Wingnutties out of control!

[neoplacebo]

I read yesterday that the Republican Party of Kootenai County Idaho (this is the county in which the toddler shot and killed his mom in Wal Mart some weeks ago) intends to pass a resolution declaring Idaho a "Christian State." One of the apparently few county Republican Party members with any intelligence expressed his opposition to the resolution in the sense that voting against it would put one in the position of being "anti Christian" and further expressed his opinion that "....we should not be dividing ourselves by religion, but instead uniting ourselves in freedom." The article says there are about 70 members of the Party that are pushing the "Christian State" idea. I myself have passed my own resolution declaring Kootenai County Idaho a "Dubmass State." I have my suspicions that Kootenai County is mostly populated with rabid Christian fanatics and "sovereign citizen" types.

[billy.pilgrim]

Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R) wants to reform the rules of end-of-life medical care so that more cancer patients can simply flush out their disease using baking soda.

Fiore, who is also CEO of a healthcare company, told listeners to her weekly radio show on Saturday, that she will soon introduce a “terminally ill bill,” to allow more non-FDA-approved treatments for those diagnosed as having terminal illnesses.

As first reported by Jon Ralston, Fiore told listeners: “If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing, let’s say, salt water, sodium cardonate [sic], through that line, and flushing out the fungus… These are some procedures that are not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.” The American Cancer Society warns that while cancer patients whose immune systems are weakened by high doses of chemotherapy can sometimes contract fungal infections, “there is no evidence that antifungal treatment causes the patients’ tumors to shrink.” Cancer Research UK dismisses the claim that sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can cure cancer as a debunked “persistent cancer myth.”





Fiore added that Nevada is already “the capital of entertainment” and this bill could help “make it the medical capital of the world as well.”

Weeks after being removed from her position as Republican Majority Leader over allegations of more than $1 million in tax liens, Fiore made news last Wednesday for her assertion that “young, hot little girls on campus” need to be armed with guns to prevent themselves from being raped, saying that every citizen should “have the right to defend him or herself from sexual assault.”

In 2012, she proposed arming school officials and college students as a way of combating school shootings.

[bannination]

54% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim

That just goes to show you what confirmation bias is... I would have guessed closer to 75%.

[JTA]

Maybe it should change its name from a Native American one. The irony is too funny.

It's no surprise that Kootenai County once was home to the Aryan Nations white supremacist group, which I played a small role in defeating and disbanding. These bigoted, unAmerican, anti-Constitution commissioners will suffer the same fate.

Is this how it went down?

[neoplacebo]

That is without doubt the biggest anti Nazi squirrel I've ever seen.

[bannination]

Majority Of Republican Primary Voters Want To Violate The First Amendment

A national poll of Republican primary voters conducted by Public Policy Polling finds that 57 percent of these voters support “establishing Christianity as the national religion.” The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Only 30 percent of Republican voters believe that Congress should not make a law respecting an establishment of religion, according to the poll.

The same poll also finds that 74 percent of GOP primary voters have a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush. Two-thirds (66%) do not believe in global warming, and a plurality (49%) do not believe in evolution.

...and they probably believe the founding fathers support them 100%. That's just batshiat insane.

[neoplacebo]

Republicans are causing me to doubt evolution, too.

It's not evolution; it's self preservation. They know they have to appease the power mongers if they want to remain in their positions, even if it means casting away the people they're supposed to represent. That's why they represent the people that they now represent. Fortunately for them, a lot of misguided dubmasses vote for them against the general welfare of those very dubmasses that do.

[rstrong]

We have our own wingnutties up here too. Including a bad road rage incident the other day:

[neoplacebo]

Nope, didn't write to them at all.

[Bungalow Bill]

I guess they should get some credit for setting up the fund, however flawed
it is. And one can hope those flaws were due to ignorance and not paying
attention to details, rather than to doing so on purpose as to lower the
number of eligible people.

I'm no lawyer, but I'm betting they will get their butts kicked over the opt out
for state employees who do not want to perform same-sex marriages due to
religious beliefs. Ouch. :violent:

[O Really]

I

I'm no lawyer, but I'm betting they will get their butts kicked over the opt out
for state employees who do not want to perform same-sex marriages due to
religious beliefs. Ouch. :violent:

I have no doubt that butts will be kicked and names taken. They're going to try to say that making them do something against their religion is religious discrimination, sorta like making a Seventh Day Adventist work on Saturday, or not letting a Muslim face East and pray on his break. Problem is, the requirement to provide a "reasonable accommodation" for religious practices is not absolute. An extreme but realistic example would be if you have several people working and you can adjust schedules so that the Adventist doesn't work Saturday or the Baptist doesn't work on Sunday and get somebody to fill in for the Jew on Friday night without incurring overtime, then yes, you're supposed to do it. But if you're only open on Saturday (or Sunday),then you won't be forced to hire somebody whose religion forbids them to work then.

Handled informally, as an individual accommodation, they could make it work in the larger offices. If Bob doesn't want to sign paperwork or do same-sex marriages, then Heather can do those. Probably nobody would even know Bob had declined. But when you make it a law that a person can refuse to perform their government job for a religious belief, that's going to run into problems on several fronts. First, in the smaller offices, it could result in actual denial of services. Secondly, it can't be limited only to same sex marriages, because that precedent could and would be used to support other public employees "opting out" of providing services for other groups of people. There's more, but nothing that supports this really silly idea passing a court (or common sense) test. But what the hell, Republicans can afford to make laws they know are unconstitutional and spend money defending them - they can just take it out of the teacher's hides.

[Bungalow Bill]

Yep, most rights are not absolute. If someone is not willing to do the necessary
paperwork for same-sex marriages as a part of their government job, they can
quit that job. I think it would be practical in a large office to allow those who
don't wish to do that work to let another person do it, but as you mentioned,
that wouldn't fly in a small office where that one person could deny a couple
that paperwork.

It is fun to see the right wingers fighting so desperately against something that
is pretty much a done deal and will likely be even more so when the SCOTUS
probably rules for same sex marriage this summer. Sort of like those lone
Japanese soldiers on some little island still fighting the war. Sometimes you
just have to realize the fight is over and your side lost this one and it's time
to move on. Not that the wingnuts will get that.

[Bungalow Bill]

That's true. They didn't have all that backup that the legislators do.
But the latter will end up experiencing the same humiliating defeat.
Sweet.

[bannination]

Republican senator and presidential maybe-hopeful Lindsey Graham stopped by the "politics and pies" forum in Concord, New Hampshire, today, where he announced that if he is elected president in 2016, his first act will be to deploy the military in Washington to force Congress to reverse cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets.

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8193751/li ... itary-coup

These people scary.

Update: Graham's spokesperson has clarified to Bloomberg that when Graham said "I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to," that statement was "not to be taken literally." Glad that's been cleared up.

[billy.pilgrim]

unbelievable release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, via the Forecast the Facts Twitter feed.




It's been well-reported that Florida Governor Rick Scott has told state employees that they are not permitted to use the phrase "climate change" or "global warming." It's also public knowledge that other states, notably Pennsylvania and North Carolina, have gagged their employees in a similar manner.




Not to be outdone, it seems that Florida has now taken its policy to a new level, by suspending a Department of Environmental Protection employee for mentioning climate change in the official notes of a public meeting. And just to make sure that message is clear, the employee is also being forced to obtain a medical release related to his "behavior" before returning to work.




A quote from the PEER press release:





"Barton Bibler is a long-time DEP employee who now serves as Land Management Plan Coordinator in its Division of State Lands. He attended a Florida Coastal Managers Forum on February 27, 2015 at which climate change and sea-level rise were discussed among a mix of public attendees. Mr. Bibler’s official notes on this meeting reflected all of that discussion. He was directed to remove any hot button issues, especially explicit references to climate change, and then was given a letter of reprimand for supposedly misrepresenting that the “official meeting agenda included climate change.”

As he was given the reprimand on March 9th, Mr. Bibler was told to not return to work for two days which would be charged against his personal leave time. Two days later he received a “Medical Release Form” requiring that his doctor supply the DEP with an evaluation of unspecified “medical condition and behavior” issues before being allowed to return to work."





It's hard to know what to say about this, as it goes so far beyond the realm of acceptable, reality-based governance as to be absurd. It's one thing to assert that climate change is overblown, or that you can't have an opinion because you're "not a scientist." That's negligent and obtuse enough on its own. But to punish someone whose job it is to protect the state's environment for simply publishing accurate notes of a public meeting is a step beyond. Then to force that person to have their mental health evaluated as a condition of returning to work is an egregious and deeply disturbing abuse of power.




This is a truly Orwellian circumstance, in which the state seems to be implying that a recognition of reality is a sign of mental illness. If you accept the well-established scientific finding that global warming is both real and anthropogenic, you are clearly insane.




PEER has asked the DEP to open an investigation into this matter. One can only hope that this abuse of power, and the legal action that seems likely to follow, gains enough public attention to push the Scott administration toward accepting reality.




http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/1 ... ate-Change







Welcome to Rick Scott's FloriDUH.

[JTA]

Buncombe has NC's highest vaccine exemption rate

Religion sickens and kills kids.

Received: 3/23/2015 2:21:44 PM
From: Rep. Chuck McGrady <McGradyla@ncleg.net>
Subject: Newsletter from Rep. Chuck McGrady

... This week’s hot topic is S 346 [Enact Stricter Immunization Standards]. Introduced by two Republican Senators and Democratic Senator Terry Van Duyn (Buncombe), the bill would essentially repeal the religious exemption for vaccinations for various diseases. The bill is probably a reaction to the measles outbreak linked to Disneyland in California where someone from another country apparently brought the disease into the state. California, like North Carolina, has a rather liberal standard for requiring vaccinations for measles and other diseases, and suddenly children were catching measles, a disease largely wiped out in the United States.

Under current state law, a parent or guardian of a child can get an exemption for their child from school immunization requirements simply by submitting “a written statement of the bona fide religious beliefs and opposition to the immunization requirements.” Similarly, adults can also exempt themselves from required immunizations for colleges and universities.. Under the legislation, while repealing the religious exemption, medical exemptions would still be permitted with a doctor’s signature.

Buncombe County apparently has the state’s highest rate of religious exemptions. About 1 in 20 students enrolling in Buncombe County and Asheville schools aren't vaccinated, and that is why Senator Van Duyn said she joined in introducing the legislation.

When I left Raleigh last week, there was no discussion of this issue. By the weekend, many of my incoming emails related to this subject. Evidently, the legislation aroused the ire of a large number of people who object to having their kids vaccinated. Interestingly, while I’m getting lots of emails about the subject, none of the communications are coming from my constituents—no one from Henderson County....

To: McGradyla@ncleg.net
Subject: RE: Newsletter from Rep. Chuck McGrady

Dear Rep. McGrady,

As always, thanks for staying in touch and with such detail.

I have not looked at the details of S 346 [Enact Stricter Immunization Standards], but I wholly support the principle. No one has the "religious" right to endanger other kids, or to cost the state so much money when there's an outbreak....

Sincerely,
(Vrede)

Buncombe has NC's highest vaccine exemption rate

Asheville is in Buncombe county. Wonder if this is the doing of Asheville hippies into all of that new agey bullshit. I've got some friends on facebook into that BS and they're hardcore against vaccinations.

[neoplacebo]

I forgot to include the mention from later in his now deleted newsletter that McGrady has not yet decided how to vote on S 346.

I suspect he has to pray on the matter a little, in order that he may see a sign to guide him. But I could be wrong.

[Boatrocker]

The Governor Of Iowa Makes Sarah Palin Seem Like A Rocket Scientist (VIDEO).
That may be a stretch, but below a certain level of idiocy, who's stupider than who is almost meaningless. Just remember: this fucker has the power to call out the National Guard.
Red states. Jeezus.

[Boatrocker]

Walmart Suddenly Closes Five Stores Without Notifying Employees

Check this out for your daily dose of RWNJ crackhead paranoia.

[bannination]

Walmart Suddenly Closes Five Stores Without Notifying Employees

Check this out for your daily dose of RWNJ crackhead paranoia.

From the comments:

Scott Gerald Reinhart · Works at Integrity Marketing & Fundraising
Something big is coming from Obama. He wants to be king.

OMG.....