The Republican "Insurrection" Metastasizes

Obama Derangement Syndrome. Yes, it is a bit like beating a dead horse, but the New York Times senses that we've entered a new phase in Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party efforts to undermine President Obama and his legacy:

It is a peculiar, but unmistakable, phenomenon: As Barack Obama’s presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier and more destructive.

Republican lawmakers in Washington and around the country have been focused on blocking Mr. Obama’s agenda and denigrating him personally since the day he took office in 2009. But even against that backdrop, and even by the dismal standards of political discourse today, the tone of the current attacks is disturbing. So is their evident intent — to undermine not just Mr. Obama’s policies, but his very legitimacy as president. [snip]

If this insurrection is driven by something other than a blend of ideological extremism and personal animosity, it is not clear what that might be. But it is ugly, it deepens mistrust of government and it harms the office of the president, not just Mr. Obama.

There's a lot in the editorial between the "snip," so have a look.

All the key words are there:  "destructive," "rage," "denigrating," "insurrection," "animosity," "ugly," "mistrust," "ideological extremism," etc.  That we are even in this discussion, we believe, is a direct result of left and moderate voters not going to the polls in the 2010 and 2014 off-year elections, at the Federal, State and local levels.  It's what has saddled this country with a claque of ultra-reactionary office-holders who flaunt the popular will and Democratic governance, and who are determined to hold onto power at all costs.

BONUS:  Reinforcement of the above, via human/ reptile hybrid Dick "Dick" Cheney, from Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"The South Always Resists"

(click on image to enlarge)

(Stuart Carlson, via gocomics.com)

Leonard Pitts, on the "tradition" of Alabama Republican Supreme Court Chief "Justice" Roy "Less Is Less" Moore's anti-same sex marriage bigotry:

Last week, apparently channeling his inner George Wallace, Moore, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, ordered the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. This was in defiance of a federal court that had struck down as unconstitutional Alabama’s ban on gay unions. [snip]

... History reminds us that whenever social change comes too fast for the South’s taste — which is to say, whenever social change comes — there seems to invariably arise some demagogue to decry the “tyranny” of having to obey the law and follow court orders. The South always resists. 

That’s what necessitated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Freedom Rides of 1961. It’s why federal troops had to march into Little Rock in 1957. For that matter, it’s why they had to march into Richmond in 1865. The demagogues always use the same justification, always say that in denying it the right to discriminate as it sees fit, the federal government steps on the South’s “traditions.”

As they were in 1865, 1957, 1961 and 1965, today's Southern brain-fried bigots (joined by many millions of bigots everywhere else in the country) are on the wrong, losing side of history.  As Pitts notes, resistance to any change is, historically, a particularly Southern reaction.  But even more, it's just the natural reaction of small-minded, parochial, ignorant people regardless of where they live. That the chief "justice" of Alabama's highest court should be leading this resistance, given the State's reactionary history, is especially noteworthy and offensive, but not altogether surprising.

BONUS:  As might be expected, the boys in bedsheets have issued a "call to arms."  Isn't "tradition" wonderful?

BONUS II:  Looks like we got some bigots in the Mississippi judicial system, too.  Shocking.

BONUS III:  And the Mississippi legislature.

Rethug Rebranding: Nullification Edition

During the years leading up to the Civil War, southern slave states pushed the notion that they could "nullify" Federal laws that impinged on their system of slavery.  That notion ended with their defeat in the Civil War….or so we thought, until recent babblings by members of the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party surfaced.

Case in point:  Rethuglican candidate for Senate in Iowa and castration enthusiast Joni "The Castrator" Ernst, who was recorded in 2013 advocating the "nullification" of Federal laws: 

"You know we have talked about this at the state legislature before, nullification. But, bottom line is, as U.S. Senator, why should we pass laws that the states are considering nullifying?"

The idea that states can pick and choose what Federal laws to obey or not is the root of secessionism, and has no basis in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution that these idiots often claim.  The political irony, of course, is that this is what the first Republican President Abraham Lincoln fought against, and gave his life for.  His latter-day party, festooned with Confederate symbols and talk of secession, would be unrecognizable to him.

UPDATE:  Then there's this Rethug secessionist clown who thinks that the national anthem is "Dixie."

UPDATE II:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has the list of some pretty significant laws that were passed that wouldn't have if The Castrator's "ground rules" had been in play.

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party

From the "booming" State of Texas, where they sure know how to keep the public safe, boy howdy:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas House approved a batch of bills Saturday to further soften gun laws that were already among the country's most firearms-friendly, allowing college students to carry handguns in class, putting potentially armed marshals in public schools and exempting the state from any future federal bans on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines or universal background checks.

Nullification and handguns in classrooms all in one legislative session!  Those are some busy Republican peckerwoods down there!  And while he's at it, the Peckerwood-in-Chief, Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry, wants to make a historical atrocity analogy about the Boy Scouts and The Gays (hint:  it's all about having the courage to discriminate!).

Speaking of nullification, let's see what Rethug Gov. Brownshirtback of  Kansas is up to:

... dozens of states are considering bills that attempt to nullify federal gun laws. One such bill became a law last month in Kansas. It exempts “Made in Kansas” guns from federal regulation and makes it a crime for federal agents to enforce federal law.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently wrote to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, saying the law is “unconstitutional,” and that the U.S. is prepared to sue Kansas to prevent the state from “interfering with the activities of federal officials.”

Now, Brownback has fired back.

In a letter to Holder yesterday, Brownback wrote: “The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will. It is my hope that upon further review, you will see their right to do so.”

Let's see... if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be John C. Calhoun!

Finally, to Mr. Calhoun's cradle of secession State of South Carolina, where Appalachian Trail hiker "Gaucho Mark" Sanford may be on the verge of winning (or not) tomorrow's off-year Congressional race in a heavily Rethuglican district.  We hear from the estimable Charles P. Pierce (again) about how the disgraced former adulterer Governor could possibly, er, pull it out:

This has become a tribal conflict, and Mark Sanford's tribe is bigger, that's how. Most of the god-bothering yahoos were quite upset with Sanford's intercontinental sins of the flesh but, deep in their lizard brains, they know what counts and Sanford gave them the proper totem to hate and soon, the fever swamps resounded with whooping and hollering and chanting and the reek of burning entrails. This is not political. It is theological. It is not people going to the polls. It is people, maddened by thirst, wandering through the Sinai screaming their prayers into the undying sun.

Hate and stupid:  forces to be reckoned with in today's New Confederate/ Rethuglican/ Stupid Party.

Local Yokel Not To Be Confused With Justice John Marshall

In a letter to Vice President Biden, Linn County (Oregon) Yokel Sheriff Tim Mueller says he'll be the one to decide what Federally-mandated gun laws he will or will not uphold in his neck of the woods, f**k you very much. As the nullifying Oregon solon stated in an interview:

"We're restricted and prohibited from enforcing all types of federal laws, including immigration laws. It would be unreasonable for anyone to think that I would enforce a federal firearms law."

Yes, totally unreasonable! Daily Kos' 88 Kathy has penned a fantasy response letter from VP Biden that encapsulates our thoughts on this "we are a cafeteria of laws" cop:

Dear Linn County Board of Commissioners.

RE: Crazed letter from Sheriff Mueller, January 14, 2013

Your sheriff has lost his mind. Please remove him from office for the safety of the public.

All off and on ramps for Interstate 5 though your county, all off and on ramps for Highways 20 and 126 will be closed until your county wishes to elect a sheriff who will comply with federal laws.

Your Friend,
VPTOUS

(Photo: Sheriff Tim with his letter to Santy Claus VP Biden.)

Crackpot Cracker Confederates

The insanity just doesn't stop. Here we have language from a bill introduced in the Georgia State legislature sanctioning "nullification" -- i.e., the unconstitutional proposition that a State has the right to ignore any Federal law it chooses. If you remember your history, that's one of the issues the Civil War was fought over. Apparently, two of the crackpot crackers who lead the Rethuglican/ New Confederate party in Georgia think the issue wasn't settled and needs to be fought all over again.

Here's the text of two parts of the bill, introduced by Rethuglican Majority Leader Chip "Off The Old Blockhead" Rogers and Rethuglican President Pro Tem Tommie "Bobby Joe Cletus Bocephus" Williams, so you can see for yourself the latest depths to which the low-information, secessionist peckerwoods known collectively as the Rethuglican Party have sunk:

"(1) There is created the Joint Commission on Recommendation, which shall be charged with recommending and proposing for a vote by a constitutional majority the nullification in its entirety of a specific federal law or regulation which is deemed to be outside the scope of the powers delegated by the people to the federal government in the United States Constitution or at odds with the Georgia Constitution . . .

"(4) Upon recommendation for nullification, the General Assembly may vote to nullify following such recommendation. The appropriate documentation reflecting the vote shall be documented in legislative journals of the House and Senate. In the event the General Assembly votes by a constitutional majority to nullify any federal statute, mandate, or executive order on the grounds of constitutionality, neither the state nor its citizens shall recognize or be obligated to live under such statute, mandate, or executive order."

I'm all in favor of another March to the Sea, but this time burn it all down.

(Photo: Perfectly at home in today's Rethuglican/ New Confederate Party - the original Nullifier, John C. Calhoun)