Republican Jackass of the Week

This week it's the entire Oklahoma House Education committee that voted on Monday (11-4) to ban their Advanced Placement U.S. History Class, which is an optional course that allows advanced students to obtain college credits while still in high school.

What's the reason?

They claim the course only teaches students "what is bad about America," and fails to teach "American exceptionalism."

Nonsense. No history course does such a thing. But these self-proclaimed patriots want to whitewash American history so that all of the ugly stuff they'd rather not think about would just evaporate out of textbooks. Poof!

Millions of Native Americans killed upon our ancestors' arrival? Never happened. Slavery? Lynchings? Japanese internment camps? The KKK? Segregation? Voter suppression? Nope. Never happened either.

This whole "American exceptionalism" thing is insanity. We are to teach kids that we are superior to others around the world simply by virtue of having been born here. We are the "city upon a hill" that no one else can match, they like to claim.

Baloney. But it sounds nice in political speeches.

Recent efforts by some rightwing school board members in Colorado attempted to make their history courses "more patriotic" in much the same way. Proposed changes meant "students would only be taught lessons depicting American heritage in a positive light and effectively ban any material that could lead to dissent."

Colorado students walked out en masse.  Oklahoma students and teachers need to do the same.

American history must be taught in its entirety, including the good, the bad and the ugly. And there's plenty in each of those categories.

The Oklahoma House Education Committee -- this week's Republican Jackass of the Week.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Mary Fallin (R), Governor of Oklahoma.

Who knew this little-known far rightwinger would be so over-qualified for this honor?

This is the woman who pushed for the use of an unknown cocktail of drugs used in the horrifically botched execution in her state earlier this week.

She signed a bill banning Oklahoma cities from raising the minimum wage.

She refused to accept the federal money already on the table for Medicaid Expansion in her state.

She slashed education funding.

She ordered the withholding of same sex benefits to those serving in the Oklahoma National Guard.  Then she dropped benefits for all National Guard members' spouses to avoid serving same sex couples.

And she signed into law an extra tax for those who use solar power.

Mary Fallin, a real Republican Jackass of the Week.

2 Bonus Republican Jackasses of the Week

So in redder-than-red Oklahoma these days, they are so PO'ed about same sex marriage, and not being able to legally ban it, that they're considering banning all marriages in the state just so "them thar perverts" can't get married.

But that's a different story for another day.

This is about Oklahoma's State House, Senate and Governor establishing a law that now punishes residents for saving energy by using solar panels on their homes.

Yes, in Oklahoma you'd better write a nice big fat check if you're not supporting oil-powered or coal-fired electricity.

In most states, if your home actually produces more energy than you consume, you can put it back to the grid and make a few bucks. But not in Oklahoma.

Read more here.

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Hey, what's new in Georgia these days? Well, thanks to their Republican legislature and Republican governor there's a new gun law on the books.

And it's got one of those wonderfully misleading names Republicans love so much. Like the "Healthy Forest Initiative" which allowed for clearcutting.

This one's called the Safe Carry Protection Act, better known as the Guns Everywhere Law.

It allows licensed gun owners to take their loaded weapons into schools, school zones, churches, bars, nightclubs, some parts of airports and some government buildings.

Guns in schools. I can't imagine a problem. Can you?

Guns and drunks in bars. What could possibly go wrong?

Interesting that these legislators seem to think it's fine and dandy to pack heat everywhere, except you still can't bring your gun to the State Capital where they  work. No, that would be dangerous.

I guess it's the same hypocritical reason that the NRA and gun nuts want loaded guns everywhere except at gun shows.

You'd better unload that thing before walking into a gun show. Somebody could get hurt after all.

The legislatures and governors of Georgia and Oklahoma. This week's bonus Republican Jackasses of the Week.

Republican Jackass of the Week

As I posted on The Facebook earlier this week:

Horrific destruction in Oklahoma. Should we send billions in aid? Without a doubt.
But let's remember that when the same aid was needed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the two rightwing Teabagger Jackasses from Oklahoma (Sen Tom Coburn and Sen Jim Inhofe) voted NO.

Now Coburn is firing back at everyone who criticized him for demanding that emergency funding should be offset with equal spending cuts somewhere else. He says there's no need for emergency funding, which tends to attract unnecessary "pork" benefiting unrelated issues in other states, since the money is already available in a separate account.

Congress did indeed budget about $18 billion for disasters in 2013. But Coburn had nothing to do with it. The House and Senate funded that amount to FEMA for emergencies without any strings -- or offsets -- attached. Coburn voted against that. And he voted against disaster aid to Hurricane Sandy victims. And he claims he wants offsets for the money that his own state gets.

He can make all these grandiose claims to pander to the far rightwing Teabaggers who elected him. But it doesn't matter. The House and Senate have already set aside that money for just such emergencies with no offsets needed.

So this phony gets the best of both worlds: saying no but getting truckloads of federal money for his state.

Senator Tom Coburn: our Regressive Republican Jackass of the Week. Oh, and a big fat hypocrite.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Meet Oklahoma House Majority Leader Dennis Johnson.

Johnson used his time during an Oklahoma House debate to discuss effective strategies for small business owners. Here's what he said:

"There’s such a thing called 'niche marketing,' he began. “You find out what you do better than somebody else and that’s what you market. Then you get the reward of success. People come back to you,” he continued. “They like the service they get, and they don’t ask me—they might try to Jew me down on a price, that’s fine. You know what? That’s free market as well.”

Immediately after this anti-Semitic comment, someone off camera says something like, "what was that?"

After a befuddled attempt to figure out what he said, he kinda, sorta apologized.

“I apologize to the Jews. They’re good small businessmen as well."

Wow. "I apologize to the Jews." 

Hilarious and pathetic at the same time, he then uses the second stereotype to backup his apology:

"They’re good small businessmen as well."

This comes right on the heels of the other Regressive Republican, Alaska Congressman Don Young, who recently said, "My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes."