Admittedly, I follow Huffington Post and Politico on Facebook, so I tend to see a lot of right-wing idiocy on an almost daily basis. But today takes the freaking cake. I have to ask this: has the GOP leadership honestly and collectively decided to outlaw members of their party from using their brains? Its unconscionable to me how this much idiocy and blatant disrespect for humanity can come from a single party. What's worse, people still vote for these idiots! First off, a Virginia state Senator, Steve Martin, said that "mothers are just a host" to their unborn fetus. Seriously, what? If the mother is now a "host", biologically, that makes the fetus a parasite. If he's seriously going to call a fetus a parasite, and say it has rights, what's next? The pro-tapeworm lobby? I get it, the guy is pro-life, but these people need to use the right wording around an open microphone. Now, we leave the Old Dominion for our next stop on my morning Idiotour. Next up, is the Lone Star State of Texas, home to more brain-dead politicians than any other state in the Union it would seem, and since it's Texas, and everything is bigger in that state, you won't be disappointed with this doozy. John Cornyn's primary challenger, Chris Mapp, said it would be okay to shoot "wetbacks" on site. If that's not enough to get this guy committed to a state mental hospital, just wait for it. He said teachers should be allowed to shoot those students on site. He then defended the use of the ethnic slur and his comments. Did I mention Texas has a significant number of voting citizens with Hispanic ancestry? Next up, the Grand Canyon State. Oh yes, this wouldn't be a proper assessment of GOP idiocy without a stopover in that wonderfully ass-backward state of Arizona. We all know how their state legislature has passed a bill to codify discrimination based on sexual orientation. But now, after all the votes have been tallied and the bill is on Governor Brewer's desk for signature, many Republicans are falling over themselves trying to admit they made a mistake. You think? Arizona has both a due process clause and an equal protection clause within it's Constitution. In fact, the Arizona equal protection clause is stronger than the Fourteenth Amendment's, saying that "No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations." Let's also not forget, this is not the first time Arizona tried something like this. After the federal establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Arizona refused to recognize the day, leading to the Super Bowl being pulled from Tempe. Guess what? Arizona is hosting the Super Bowl next year. I think the state Chamber of Commerce and several other conservative business leaders realized that, and now they're trying to un-Charlie Fox their Charlie Fox. That doesn't change the fact that they passed the damn bill in the first place. Lastly, for the ultimate in Republican idiocy for the day, we head to the nation's capital. Given the sheer density of idiocy inherent to a city that plays host to the United States Congress, this one is a double-whammy. First off, you have the partisan move by Senator Jerry Moran who successfully blocked a bill regarding combating sexual harassment in the United States military because he wanted to lump in an unrelated bill regarding toughening sanctions on Iran. Really. This guy blocked legislation to improve American force readiness by increasing the penalties for those who sexually assault their fellow servicepeople and then wanted to introduce a bill that would more than likely halt progress on the nuclear talks with Iran by trying to toughen sanctions. And people here are talking about how the President steps on the toes of Congress? Foreign policy is the domain of the President, yet nobody seems to give a rat's ass about inching a step closer to another war. Then, we have the Republican lobbyist who is drafting a bill to preclude gays from the NFL. As if that doesn't smack of discrimination on its face. The NFL is a private enterprise, and as such, it is up to the controllers of that enterprise to determine whether or not they want homosexuals employed. The NFL has a non-discrimination policy that already covers sexual orientation.
