Last Call For The GOP Goal

Joe Sonka reminds us that there is a difference between the two political parties, and that is the stated goal of the GOP is to end all abortion in America by criminalizing it.

The National Right to Life Commission (NRLC) held their national convention in Louisville this weekend at the Galt House, rallying supporters to their cause of ending legal abortion in America. Their featured speaker Saturday morning, Sen. Mitch McConnell, told a slightly more than half-full conference room that “the tide is turning” on the issue, and he would help the anti-abortion advocates win their fight. 

“I’m not sure when it first occurred to me that we are winning this debate, but there’s no question that we are,” said McConnell. “The signs are everywhere, and you have played a huge role in that.” 

One of those signs came two days later, when a 5-4 Supreme Court decision ruled in favor of the craft store Hobby Lobby, who argued that they should be exempt from an Affordable Care Act mandate that they must provide their employees coverage for four types of birth control the company considers “abortion,” because this violates Hobby Lobby’s religious freedom. Despite no legal or scientific basis for that claim, the court ruled that “closely held” private companies — which make up 90 percent of American companies — are exempt from this mandate if they claim it goes against their religious beliefs, granting such companies the same religious rights as persons. 

With the current makeup of Congress and the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade does not appear in eminent danger, but abortion opponents openly celebrated the Hobby Lobby ruling as an advancement for their larger cause of chipping away at women’s reproductive rights. At last weekend’s convention in Louisville, McConnell urged attendees to help elect him majority leader of the Senate this fall so he can push through legislation banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy, which has already passed the House. 

Two Republican congressmen from Kentucky, Representatives Andy Barr and Brett Guthrie, who also spoke Saturday morning, are co-sponsors of legislation that would not only ban all abortion in America — with no exemptions for rape, incest and health of the mother — but could go further than the Hobby Lobby decision, banning many forms of birth control.

And that's really the point for the American Taliban here.  If you take away reproductive health care choices, then women will have to remain celibate or have to be punished for being sluts, and that will magically fix everything that's wrong with America.  It's laughable, or would be, if it again wasn't the stated goal of one of the major political parties in this country and the position of tens of millions of their voters.

So yes, when people ask me how I can support Alison Lundergan Grimes when she's "just as bad as Mitch", I remind them exactly why that's not the case.

GOP Minority Outreach In Mississippi Continues

So in the last 48 hours we've gone from mildly racist accusations that GOP Sen. Thad Cochran won last week's Mississippi Senate primary runoff against state Sen. Chris McDaniel by promising to get free government stuff for us awful, lazy black people to definitely more racist accusations that Cochran actually bought us awful, lazy black people to vote for him at the low, low price of $15 a piece.

The claim is centered on a report by blogger Charles C. Johnson, who reported at his website GotNews.com that African-American activist Stevie Fielder brought "hundreds or even thousands" of African-Americans to vote for Cochran. Johnson alleges that Fielder motivated the voters by calling McDaniel a racist. Johnson identifies Fielder as a pastor at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Meridian, Mississippi, located in Lauderdale County, but a deacon at the church told the Clarion-Ledger that Fielder is not a pastor there and is instead a "self-proclaimed minister."

Some blogger reports some guy said this happened, so of course it's 100% truth now and the only possible explanation for how McDaniel lost a race he should have won by 47 billion points because FREEDOM.

McDaniel supporters, since he lost the runoff, have accused Cochran of engaging in foul play to win the election by seeking out African-American and Democratic support. Laura Van Overschelde, a member of the Central Mississippi Tea Party, a group that strongly supports McDaniel, echoed Johnson's report on her Facebook.

"You lame stream media, Thad bought this election paying black voters harvested by black pastors at $15 a vote," Van Overschelde wrote. "Do your investigative reporting before you start spouting off printing false narratives."

See,  it's truth now, and the "false narrative" is that McDaniel somehow lost.  It's hysterical how racist and stupid these clowns are.  Of course it's all the fault of them dirty (insert racist expletive here.)  And you'd better believe that these assholes now believe it's their godly, Christian duty to punish as many black people as possible.

It's still 1964 in Mississippi, and about as deadly.

America The Counter-Productive

If you want to know why Republicans have now scrapped plans for immigration reform entirely, it's because their rabidly xenophobic base will crucify them for anything short of land mines, moats, army brigades and a 100-foot wall on the border to get rid of "those people".

More than 100 demonstrators forced buses full of immigrants to be rerouted from Murrieta, California nearly 70 miles south while hurling derisive chants toward them, KFMB-TV reported on Tuesday.

The protesters chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A,” and “Go back home” at the caravan, which was originally headed to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Murrieta carrying 140 undocumented immigrants, many of them women and children, who had entered the country after journeying from Central America. Federal officials put them on the buses after they were flown into San Diego from Texas earlier in the day.

“Send them back to their countries,” one unidentified male protester told KFMB. “Send them back to where they came from.”

It’s not clear if the demonstrators realized, however, that the purpose of facilities like the one in Murrieta is to help authorities prepare to send the immigrants leave the U.S., and to account for individuals who could pose flight risks. But because the protesters blocked the buses, they were shuttled out of the area and taken to a similar center in San Ysidro, close to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they arrived late Tuesday afternoon.

“This was a victory for the American people,” another protester was quoted as saying.

Congratulations, anti-immigration meatheads demanding undocumented immigrants be "sent back where they came from".  You blocked buses full of immigrants being processed so they could be deported out of the country, so they had to stay inside the country longer.

And no, Republicans have become the party of "us" versus "them", and "them" is a very long list of ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, and beliefs.  I have been saying for years that Republican xenophobia would end any immigration deal, and in the end they've resigned themselves to that fact.

Demographics will be unforgiving.

StupidiNews!

• A cargo plane in Kenya crashed into a building shortly after takeoff from Nairobi, killing all four aboard, the Kenyan Red Cross says nobody on the ground was injured.
• Six LA County Sheriff's officials were convicted on federal charges of obstruction of an investigation into police violence against prisoners in county jails.
• Despite a record 16 saves, US goalie Tim Howard couldn't prevent a loss to Belgium 2-1 in extra time in yesterday's Round of 16 World Cup match, sending the Yanks home.
• Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged by French investigators with influence peddling as part of three corruption cases pending against him.
• With public comments savaging the deal, Time Warner Cable customers in New York are not happy with the planned merger of the two broadband and cable giants.