last month.

On October 11th at a closed-door meeting of the Republican caucus convened by the body's majority leader, Chip Rogers, a tea party activist told Republican lawmakers that Obama was mounting this most diabolical conspiracy. The event—captured on tape by a member of the Athens-based watchdog Better Georgia (who was removed from the room after 52 minutes)—had been billed as an information session on Agenda 21, a non-binding UN agreement that commits member nations to promote sustainable development. In the eyes of conservative activists, Agenda 21 is a nefarious plot that includes forcibly relocating non-urban dwellers and prescribing mandatory contraception as a means of curbing population growth. The invitation to the Georgia state Senate event noted the presentation would explain: "How pleasant sounding names are fostering a Socialist plan to change the way we live, eat, learn, and communicate to 'save the earth.'"

Putting the derangement in Obama Derangement Syndrome, that's the Georgia Republican Party.  These guys are insane.  Absolutely cracked.  A four hour presentation on this sick, racist, vitriolic hatred at taxpayer expense?

No.  Georgia should demand mass resignations of these fools.

Collective Punishment, Ohio Republican Style Part 2

As I mentioned a few days ago, the goal by Republicans now is to collectively punish the members of the Obama coalition (minorities, LGBT, women, young voters) at the state level in order to turn them against the President and the Democrats.  Nowhere is this effort proceeding more quickly than in Ohio, where Republicans are trying to revive the nation's strictest anti-abortion "heartbeat" bill.  In addition to that, Ohio's GOP controlled state House Wednesday took the first step to defund all Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

After a lengthy and heated hearing, an Ohio bill meant to defund Planned Parenthood cleared a House committee on Wednesday by an 11-9 vote along party lines. House Bill 298, ostensibly about re-prioritizing federal family planning money, seeks to strip $1.7 million from Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. According to Planned Parenthood Ohio CEO Stephanie Knight, nearly 100,000 Ohio women depend on the organization for health care — overwhelmingly for preventative care including cancer screenings and birth control.

Every single medical professional present testified against the bill. Dr. Grant Morrow of Nationwide Children’s Hospital decried HB 298 as the result of a “political agenda” that would have a devastating impact, primarily on poor and young women. Planned Parenthood is frequently a punching bag for many conservative politicians, despite the fact that abortions comprise only 3 percent of services provided by the women’s health organization. And as Dr. Kimberley Shepherd, a Columbus-based OB-GYN, testified during the hearing, defunding Planned Parenthood in Ohio would jeopardize cancer prevention screenings, STI care, hypertension testing, and many of the preventative measures the organization provides to low-income women.

Religious groups also sent multiple representatives to testify against HB 298. Former state representative Marian Harris of the National Council of Jewish Women argued that no one religious viewpoint should receive preferential treatment under the law, and pointed out that the legislation would gut funding for family planning clinics. Religious leaders also testified in support of Planned Parenthood, including a rabbi, a Lutheran minister, and a United Methodist minister. 

Given the massive GOP edge in the House (59-40) and the Ohio Senate (23-10) and GOP Gov. John Kasich, at this point if Ohio Republicans wanted to jam this through, it's going to happen.  We'll see what goes down.

StupidiNews

• China unveiled its new leaders for the next ten years, headed by new Party Secretary and putative President Xi Jinping.
• A court hearing for accused Colorado theater shooter James Holmes has been postponed today due to a reported head injury Holmes suffered while in jail.
• President Obama will attend the East Asia Summit next week in Cambodia and become the first US President to visit Myanmar.
• Wal-Mart's holiday toy dominance has a new challenger this year: Amazon's online sales.
• Time Warner Cable's $4 monthly fee for cable modems has triggered a class action lawsuit for failing to notify customers of the price increase.