madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[boutons_deux]

Ted Nugent Talks About Shooting Harry Reid At NRA Meeting

Rocker Ted Nugent talked about hypothetically shooting Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Friday while speaking at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting.

Nugent, who is on the NRA's board of directors, made the comment while responding to an audience member who asked why the NRA "endorsed Harry Reid to serve as the front man of Osama Obama."

In video flagged by Media Matters, the conservative darling called Reid a "lying prick" after doing a bizarre impression of the senator. He then posed a hypothetical situation in which the audience member would need Reid's help.

"If your child is dying and there's only one way to get to the doctor, would you get on Harry Reid's boat to get there?" Nugent said. After a pause, he continued: "Then your child's dead. I'd get on the boat, I'd get there and then I'd shoot him."

Nugent later asked audience members to give the NRA the "benefit of the doubt" and continue to donate if the organization did something that didn't sit well with them.

"If you see them endorse someone like Harry Reid it's because this deceptive bas actually stood up for our Second Amendment rights contrary to the alternative candidate,"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...+%28TPMNews%29

Anybody think the FBI will move against this white, right-wing, Repug terrorist advocating political assassination?

[boutons_deux]

On Bundy Anniversary, Oath Keepers Set Stage For Another Anti-Government Standoff

This week, as far-right groups are celebrating the first anniversary of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over his refusal to pay years’ worth of grazing fees, the anti-government group Oath Keepers is getting involved in another dispute with the BLM, this time in Oregon.

The Mail Tribune in Medford, Oregon, reports that members of the Oath Keepers are gathering in southwest Oregon to prevent the BLM from temporarily shutting down operations of a mine that is violating federal regulations, claiming that the BLM’s actions are “uncons utional.”

A group of armed volunteers has descended on rural Josephine County in defense of a mining claim that's become the subject of regulatory action by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The federal agency says the Sugar Pine Mine, near Merlin, has been operating outside current mining laws and regulations, and the BLM recently ordered the claim's owners to cease operations until they file a plan of operations.

In response, the local chapter of the Oath Keepers, a group of former and current military and law enforcement personnel who've pledged to disobey any "uncons utional" orders, says it was asked to defend the property from any encroachment by federal authorities.

Mary Emerick, a spokeswoman for the local Oath Keepers chapter, told the paper that she doesn’t want what’s going on in Merlin referred to as a “standoff” and that it has nothing to do with the Bundy anniversary:

The private mining consortium that includes the disputed mine is also promising to “do battle” with the BLM, posting a manifesto on its website that the non-standoff “presents what is probably a once-in-a-generation prime opportunity to strike at the heart of the very surface management authority of the DOI and USDA.”

Where is this all headed?

This case is headed in a direction that presents what is probably a once-in-a-generation prime opportunity to strike at the heart of the very surface management authority of the DOI and USDA and to restore the "as patent" rights of every mining claim owner in the United States by striking down the actual source of that intrusive authority.

Regardless, we intend to take BLM fully to task and will not feel sorry for any civil or criminal consequences that may be leveled upon any BLM employees who are found to be negligent of wrong doing. We are actively pursuing these individuals through a wide range of tactics with the intent to reign in these wrong doers.

Meanwhile, the BLM says it’s just asking for the Sugar Pine Mine to submit a “plan of operations” for the mine or appeal the decision. The local sheriff — viewed by many in the militia movement as the ultimate law enforcement authority in the country — says he’s trying to mediate the conflict.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/conten...nment-standoff

http://oathkeepers.org/

[boutons_deux]

8 Nightmare Scenarios That Would Come to Pass If GOP Presidential Speeches Became Reality

From shredding social safety nets to imposing evangelical Christianity, the America described in Republican speeches is a terrifying place.

1. United States of Christian America.

Every one of the candidates is not only anti-abortion and anti-LGBT, but would seek to impose their religious beliefs on America. Nevermind that’s what the Cons ution says must stay in the private sphere, as New York University legal scholar Burt Neuborneeloquently details in newest book. Cruz wants to enshrine bigotry by adopting new religious liberty laws, which would protect discrimination in public settings. “Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren’t voting,” he said in hisannouncement. “Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.” In his speech, Rubio said that he is guided by “faith in their God,” referring to his parents. “Their God,” not respect for other faiths.

2. Give Me Liberty And Nothing Else.

That’s the cry—freedom and liberty forever—especially by Cruz. But what does that really mean? They all talk about reviving America’s promise and prominence, but almost never acknowledge the real barriers to prosperity have more to do with the power and clout of corporate monopolies than with the reach of government. Paul, for example, railed in his announcement against “special interests that are more concerned with their personal welfare than the general welfare,” yet he says the answer is “a government restrained by the Cons ution.” That is freeing big business to be even more rapacious—me the capitalist versus we the people.

3. Cut Taxes And Demonize Needs.

If you start to dismantle federal programs (except the Pentagon), you don’t need revenues, right? That’s what they are saying—that taxes for most other purposes are too high. Nevermind that much of the federal tax code was written by and for corporate lobbyists. Cruz wants a flat income tax, which penalizes poorer people as what they end up paying hits them harder than richer people. Christie moans that Social Security—which is the most solvent federal program, but still must be expanded by 2033 to handle the Baby Boom generation’s surge—would mean “backbreaking tax increases on our middle class.” That’s ridiculous. People only pay Social Security taxes on the first $118,000 of their income. If that cap were lifted, that would generate many billions. Also, experts say that if people paid $1 a week more in payroll tax would greatly expand reserves. That’s “backbreaking?”

4. Repeal Government Regulations.

You’ve heard this before, especially over pollution laws and many health and safety standards. Rubio, the son of poor immigrants, lionized America “at the turn of the 19th century, [when] a generation of Americans harnessed the power of the Industrial Age and transformed this country into the leading economy of the world.” You would think he might know that was when business as usual meant child labor, no minimim wage, filthy slaugherhouses, sweatshops filled with new immigrants, government-led military assaults on labor protests, and zero environmental regulations, and more. He continued, “Now, the time has come for our generation to lead the way toward a new American Century.”

5. Drill Baby, Drill.

And forget about climate change. Every one of them—especially the Texans Cruz and Rick Perry—want to let the oil and gas industry drill anywhere they can find petroleum, especially on federal lands and the continental shelves. Climate change is not even mentioned in their speeches, nor are public investments in renewable sources or federal science and research to create next-generation energy options.

6. Shred Safety Nets.

Christie thinks he’s being bold by giving a big speechon the safety nets for the elderly and poor. “Democrats believe en lements are a sacred cow that cannot be honestly discussed, perpetuating a dangerous fantasy to the American people,” he said. As noted above, Christie’s solutions are not honest as they would push millions into poverty. Like the others, he doesn’t touch fair tax increases to fortify social insurance programs or greed in the health care system. And that takes him to attacking Obamacare. “There is no question that America would be better off with a market-oriented, more flexible, more pro-consumer-choice health care system than the one that was jammed down our throats by this President,” he said. All of the GOP 2016 wannabees not only want to repeal it, on top of cutting safety net spending because of their obsession with the federal debt. None are asking what people need.

7. Widen Culture Wars.

This isn’t just about imposing evangelical Christian morality on public policy, such as opposing abortion, reproductive options, and LGBT rights. The candidates oppose gun controls, even though studies show that states with more gun controls have fewer domestic violence deaths. As Cruzsaid, “Imagine a federal government that protects the tight to keep and bear arms.” They want to privatize public education, even as Jeb Bush touts his record as Florida governor—omitting that some of his model charter schools have since closed. As Cruz said, “Imagine repealing every word of Common Core,” the newest federal public school standards. Or Scott Walker comparing teachers union to Islamic terrorists, as he bragged about gutting collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin. Or piling on undo ented immigrants andopposing immigration reform even if your parents—like Cruz and Rubio—got special treatment because they were Cuban refugees decades ago.

8. Expand U.S. Empire Abroad.

This isn’t just putting more money into the military while cutting domestic spending, as Christie said toward the end of his New Hampshire speech—“our national defense has been hollowed out by years of underinvestment.” Rubio pledged “no longer being passive in the face of Chinese and Russian aggression” and slammed the Obama White House for “near total disregard for the erosion of democracy and human rights around the world.” All of them, including the formerly non-interventionist Paul, want to America back as the top cop on a global beat. “The enemy is radical Islam and not only will I name the enemy, I will do whatever it takes to defend America from these haters of mankind,” Paul said. They would rather throw billions at the Pentagon, posture and threaten on the world stage, never question Israeli policies or negotiate with Iran over nuclear weapons. They believe, as Cruz said, in “American exceptionalism” and that the U.S. is the “indispensible nation.”

The GOP’s Emerging Platform

Taken together, these and extremist stances on other issues show where the GOP is heading as a party and would take the nation as the 2016 campaign gets underway. What is most striking about this collective vision is how it would make life more difficult for middle- and working-class Americans at home, and make the world even more volatile abroad. This crew of candidates would not try to make America’s safety nets stronger; they would cut them back. Nor would they ask the richest people and businesses to spread their wealth, they would let them keep it ac ulating it with less government oversight and public responsibilities.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...ter1034908&t=1

Nails the Repug platform, strategy pretty good. Anybody want to contradict?

[boutons_deux]

Republican Senators Just Voted To Sell Off Your National Forests

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/republican-senators-just-voted-to-sell-off-your-nationa-1696862450

The Quiet Plan To Sell Off America’s National Forests

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, proposed that America’s public lands be transferred to state control. He then requested $50 million of taxpayer money to be spent to enable transfers to “start immediately.” The memo states that public lands “create a burden for the surrounding states and communities,” and “the solution is to convey land without strings to state, local, and tribal governments.”

Bishop’s plan and similar proposals to give away America’s public lands are controversial. A majority of voters in those regions believe the proposals would likely result in states having to raise taxes, open prized recreation areas to drilling and mining, or sell lands to private interests to cover the substantial costs of management.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...-public-lands/

"There They Go Again", Repugs ing up everything as they are paid to do by the VRWC, 1%, BigCorp.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs ing up the future for decades, dumbing down, impovershing America, which is exactly where the VRWC wants America to be.

Students Arrested While Protesting Congress’ Plan To Slash Billions From Higher Education Spending

Congressional Republicans’ new plan to cut $150 billion from higher education spending, including $90 billion from the federal Pell Grant program.

House Republicans want to hold the grants at $5,775 per year for the next ten years. Senate Republicans also proposed ending the guarantee of funding for Pell Grants, which would allow Congress to decide if they want to fund it each year.

Republicans have repeatedly targeted the Pell program, including as recently as last December when Congress cut $303 million in spending as part of its massive cromnibus budget deal.

The cuts were intended to make up a shortfall in what Congress budgeted to pay the companies that collect student loan debts on the government’s behalf.

Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) 2012 budget proposed even steeper cuts that would have kicked 1 million students off Pell Grants. And in 2011, after Republicans had been pushing for months to slash the program, the deal to avert the government shutdown included aprovision which made as many as 100,000 of its 9 million recipients ineligible for Pell Grants.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...-protest-pell/

[Slutter McGee]

Bouton's you really should start using a different font to differentiate your own thoughts from the articles. I am having trouble separating your stupidity from the inherent stupidity of most everything you copy/paste.

ter McGee

[boutons_deux]

Bouton's you really should start using a different font to differentiate your own thoughts from the articles. I am having trouble separating your stupidity from the inherent stupidity of most everything you copy/paste.

ter McGee

butt is so butthurt, so profusely slapped, she can't even refute even ONE MADNESS of the Repugs.

[Slutter McGee]

butt is so butthurt, so profusely slapped, she can't even refute even ONE MADNESS of the Repugs.

boutons, I have posted differing opinion, often based on actual academic research in plenty of other places, and as soon as I start bringing up facts, research, and analysis you run like a little or ignore me. This is your stupid little thread. I'm gonna let you have it. If I tried to to respond to every re ed thing you have said I would end up wasting away my life just like you.

ter McGee

[boutons_deux]

boutons, I have posted differing opinion, often based on actual academic research in plenty of other places, and as soon as I start bringing up facts, research, and analysis you run like a little or ignore me. This is your stupid little thread. I'm gonna let you have it. If I tried to to respond to every re ed thing you have said I would end up wasting away my life just like you.

ter McGee

ya shootin' blanks, lady

[boutons_deux]

Arizona government to recently insured Arizonans: F**k you.

There's a new law in Arizona designed to tell the world just how much the state's lawmakershate Obamacare. Any hate to individual Arizonans who will be hurt by this law is merely implied.

Arizona has passed a bizarre new law in which the state effectively promises that if the Supreme Court destroys its health exchange, it won't build a new one, no matter how badly Arizonans are hurting. […]So if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare this year, Arizona will arguably have no legal recourse or backup option to build a new marketplace.

On some level, this all a bit of a charade meant to symbolize how opposed the governor and legislature are to Obamacare. To build a state exchange, Arizona would have to pass a law doing so—and that law could simply include the language necessary to repeal this one. Even so, the message here is clear: Arizona's elected officials want to make it as hard as possible for the state to ever do anything to cooperate with Obamacare.

With a legislature willing to pass this law, how likely would it be that they'd reverse themselves, embrace Obamacare, and maintain insurance for the roughly 155,000 peoplewho have enrolled with subsidies? Not very.

But hey, Arizona legislature, the people of Kansas and Idaho thank you for making our legislatures look a tiny bit less stupid and cruel.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...zonans-F-k-you

and the 150K AZoners? 'em

[boutons_deux]

(Conservative) Australia Pledges Millions To Help Climate Contrarian Set Up Center To Argue Against Climate Action




The Australian government has pledged $4 million to help Danish climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg establish a “climate consensus center” at the University of Western Australia.

Mark Butler, an environmental spokesperson for the opposition Labor party criticized the plan to set up the consensus center, arguing that Abbott was taking funds from an already cash-strapped government to further his own anti-climate agendas.

“Tony Abbott has found millions of taxpayers’ dollars to fund his attack on renewable energy while at the same time gutting Australia’s science and university funding,” Butlertold local Australian newspaper the Mercury. “…[he] has deputized one of the world’s most well-known renewable energy skeptics to continue his climate change denial and attacks on renewable energy.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...te+Progress%29

Conservatives EVERYWHERE stuff up.

[boutons_deux]

Kockenstein monster monstering on commands from VRWC

Scott Walker’s new budget is so brutal even Republicans are afraid of it

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s new budget has such major slashes that even the GOP is getting nervous about it. Of course it does sport a number of characteristics one would expect Republicans to champion, like cuts toenvironmental programs and schools, but with the first votes looming on Walker’s two-year plan, it seems that local Republicans think he’s finally pushed too far when it comes to the disabled and the elderly.

The budget hacks away at some of Wisconsin’s most important programs for seniors. Walker is looking to cut $15 million from SeniorCare, a prescription drug assistance program for residents who are 65 and older. The program assists over 85,000 Wisconsin residents at low cost, but Walker wants to shift pharmaceutical costs to Medicare Part D, which would be more costly for those enrolled in the program.

Walker is also taking aim at a Wisconsin program called IRIS, which is an option for Wisconsin residents with long-term needs that allows the disabled to select their own caregivers and provides them with a budget for support services. Walker wants to cut $19 million from the program, which according to a story in the Wisconsin Gazette, adds up to about one million fewer hours of personal care. IRIS provides a safety net for many of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable citizens.

local conservatives are working to scale back the extent of the cuts.

However, Republicans who criticize Walker too harshly could inadvertently put themselves outside the governor’s Koch-backed circle and face political repercussions when election season rolls around.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/scot...e+Raw+Story%29

VRWC strategy: the poor, schools, disabled, old, young, and protect/enrich BigCorp and 1%.

[boutons_deux]

5 Right-Wing Lunacies This Week: Bill O'Reilly Hits Peak Paranoia

1. Bill O’Reilly rails absurdly about how it’s open season on White Christian males. Even John Stossel can’t sway him with facts.

Bill O’Reilly sees no pattern in the numerous incidents of police killing and brutalizing of black men in this country. No pattern at all. But he does see a pattern of people picking on white Christian males. They are “under siege.”
“The fact that I am white and in a powerful position makes me the enemy,” he whined on his show this week, adding that anyone who denies American values are being threatened, “is a dishonest idiot.”

2. Sarah Palin’s reaction to Hillary Clinton’s campaign start: Hey, what about me?

Sarah Palin just wants everyone to know she still exists and that she can be equally incoherent in Facebook posts as she is in speeches. Also she, like Hillary Clinton, once rode around the country in a bus and had reporters frantically chasing her and wondering where she would show up next.

3. Michele Bachmann says Obama will bring about the second coming of Christ. Wait, isn’t that a good thing?

Michele Bachmann, no big fan of President Obama, told the always rational folks who listen to “End Times Radio” that indeed, the End Times are near. Aren’t they always?

Who and what is ushering in this Armageddon, this End of Days, or whatever your personal favorite name is for the Great Cataclysm? Why the Anti-Christ himself, President Obama, by negotiating with Iran, and as Bachmann says, “turning his back on Israel.” While End Times sound really really scary and bad, the irony is that those End Times are precisely what need to happen for the second coming of Jesus Christ. So, that’s a good thing, right? It is when you are a fundamentalist Christian. So maybe she should be thanking Obama. Hallelujah time is nigh!

Bachmann prattled on nonsensically about fatwas and supreme leaders of Iran. She is, funnily enough, an expert on Islamic scripture as well as Christian scripture. Who knew?

4. Chris Christie: Poor me. Wah wah.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his wife Mary Pat are not wealthy, according to them and them only. Never mind that their $700,000 income last year puts them easily in the top one percent of earners. That’s not how Christie defines wealth. “Wealth is defined a whole bunch of ways,” Christie said in an interview with the editorial board of the Manchester Union-Leader. Wealth is a feeling, and he just does not have that feeling.

5. Men’s rights blogger: Women with short hair should be monitored by the authorities.

Men’s rights nutjob Roosh V, who blogs under the moniker “Pick Up Artist,” always has extremely helpful suggestions for women. He thinks women would take more responsibility for themselves if rape on private property was decriminalized, for starters. Thanks, Roosh! Or should we call you Mr. V? How exactly decriminalizing rape would help women is kind of murky.

This week, the Rooshter made an even more bizarre suggestion for how law enforcement should occupy their time, now that they’ve been freed up from all that pesky rape stuff. The authorities should be alerted when women cut their hair short. This, he says, is an act of self harm. Worse still, it hurts men (the group Roosh actually purports to care about). When women cut their hair short, they are trying to appear less fertile and therefore less attractive to men, he reasons.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...-peak-paranoia

you right-wingers, Bible humpers are REALLY ing stupid. The above pure is pandering to You People.

[boutons_deux]

from the "dement-ed" VRWC stink tank Heritage

Heritage Foundation: Gay Marriage Will Make All The Gross Spinsters Kill Their Babies. It’s Math!




According to the Heritage Foundation’s (LOL) “digital-first, multimedia news platform,” The Daily Signal, if the Supreme Court crams gay-marriage down our throats, as it is totally gonna do in June, that will make even more women do abortions.

FACT. Gene Schaerr, a lawyer and former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, has all the numbers and charts, and also the Netherlands, to prove it:

In a nuts : A reduction in the opposite-sex marriage rate means an increase in the percentage of women who are unmarried and who, according to all available data, have much higher abortion rates than married women. And based on past experience, ins utionalizing same-sex marriage poses an enormous risk of reduced opposite-sex marriage rates.

http://wonkette.com/583300/heritage-...b7gcitmH81E.99

[boutons_deux]

Texas Gov. Gives Rick Scott Lawsuit Against Obama Admin A Big Thumbs Up

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said his state would support Florida Gov. Rick Scott's (R) moves against the Obama administration over expanding Medicaid in Florida.

On Thursday, Scott said he planned to sue the Obama administration for, per Scott, threatening to keep over a billion dollars from hospitals in the state if Florida didn't expand Medicaid through Obamacare.

On Monday, Abbott said that Scott made the right call.

"I commend Governor Rick Scott’s decision to take legal action to protect these important cons utional principles," Abbott said in a statement. "Texas will support Florida in its litigation against the federal government. Medicaid expansion is wrong for Texas. Florida’s approach should be determined by Floridians, not coerced by federal bureaucrats."

Florida for weeks had been sparring with the Obama administration over Florida refusing to expand Medicaid. Florida, according to Politico, has continued to argue that the Obama administration should keep giving $1.3 billion to the Low-Income Pool safety net hospital program. That program is slated to run out of funding on June 30.

"It is appalling that President Obama would cut off federal health care dollars to Florida in an effort to force our state further into Obamacare," Scott said when he announced his pending lawsuit.

But federal healthcare officials have said multiple times that the Low-Income Pool program wouldn't receive more funding as it exists after the June 30 deadline.

"It's difficult to explain how somebody would think that their political situation and their political interest is somehow more important than the livelihoods of 800,000 people," White house press secretary Josh Earnest said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...+%28TPMNews%29


"difficult to explain how somebody" It's easy when the "somebody" is Repugs. All Politics, All The Time (and Repug state citizens)

[boutons_deux]

Bernie Sanders Busts The GOP Plan To Take Health Insurance Away From 27 Million Americans

Both the Senate and the House budget resolutions would make the rich richer and cause devastating pain to tens of millions of working families throughout the country.

Instead of making health care more affordable, both Republican budgets would eliminate health insurance for at least 27 million Americans. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, both Republican budgets would provide huge tax breaks for the top one-tenth of 1 percent, while paving the way for a tax hike on 13 million working families.Both of these budgets represent a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest people in this country.

The Republican philosophy of cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, and cutting nutrition programs for hungry kids, while providing huge tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, would move this country in exactly the wrong direction.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/...iticus+USA+%29

Progress for the 99%, it's what the Repug hate, and they viciously hage progress for the Bishop Gecko's 47%.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs gonna give taxpayers' $100Ms to for-profit, Bible humping Christian indoctrination schools, violating separation of church and state. blatantly state-financed religious schools.

School Vouchers Survive Texas Senate


“This is not a voucher bill,” Taylor said during the debate. ing sociopathic LIARS, every damn one of them.

http://www.texasobserver.org/school-vouchers-make-progress-in-texas-senate/

[boutons_deux]

another tidbit from the Confederacy

‘De able bigot': Louisiana Republicans clash over ‘religious freedom’ bill criticized by IBM

A Republican official in Baton Rouge, Louisiana lashed out at a fellow GOP member in the state legislature over a “religious freedom” bill that has drawn criticism from tech giant IBM, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.City council member John Delgado (pictured above) called state Rep. Mike Johnson a “de able bigot of the highest order” for introducing House Bill 707.

“Bigotry is bad for business, and it’s only common sense that they would recognize that and call this bill what it is,” Delgado said.

“That Governor [Bobby] Jindal thinks we’re too stupid to recognize it is also not surprising.”

The “Marriage and Conscience Act,” as Johnson’s bill is called, would prevent businesses from losing tax deductions or their licenses for acting “in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction about the ins ution of marriage.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/desp...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Repugs ing up, as always

Negotiated at The Hague, a Child Support Treaty Falters in Boise


POST FALLS, Idaho — It took five years for negotiators to work out the details of a multinational treaty on child support that would make it easier to track delinquent parents around the world. It took only a couple of minutes for a committee of the Idaho Legislature to endanger America’s participation.

In a 9-to-8 vote in the closing hours of the legislative session, the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee killed a bill that state and federal officials had said was crucial to the finely crafted choreography of the child support treatyreached at The Hague. All 50 states must approve the mechanics of the treaty for American ratification to proceed, and 19 have signed off thus far.

A major factor seems to be Idaho’s ornery streak, the part of the state’s iden y that does not like the federal government — or, worse still, foreign governments — telling it what to do.

In Boise, the state capital, members of the committee — which is dominated by Republicans, as is the Legislature as a whole — raised concerns about foreign tribunals, perhaps ones based on Shariah, the Islamic legal code, potentially making decisions under the treaty that Idaho might not like. At least 32 countries, along with the European Union, have ratified the agreement.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/22...oise.html?_r=0

shariah gonna kill us all!

ing ignorant, xenophobic, nativist, jingoistic, inbred backwoods potato chuckers.

[boutons_deux]

News from deep red Repug dystopia

Tax cuts for the rich made Kansas broke — so now Republicans move to raise taxes on the poor

Let’s say you’re the Governor of Kansas. The tax cuts for the rich you pushed through a couple years ago mean you’re in a world of budgetary hurt, and you’re not sure how you’re going to pay for basic expenses like roads and schools this year. What do you do? Repeal tax cuts? Absolutely not. You’re Sam Brownback. You balance your books on the backs of the poor, and cite fiscal prudence as a moral justification.The Washington Post reports that Republican officials in Kansas are pursuing increases in sales and excise taxes – which have the ultimate effect of making it more expensive to be poor. People who have less money can’t afford to invest money like rich people; poor people have to spend their paychecks just to make it through the week. Consequently, sales taxes – as a matter of policy – proportionally punish people at the lower end of income spectrum.

And in Kansas, unlike many states, there are taxes on food. If Republican tax plans make it through the statehouse in Topeka, paying for groceries will become a bigger burden for cash-strapped families than it already is.

In its 2015 edition of “Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States,” the Ins ute on Taxation and Economic Policy counts Kansas among the 10 states with the “most regressive state and local tax systems.” Taxes eat up 11.1 percent of income for the poorest 20 percent of Kansas residents. Meanwhile, Kansas’ top one percent of earners forfeit a comparatively paltry 3.6 percent of their income.

Not on Kansas’ Republican policy agenda? Repealing those expensive 2012 tax cut laws that caused Kansas’ current budget disaster in first place.

Meg Wiehe of the Ins ute on Taxation and Economic Policy tells the Washington Postthat, “Kansas has really shifted the responsibility for paying for taxes from those at the top with the most income, where income is growing, to those at the very bottom of the income spectrum, where incomes are stagnant or even declining.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/tax-...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

More red state dystopia

Louisiana teachers brag about pushing creationism on kids — but the bill to stop them is doomed

Louisiana Democrats are again trying to take the state’s anti-evolution science law off the books – while also taking a shot at Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s presidential aspirations.

The Louisiana Science Education Act was passed in 2008 as a method to promote classroom discussion on evolution, but critics have complained the law allows creationism to be taught in public schools, reported The Advocate.

That appears to be the case, according to a science education activist who graduated from a Baton Rouge high school after the law’s passage.

“I have obtained emails from creationist teachers and school administrators, as well as a letter signed by more than 20 current and former Louisiana science teachers in Ouachita Parish in which they say they challenge evolution in the classroom without legal ‘tension or fear’ because of pro-creationism policies,” claimed Zack Kopplin in an article for Slate.

State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) filed her fifth attempt to repeal the law, which this time is called the “Intelligent Outcomes Wanted Act,” or IOWA – which Jindal has frequently visited as he considers a possible GOP presidential run.

Peterson’s bill is scheduled for a Senate Education hearing Wednesday morning, but similar attempts have attracted just five votes in four years.

College students, professors, and high school teachers were joined last year by 78 Nobel laureates who denounced the law.

The law allows teachers to use outside materials to “promote critical thinking skills” and “objective discussion of scientific theories,” but Kopplin found the measure offered a “back door” to teaching Bible-based philosophies of the Earth’s origins.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/loui...e+Raw+Story%29

"promote classroom discussion on evolution" read as: to promote denigrating evolution in favor of Biblical bull .

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Boehner Goes Bonkers With Claim That Obama Is Covering Up The Facts On BENGHAZI!!!!

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/...iticus+USA+%29

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more from dsytopia red state KS

Sam Brownback's HMO Tax Hikes Hit A Major Speed Bump: A Furious HMO

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) proposed $136 million in taxes on health maintenance organizations as a way of closing the state's budget hole. Now, that proposal is in danger thanks to an angry managed health care company —Aetna, Inc.

According to The Wichita Eagle, leaders at Aetna are warning lawmakers that if Brownback's proposal goes into effect the healthcare company would be hit with $12 million in additional taxes and add $206 to an average HMO insurance policy holder's bill. Brownback's proposal is currently awaiting approval in a House-Senate conference committee.

The warning from Aetna is particularly significant given that it is the biggest of eight insurers that would be hit by Brownback's HMO tax.

Specifically, Brownback is looking to raise a "privilege fee" on annual HMO premiums which is currently at 1 percent. Brownback wants to raise it to 5.5 percent in order to bring in $136 million in new revenues. The $136 million would then be used to replace $80 million in state funds currently going to Medicaid, according to the Eagle. Kansas officials argue that the tax has to go to all HMO companies that offer Medicaid through Kansas's KanCare program.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...+%28TPMNews%29

Repug "governance"

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Cool, Kansas Is Ripping Kids Away From Medical Marijuana Advocates Now

Suppose you are a medical marijuana advocate, having successfully used cannabis oil to treat your own Crohn’s Disease. And suppose you lived for a time in Colorado, where medical marijuana is legal, but then, because fate apparently hates you, you were sentenced to move to the ugly state next door, Kansas, where marijuana in all its forms is illegal. And suppose you have an 11-year-old son who was forced to endure a fact-free anti-drug session at school, where he decided to point out that, hey, some of reefer madness talking points are not true. Would you think the state would take your child from you that day? Because that’s what happened to Shona Banda of Wichita:

A medical marijuana advocate has lost custody of her 11-year-old son at least temporarily and could face possible charges following comments the boy made during a drug education program at school.

The case of Shona Banda, 37, was forwarded Monday to the district attorney’s office for a decision about charges, Police Capt. Randy Ralston said. Possible charges include possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and child endangerment, the department said in a news release.
No arrests have been made.

Of course, they’re treating her like a drug-addicted untouchable, even though Banda is a well-known activist, and author of the book Live Free or Die: Reclaim Your Life… Reclaim Your Country!, which tells the story of her own experiences with the medicinal healing properties of the drug.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/583548/cool-kans...eolMjFQEK2v.99

Repug POLICE STATE! Freedom!

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Texas House Proposal Would Force People to Carry to Term Non-Viable Fetuses

A Texas Democrat on Thursday called this year’s state legislature the most misogynistic she’s seen in her 21 years as a state representative, following a house vote that would have ended legal abortion care for pregnant Texans whose fetuses have medical anomalies that aren’t survivable outside the womb.

“Women are leaders of their families, whether some men in this room do not recognize that,” said state Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) in a pointed speech criticizing her male Republican colleagues for not supporting a bill that would expand access to breastfeeding and instead focusing on limiting access to legal abortion care.

Farrar took to the microphone after a debate about how best to retool the state’s social safety net turned to abortion, with a freshman Tea Party lawmaker attempting to insert an abortion ban into a bill concerning the bureaucratic operations of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) put forward an amendment that would make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if a fetus “has a severe and irreversible abnormality,” effectively forcing families with wanted, but unsustainable pregnancies to carry to term at the behest of the state and against the advice of their doctors or their own wishes.

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/20...ality+Check%29

dammit, you TX redneck inbreds elect some really nasty, self-righteous "Christians".