All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[worstblogever]

It was one year ago that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" had its first profile of Sally Kern who has voted in favor of every anti-choice bill in the Oklahoma legislature, no matter how extreme, voted for a ban on Sharia Law in the Sooner State, a bill to make it more difficult for people to get a divorce for incompatibility, and a bill to allow Creationists to teach “pure science” in class. In spite of being the wife of a pastor, and practitioner of a religion whose Savior was put to death, Kern is not just in favor of the death penalty, but would like it applied to second offense sex offenders (they’re scum and all, but come on, that’s a bit much). Kern had, on three separate occasions, sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to nullify federal law, and even sponsored a bill to prohibit compliance with the United Nations Agenda 21 conspiracy, presumably because she’s convinced it’s a plot for world domination. Even with all that, Sally Kern’s real bread and butter issue is LGBT rights, because she’s such a homophobic bigot that she’s said that homosexuals were destroying the United States and are more dangerous than terrorists (and vowed never to apologize for that statement), blamed the economic woes of ’07-’10 on same sex marriage, claimed gays are looking to exploit legalized gay marriage to also legalize polygamy and pedophilia, and longs for “the good old days when gays would get thrown in jail.” Kern has also commented on race and gender in the same speech in uncomfortable ways, saying that there is a larger percentage of African Americans than whites in prison because they “don’t work as hard in school” and that women don’t deserve equal pay to men because “they don’t work as hard”.

And yet, Sally Kern was elected to her sixth term in office representing Oklahoma’s District 84 in 2014 with 73% of the vote. The record shows that she is no less insane than the last time we profiled her, as evidenced by both her sponsorship of HB 1597 in January 2015 that would have made it legal for businesses to discriminate against gay people, as well as her her attempt a month later in February 2015 to try and advance legislation that would prohibit judges and clerks in Oklahoma from issuing marriage certificates to same sex couples, despite federal court decisions that already struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban.
If those weren’t enough, you can also look to HB 1598, which was meant to allow for the “freedom” for individuals to seek out gay conversion therapy, a practice that many human rights organizations have begun to classify as a human rights violation.

She remains one of the most dedicated, homophobic bigots in the Republican party, and that’s truly saying something. Hopefully, as public opinion continues to trend in favor of same sex marriage around the country, people in Oklahoma will continue giving her a pass for her revolting crusade.

[Malvolio]

It was one year ago that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" had its first profile of Sally Kern who has voted in favor of every anti-choice bill in the Oklahoma legislature, no matter how extreme, voted for a ban on Sharia Law in the Sooner State, a bill to make it more difficult for people to get a divorce for incompatibility, and a bill to allow Creationists to teach “pure science” in class. In spite of being the wife of a pastor, and practitioner of a religion whose Savior was put to death, Kern is not just in favor of the death penalty, but would like it applied to second offense sex offenders (they’re scum and all, but come on, that’s a bit much). Kern had, on three separate occasions, sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to nullify federal law, and even sponsored a bill to prohibit compliance with the United Nations Agenda 21 conspiracy, presumably because she’s convinced it’s a plot for world domination. Even with all that, Sally Kern’s real bread and butter issue is LGBT rights, because she’s such a homophobic bigot that she’s said that homosexuals were destroying the United States and are more dangerous than terrorists (and vowed never to apologize for that statement), blamed the economic woes of ’07-’10 on same sex marriage, claimed gays are looking to exploit legalized gay marriage to also legalize polygamy and pedophilia, and longs for “the good old days when gays would get thrown in jail.” Kern has also commented on race and gender in the same speech in uncomfortable ways, saying that there is a larger percentage of African Americans than whites in prison because they “don’t work as hard in school” and that women don’t deserve equal pay to men because “they don’t work as hard”.

And yet, Sally Kern was elected to her sixth term in office representing Oklahoma’s District 84 in 2014 with 73% of the vote. The record shows that she is no less insane than the last time we profiled her, as evidenced by both her sponsorship of HB 1597 in January 2015 that would have made it legal for businesses to discriminate against gay people, as well as her her attempt a month later in February 2015 to try and advance legislation that would prohibit judges and clerks in Oklahoma from issuing marriage certificates to same sex couples, despite federal court decisions that already struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban.
If those weren’t enough, you can also look to HB 1598, which was meant to allow for the “freedom” for individuals to seek out gay conversion therapy, a practice that many human rights organizations have begun to classify as a human rights violation.

She remains one of the most dedicated, homophobic bigots in the Republican party, and that’s truly saying something. Hopefully, as public opinion continues to trend in favor of same sex marriage around the country, people in Oklahoma will continue giving her a pass for her revolting crusade.

Does Sally Kern get paid less than her male counterparts in the Oklahoma legislature, and if so, is she okay with that?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Does Sally Kern get paid less than her male counterparts in the Oklahoma legislature, and if so, is she okay with that?

I'm guessing she is. She's a Republican after all, so it's party first, and gender a very DISTANT second. What irks me (though it shouldn't anymore) is that women no doubt voted for that shrew, also putting the party before their own self-interests, especially when it comes to equal pay in the workplace.

[weezer17]

Any opinions on the Clinton emails?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b00b033aaf0c6d

[KOSLOX]

Any opinions on the Clinton emails?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b00b033aaf0c6d

Since Top Secret implies need to know there's no way to be sure exactly what was on her server. Classification can get difficult, and there is a lot of over classification. If one bit of classified info slips in somewhere everything connected to it is elevated to that classification, so if someone else did a reply all or forward without upping the classification it would taint everything it touched and make something previously innocuous now top secret.

Either way, I think it's a massive screw up but not something to indict over unless the intent was to deliberately pass along top secret intel and communication.

[worstblogever]

It was this time last year that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" released its original profile of former U.S. Senator and Attorney General of Ohio, Mark DeWine, who once voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, supported Personhood amendments on abortion, and tried advocating for failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers by saying her lack of judicial experience would "add to the diversity of the Supreme Court". Since being booted from Washington, D.C. in 2006 and becoming the Attorney General of Ohio, DeWine has spent the time trying to use the power of his office on a partisan quest to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in Ohio with strict Voter ID measures, and then had the nerve to publicly accuse the Obama administration of "trying to suppress the military vote" during the 2012 elections. That' s hardly the end of his conservative endeavors in that role, as he also sued the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, and filed every legal brief he could to try and prevent the implementation of same sex marriage in Ohio, per Supreme Court rulings. Lastly, and perhaps most heinously, DeWine refused to press any charges against any of the teenagers involved in the Steubenville Rape Case, and only pressed charges against adults covering it up after months of public outcry. Remember, Mark DeWine's one job is to prosecute people who break the law in Ohio.

Our big update on Mark DeWine using his office for strictly partisan purposes and continuing to prove he's an idiot for this year seems to be mostly about how he passionately dove headlong into the controversy over the highly-doctored Planned Parenthood videos in July, immediately calling for an investigation into Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio based off of the screams of faux-outrage from his fellow Republicans. And... they ended up finding absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing, or that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue.

DeWine had the level-headed response, then, to accuse Planned Parenthood instead of disposing of fetal tissue in Ohio landfills in a press release on December 11th, 2015. This would replace one ridiculous accusation against Planned Parenthood with a second one, and they were about done with Attorney General DeWine's bulls***, and chose to file a lawsuit against the state of Ohio, as well as a restraining order and preliminary injunction for trying to get them to stop providing abortion services (which are still legal). Five days later, Republicans in the Ohio state legislature responded to DeWine's baseless accusations by introducing legislation that would require women to bury or cremate aborted or miscarried fetuses, making abortions even more expensive (given the burial or cremation costs), and eliminate an avenue for something positive to come out of the tragedy via fetal tissue donation.

As we reported last year, DeWine had already won re-election in the 2014 mid-term elections with 61% of the vote, and will remain in office until at least 2019 to continue his single-minded pursuit of a conservative agenda. Our bold prediction now is that next year's update will involve DeWine's efforts to try and see that the Republican nominee for president in 2016 wins the state of Ohio by hook and crook via shenanigans over election law, based off of how 2012 went.

[jeanvaljean]

Any opinions on the Clinton emails?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b00b033aaf0c6d

That's just confirmation of what everyone was expecting anyway. If she was using her private e-mail server in her official function as Secretary of State, what kind of content were you expecting? Funny pictures of cats?

[jeanvaljean]

President's Obama approval ratings have been steadily improving, and it's getting more and more obvious that RCP should ignore the yougov poll, which is largely internet based and completely out of touch with the trends in other polls.
If nothing unforeseen happens, Obama should be leaving office being more popular than Reagan was at that point. Or any Republican president in my lifetime.

[Paradox]

jeanvaljean wonders?:

That's just confirmation of what everyone was expecting anyway. If she was using her private e-mail server in her official function as Secretary of State, what kind of content were you expecting? Funny pictures of cats?

Why, crypto-secret fascist centrist dealings with "Wall Street" and "Big Pharma" of course. Plus evidence of puppy and kitten torture.

[JCAll]

That's just confirmation of what everyone was expecting anyway. If she was using her private e-mail server in her official function as Secretary of State, what kind of content were you expecting? Funny pictures of cats?

I was expecting mostly dick pics.

[CSTowle]

President's Obama approval ratings have been steadily improving, and it's getting more and more obvious that RCP should ignore the yougov poll, which is largely internet based and completely out of touch with the trends in other polls.
If nothing unforeseen happens, Obama should be leaving office being more popular than Reagan was at that point. Or any Republican president in my lifetime.

In defense of Reagan and his supporters, Obama doesn't have a massive scandal involving selling weapons to Iran to fund terrorists killing innocent people in Central/South America. A bit easier to have a rosy outlook on his legacy. Of course, he does have "Benghaziiiiiii!!!!" so maybe it evens out.

[Tendrin]

I was expecting mostly dick pics.

So pictures of Republicans in congress?

[CSTowle]

Any opinions on the Clinton emails?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b00b033aaf0c6d

I expect it to be one more thing on the pile of scandals, real or imagined, that will plague the Democratic ticket should she gain the nomination. Killing enthusiasm for her candidacy and candidates on the Democratic side in general. I expect talk of e-mails, Benghazi, Whitewater, Vince Foster, stained dresses, Marc Rich's pardon, shady dealings with the Clinton Foundation, and a thousand other things that make Independents and casual voters tune out or get angry. Whether there's anything there or not. Which, were she not a legacy with a reputation and career built on a family member's name and a person utterly unwilling to take any stand that isn't solidly safe and nonoffensive and showing zero leadership qualities, would be reason enough never to vote for her in the Primaries. She's poll booth poison. That said, it's the one thing that wouldn't change my vote come the General (the other stuff still applies, so she'll still never get my vote).

That's just confirmation of what everyone was expecting anyway. If she was using her private e-mail server in her official function as Secretary of State, what kind of content were you expecting? Funny pictures of cats?

It's the sort of non-issue that would be ignored by the Repubs if it were Colin Powell, and the sort of thing that would be railed against by the Dems if it were Colin Powell (but they didn't discover it at the time, and are generally terrible at personal attacks/non-issues outside of the Hillary campaign).

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I expect it to be one more thing on the pile of scandals, real or imagined, that will plague the Democratic ticket should she gain the nomination. Killing enthusiasm for her candidacy and candidates on the Democratic side in general. I expect talk of e-mails, Benghazi, Whitewater, Vince Foster, stained dresses, Marc Rich's pardon, shady dealings with the Clinton Foundation, and a thousand other things that make Independents and casual voters tune out or get angry. Whether there's anything there or not. Which, were she not a legacy with a reputation and career built on a family member's name and a person utterly unwilling to take any stand that isn't solidly safe and nonoffensive and showing zero leadership qualities, would be reason enough never to vote for her in the Primaries. She's poll booth poison. That said, it's the one thing that wouldn't change my vote come the General (the other stuff still applies, so she'll still never get my vote).

Somewhere in Washington, Joe Biden must be kicking himself for deciding not to run for president, because I'm sure he'd be the front runner over the scandal ridden Hillary. Will all that mess open the door for Bernie to make serious hay in the primaries? One can only hope, I guess we'll soon find out. I will vote for Bernie right now, but, when push comes to shove in the general election, whoever the Democratic nominee is, I will vote for him, or her over the madmen in the GOP.

[Tendrin]

I tend to think that calling HIllary 'scandal ridden' is giving too much credence to the smear jobs.