Health of Today's GOP: On Life Support and Running out of Oxygen!

Every day that goes by, it is increasingly difficult to remain in the Republican Party which has gone so far hard right that I am not sure it will ever go back center right.  The latest talking point is that Obama is trying to destroy the GOP.  All the President has to do is sit back, eat some popcorn, and watch it happen as the GOP implodes.  More and more center right/moderate Republicans are increasingly talking about switching party registration thanks to a Republican Party which has gone hard right.

Wasn't happy with the GOP in 2008 but nothing compared to my disgust in 2012.  From inside the party with all the emails, it looks to me like the Party is nothing but an arm of the hard right Koch Brothers organization like Americans for Prosperity, ALEC, Freedom Works, and Cato Institute along with the Tea Party groups.  The GOP has become very hateful and extremely deceitful in their move hard right.  They will say or do anything for votes today in order to take over to push their extreme agenda.

Been involved on Twitter this past weekend where a conservative group sponsored by the Koch Brothers along with the Tea Party Express decided it was their responsibility to get progressives kicked off Twitter or anyone that posted against the hard right, Koch Brothers, Tea Party, GOP, etc.  As more and more progressives were getting suspended, several of us who are still Republican figured we were next.  Someone came up with an idea to protect all of our Free Speech by joining together as a group.  @UniteBlue stepped up to the plate to have us join.  Since then, I have met some of the most interesting people including a lot of former Republicans, sports fans, and people associated with the military/industrial complex.  Today I seem to have more in common with a lot of Progressives who are center left then I do the hard right GOP.

My takeaway from this weekend's experience is that some conservatives only want Free Speech when it applies to what they are saying.  In their small minds on Twitter they go after anyone who disagrees with them to get them suspended or even banned.  That 'my way or no way' mentality is seeing the light of day and a lot of Republicans are as disgusted with the hard right as the Democrats/Independents if not more so as we see what is happening to our Party and absolutely nothing we can do as leadership only listens to the wealthy donors like the Koch Brothers.

Re-electing the same RNC Chair Priebus who oversaw the debacle in 2012 says it all about the health of today's Republican Party -- it is on life support and running out of oxygen.  Anyone with half a brain knows that Preiebus is nothing more than the Koch Brothers puppet from Wisconsin who will do anything they say like pushing the ALEC plan on electoral votes to steal the 2016 election.  Already FL and VA are standing up and saying count us out.  PA, OH, MI, and WI are still moving ahead knowing full well that the Congressional seats are gerrymandered so bad that they don't truly represent the voters of the states.  ALEC has also been pushing Right to Work laws in states as well.

In Oklahoma, a Right to Work state,  union membership went up 22% in 2012 as workers are discovering the unions were the only people looking out for manufacturing and construction workers. Oklahoma has gained about 9,000 manufacturing and 3,000 construction jobs since the beginning of 2011 which could also be accounting for the rise in union membership.  My Dad always said if there were no unions, that heads of companies would not treat their workers well.  Looks like he was right.  The Koch Brothers seem to be pretty anti-worker with their push to rid the Country of unions, minimum wage laws, medicare/medicaid and social security as we know it but the GOP goes right along with them.

Koch Brothers seem to want to take over the Country and Republican leadership is falling right in line.  They have lost all common sense in the GOP as they have tracked hard right and now see their problem as the way the message is delivered not the message.  Note to GOP:  It is your agenda no matter how you dress it up!

Let me give you a few examples of today's Stupid GOP in the States:

Texas Public Schools: Still Teaching Creationism 

In Texas public schools, children learn that the Bible provides scientific proof that Earth is 6,000 years old, that the origins of racial diversity trace back to a curse placed on Noah's son, and that astronauts have discovered "a day missing in space" that corroborates biblical stories of the sun standing still. 

These are some of the findings detailed in Reading, Writing & Religion II, a new report by the Texas Freedom Network that investigates how public schools in the Lone Star State promote religious fundamentalism under the guise of offering academic courses about the Bible. The report, written by Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, found that more than half of the state's public-school Bible courses taught students to read the book from a specifically Christian theological perspective—a clear violation of rules governing the seperation of church and state.

Other states are trying to follow Texas who more bills waiting to pass but so far their efforts with nine bills have been stopped in Committee in TX, KY, FL, TN, OK, NM, and MO.  In a time of dwindling dollars they want to teach the earth is 6,000 year old crap.  Some parents refused to allow their children to go to Natural History Museums like the Ed Noble Museum of Natural History we have on the University of Oklahoma campus.  Do these people fear their children might see the truth about natural history and how old the is the earth by viewing the various time periods the earth has gone through over 4.54 billion years.  Yet this group of Creationists want us to believe the earth is only 6,000 years old?   It is a travesty to teach Creationism in the schools since the very idea comes from such a small but loud group of evangelicals. 

Texas Legislature strikes again:

Texas Legislature Wants To Reward Companies That Deny Employees Contraception 

By Annie-Rose Strasser posted from ThinkProgress Health on Jan 28, 2013 at 1:06 pm 

A bill recently introduced in the Texas state house aims to reward employers who violate Obamacare, offering subsidies to any company that uses religious objection as an excuse for denying its employees copay-free contraception. 

House Bill 649, introduced by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R), was apparently inspired by the controversy over craft chain store Hobby Lobby. That store sued to deny its employees contraception coverage, citing its male president’s religious objections. But since Hobby Lobby, and companies like it, will be forced to pay a fine for violating the law, Strickland wants to compensate them with tax breaks: 

The tax credit would be limited to the amount of a federal fine that the company pays or the amount of state tax the company owes.

“When a business is being stressed nearly to the point of bankruptcy by punitive federal taxes, of course the state should give them relief,” Stickland said in the news release.[...] 

“The Obama administration’s mandate and their threats to bury Hobby Lobby with $1.3 million per day in tax penalties aren’t just unconstitutional, they’re unconscionable,” he said. “It is simply appalling that any business owner should have to choose between violating their religious convictions and watching their business be strangled by the strong arm of Federal mandates and taxation.”

By offering to help compensate these companies, Strickland is accepting a drastic cut in funding to the Texas government. His plan proposes letting organizations like Hobby Lobby off the hook for state taxes up to the amount they owe in federal penalties. Since Hobby Lobby is estimated to owe a fine of $1.3 million a day (more, in a year, than it would be paying in state taxes), Hobby Lobby would get a pass on giving a single cent to the state of Texas.

You want stupid -- look no further then Texas to understand why many are predicting that because of Governor Perry and the Legislature, the state is going back to the Democrats in the next ten years.  I used to laugh at that but with some of the dumb things coming out of Austin, I beginning to agree with that analysis.  The bill on Obamacare they want to pass will most likely not pass a court test but Texas leadership opposes Obamacare so much they are willing to risk taxpayer money to get Hobby Lobby off the hook and allow them to not provide contraceptives to their employees.

It is not only Texas but in Arizona:

Arizona Bill Requires Hospitals To Screen Immigration Status Of Uninsured Patients 

Hospitals would need to check the immigration status of uninsured patients under a new bill introduced by an Arizona lawmaker. Rep. Steve Smith’s (R) H.B. 2293 would require hospital staff to “reasonably confirm” patients’ status during check-in or treatment, and immediately report those who do not have the required papers to immigration officials.
Smith claimed it is a hospital’s civic duty to check immigration status:

“I would hope if you witnessed somebody who is not lawfully present in this country taking advantage of, getting, acquiring any benefit or social service or something that they’re not entitled to, or something they’re abusing or neglected, I would hope somebody would pick up the phone and go, ‘Maricopa police, Buckeye police, I think — I’m not sure — but I think this is happening.”’

The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association has already rejected the attempt to turn hospitals into another front for immigration enforcement: “When does this begin or end?” a spokesman said. “What other industry should be screening their customers for citizenship verification?”

Cannot leave out NM and their strange bill to jail the woman for getting an abortion after being raped:

New Mexico Bill Would Make Abortion After Rape A Felony 

A Republican state lawmaker in New Mexico has proposed a bill outlawing abortion in cases of rape, arguing that to conduct a termination would amount to "tampering with evidence" of a crime. 

The draft legislation proposed by Cathrynn Brown would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term so that the baby could be used as evidence during a sexual assault trial. 

And a woman who terminated her pregnancy following an alleged rape would face being charged with a third-degree felony.

Some of you may ask where are the Oklahoma stupid bills, just wait as the legislature is not session.  I can guarantee you from what I am hearing we will be the winner again for stupid bills submitted by the hard right that will never stand up in the Courts.  Why let that stand in the way as they push bills knowing full well they never will become law as they play to their base and cost the taxpayers money defending their stupid unconstitutional bills.

Thought the Democrats were bad when they were in charge of some of the legislatures but frankly they were much better then the hard right Republicans who have been elected to the legislatures in states like mine.  I really feel for the new Speaker of the House who is a really good person who believes in fairness because he has to put up with some of the OK nutcases.  There is no other word for some of these people.  More on that this week about the Oklahoma Congressman Langford and his strange ideas now he has been elected to a 2nd term.