madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[DarrinS]

This thread is to boutons posts...


as this beach is to...

[boutons_deux]

Louisiana Breaks Off Trade Relations with Ireland




BATON ROUGE – In the aftermath of Irish voters legalizing gay marriage, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has used his emergency powers to ban all Irish products from the state.

The sweeping trade sanctions will prevent popular Irish products, such as Jameson whiskey and Guinness Extra Stout, from being sold in Louisiana.

Jindal explained that breaking off trade with Ireland was necessary to protect the sanc y of marriage in Louisiana.


“Every time someone takes a sip of Guinness, a part of straight marriage dies,” he said.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...s-with-ireland

[boutons_deux]

How the can Ted Cruz support Texas flood relief after telling Hurricane Sandy victims to rot?

"Today, Texans are hurting. They're hurting here in San Marcos. They're hurting in Wimberley. They're hurting in Houston. They're hurting across the state."Democrats and Republicans in the congressional delegation will stand as one in support of the federal government meeting its statutory obligations to provide the relief to help the Texans who are hurting."

When Hurricane Sandy wreaked even greater damage across the Northeast in 2012, Cruz told his suffering fellow citizens to get bent:

"This bill is symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington—an addiction to spending money we do not have. The United States Senate should not be in the business of exploiting victims of natural disasters to fund pork projects that further expand our debt."

Cruz voted against Sandy aid, of course, but now that it's his own backyard that's under water—and not some wretched blue states half a country away—he's all for federal disaster assistance.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...tail=emailtest

If Barry visits TX like he visited NJ, will Krazy Kruz and Greg Abbutt hug Obama for his $Bs in aid?

[DarrinS]

Stay in your litter box, byatch!

[boutons_deux]

Stay in your litter box, byatch!

excellent response to The Great Boutons -slapping your ilk

[boutons_deux]

Bobby Jindal’s Lawsuit Against Common Core Law He Signed Moves Forward


Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has continued his legal battle against Common Core standards,

despite the fact that he enthusiastically supported the standards in 2012.

Jindal pushed for the implementation of standards, even as the state’s education department officials were concerned that a bill easing implementation of the standards wasn’t worth the political dust-up.

Three years has made a quite a difference in Jindal’s outlook on the issue.

http://thinkprogress.org/education/2...re-law-signed/

Repugs, tea baggers!

[boutons_deux]

Fat Bas Turns On Common Core Standards After Calling Opposition A ‘Knee-Jerk Reaction’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came out against Common Core standards Thursday, after supporting them a couple years ago.

http://thinkprogress.org/education/2...jerk-reaction/

Looks like trashing CC is going to be a Repug talking point.

[boutons_deux]

Alabama Minister Fined And Sentenced To Probation After She Tries To Marry A Same-Sex Couple

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/28/3663548/alabama-minister-fined-sentenced-probation-tries-marry-sex-couple/

[boutons_deux]

Fox Hits A Deplorable Low By Giving The Duggars A Platform To Explain Away Child Molestation

Fox News has hit a new low by announcing that they are giving Jim Bob and Mic e Duggar airtime in order to allow them to explain away how they covered up the child molestation crimes committed by their son Josh.

Jim Bob and Mic e Duggar announced via a post on their blog that they would be going on Fox News next week, “Next week we will sit down with Megyn Kelly on Fox News to share our hearts with you about the pain that we walked through as a family twelve years ago, the tears we all shed and the forgiveness that was given. We appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers for our family at this time.”

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/05/30/fox-hits-deplorable-giving-duggars-platform-explain-child-molestation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium= feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28P oliticus+USA+%29

you, freaky Duggars, you covered up a crime, you're an accomplice to that crime.

[Slutter McGee]

Bobby Jindal’s Lawsuit Against Common Core Law He Signed Moves Forward


Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has continued his legal battle against Common Core standards,

despite the fact that he enthusiastically supported the standards in 2012.

Jindal pushed for the implementation of standards, even as the state’s education department officials were concerned that a bill easing implementation of the standards wasn’t worth the political dust-up.

Three years has made a quite a difference in Jindal’s outlook on the issue.

http://thinkprogress.org/education/2...re-law-signed/

Repugs, tea baggers!

Democrats must be incapable of understanding the difference between the state and federal levels of government.

ter McGee

[Th'Pusher]

Democrats must be incapable of understanding the difference between the state and federal levels of government.

ter McGee

[boutons_deux]

nasty, deep red Indiana's austerity is gonna cost $100Ms

Inside an HIV Epidemic

• How Indiana’s healthcare infrastructure has been deteriorating over the past 20 years. Many HIV/STD clinics have shut down due to lack of funding – forcing residents to travel hours to be properly tested.
• The staggering cost of HIV treatment. Over a patient's lifetime, healthcare and public assistance costs can come in just under $1 million. Experts say, over the long term, the epidemic could cost Scott County nearly a quarter of a billion dollars -- crucial funds which could have been used earlier for prevention and resources.
• How even though disease numbers must be reported to the state, there's no requirement to notify local counties. This loophole created the "perfect storm," Segall says, where Scott County officials were the last to know they had an epidemic brewing in their own backyard.

http://www.propublica.org/podcast/item/muckreads-podcast-inside-an-epidemic/?utm_source=et&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily newsletter&utm_content=&utm_name=

Repug governance, Repugs ing up everything they touch.

[DarrinS]

[Slutter McGee]

You can oppose standards at the Federal level and still support them at the state level. Of course it ing makes sense.

ter McGee

[boutons_deux]

Texas is "Business friendly"? how about "business operated"

Electric Industry Created Their Own Air Pollution Permits, Held Private Meetings With Texas Regulator

Emails obtained and released by the Environmental Integrity Project show that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) worked behind closed doors with the state's electric power trade association and utility companies to weaken standards for air pollution control permits.

The emails and do ents reveal that Association of Electric Companies of Texas (AECT) and utility employees held private meetings with state regulators to discuss revisions to the permits and provided language that was incorporated verbatim by the regulations into the final text of the revised permits. The language ended up nullifying the federal Clean Air Act hourly limits on particulate pollution during the startup, shutdown, and maintenance periods (SSM) at the coal plants.

These changes to the permits allowed electric utility companies in Texas to emit more particulate pollution than allowed by federal standards. In one case, for example, the coal plants are allowed to emit 30 times more pollution than the previous limit. Particulate pollution is the fly ash emitted from power plants, which can cause serious health effects such as lung cancer and heart disease.

It is possible that the reason AECT and its members sought to revise the permits was to avoid changing the emission limits in the EPA approved State Implementation Plan (SIP), because doing so would have required public notices and re-approval from the EPA.
In fact, the EPA stated in 2010:

"If the State wishes to issue a NSR [new source review] SIP permit that does not meet the applicable requirements of the Texas SIP, then any such alternative limits would need to be submitted to EPA for approval as a source-specific revision to the SIP, before they would modify the federally applicable emission limits in the approved SIP."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3...xas-regulators

iow, a case where Nutter ter's state "standards" violate Federal standards, but that's OK:

Texas Among Nation's Worst Water Polluters

( for laughs, see the TCEQ bureaucrat's comments )

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/06/...ter-polluters/

and no doubt the AECT and its Repug s in govt are also behind super sunny TX lagging way behind in rooftop solar.

[boutons_deux]

The Bible v. the Cons ution

Politicians, school boards, principals, and teachers are pushing creationism on kids.



When a student in Louisiana opens her textbook in biology class, she might not have the standard Miller and Levine Biologywith a dragonfly on the cover, and she might not ever learn about evolution.

For some Louisiana public school students, their science textbook is the Bible, and in biology class they read the Book of Genesis to learn the “creation point of view.”

Through a public records request, I obtained dozens of emails from the Bossier Parish school district that specifically discuss teaching creationism. Shawna Creamer, a science teacher at Airline High School, sent an email to the principal, Jason Rowland, informing him of which class periods she would use to teach creationism. “We will read in Genesis and them [sic] some supplemental material debunking various aspects of evolution from which the students will present,” Creamer wrote.

In another email exchange with Rowland, a parent had complained that a different teacher, Cindy Tolliver, actually taught that evolution was a “fact.” This parent complained that Tolliver was “pushing her twisted religious beliefs onto the class.

”Principal Rowland responded, “I can assure you this will not happen again.”

Another email was sent by Bossier High School assistant principal Doug Scott to Michael Stacy, a biology teacher at that school. “I enjoyed the visit to your class today as you discussed evolution and creationism in a full spectrum of thought,” Scott wrote. “Thank you for the rich content as you bring various sources to bear in your curriculum.”

The Louisiana Science Education Act, passed by the state legislature in 2008, permits science teachers to use supplemental materials to “critique” evolution, opening a backdoor that these teachers are using, as intended, to teach creationism. Such lessons are allowed under this Louisiana law, but they are illegal under federal law.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health...s_endorse.html

"full spectrum of thought" must be a cajun idiom.

Repugs and Christian Taliban, keeping kids dumb as .

[Th'Pusher]

You can oppose standards at the Federal level and still support them at the state level. Of course it ing makes sense.

ter McGee

You misunderstand. Are common core standards created, administered and enforced at the state or the federal level? Maybe that'll help you out.

[boutons_deux]

News from Kockistan's Kockenstein

Scott Walker’s Baffling War On Bikes

If the state legislature approves Governor Scott Walker’s budget, which slashes funding for bike infrastructure, boosts spending on freeways and imposes a new tax on bicycle sales, the ranking could plummet further.

touting his record of slashing taxes on corporations and the wealthy

Yet Governor Walker and his allies in the Madison statehouse have found one corporate sector where they’re willing to raise taxes: bicycles. Though they have been hesitant to hesitant to consider boosting taxes on gasoline or vehicle registration fees, state lawmakers have been pushing a $25 tax on the sale of all new bicycles in the state, on top of the existing sales tax.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/06/03/3664754/scott-walkers-war-bikes/

[boutons_deux]

Scott Walker’s deranged new low: Force women to carry their rapists’ pregnancies and let men sue over abortion

Trent Franks’ version, is designed around the medically discredited claim that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks.

, the measure also allows men to sue for emotional damages. More from the bill (emphasis mine):

The bill allows the woman on whom the abortion was performed or attempted,and the father of the unborn child, unless the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest, to bring a claim for damages against a person who violates these limitations and requirements. A prosecuting attorney may also bring an action for injunctive relief for intentional or reckless violations of the limitations and requirements.

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/03/scot...over_abortion/

[boutons_deux]

Santorum's Clueless Pope Bashing Is Not Even Accurate

Santorum says the Pope should leave science to the scientists. The Pope has an advanced chemistry degree.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/santorum-says-pope-francis-who-has-masters-chemistry-should-leave-science-scientists

you repugs, rednecks, rightwingnuts are stupid, ignoarnt as your political leaders.

[boutons_deux]

Suphur Springs, rural east TX, these cretinous teachers probably vote Repug, and elect Gohmert!

TX teachers mock special ed students with ‘ghetto awards’ – insist they didn’t mean to degrade anyone

A Texas school district has launched an investigation into two middle school teachers’ years-long practice of distributing “Ghetto Awards” to children receiving special education services,

A 14-year-old Sulphur Springs Middle School student came home from school this week with a certificate that read “8th Annual Ghetto Classroom Awards” on top. The do ent stated the boy had specifically earned a “huh?” award this year for expressing so much confusion in class. Teachers had handed the certificates out to a classroom of students receiving supportive services for learning disabilities.

her son’s teachers don’t appear to understand that their annual “Ghetto Awards” were offensive.

Wilkins describes the teachers’ arguments as, “Ghetto was not supposed to be a malicious intent to degrade,” her son. According to Wilkins, teachers told her the certificate they gave her child “was supposed to be all in fun.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/tx-teachers-mock-special-ed-students-with-ghetto-awards-insist-they-didnt-mean-to-degrade-anyone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

You Stay Classy, Texas (and ing ignorant, with ty, low class teachers paid , no education)

[DarrinS]

[boutons_deux]

shovelin' Darrin's brain

[Slutter McGee]

You misunderstand. Are common core standards created, administered and enforced at the state or the federal level? Maybe that'll help you out.

Since you insist on being obtuse. Common Core is a program being forced on the states in much the same way that .08 BAC laws were forced. With funding incentives. Of course states can opt out, and lose tons of money. It's a national program.

ter McGee

[Th'Pusher]

Since you insist on being obtuse. Common Core is a program being forced on the states in much the same way that .08 BAC laws were forced. With funding incentives. Of course states can opt out, and lose tons of money. It's a national program.

ter McGee

Which states have lost funding for opting out of common core?