The Pro Life Party ? Um-hmmm...

Really? The Pro Life Party.

The Rethugs have gone out of their way over the years, ever since Roe v. Wade, to brand themselves as "pro-life". They even went so far as to make a bunch of huge-lettering "Choose Life" t-shirts available through churches and youth groups and whatnot, to the point where my pre-adolescent daughter came home with one from somewhere.

"Do you know what it means?" I asked her. She said she did, but it turned out to be one of those "kinda sorta a whole bunch but not really" things. After a little foray into parental education, she came away with a more balanced view, but I had to hand it to the Rethugs and their minions in the fundo churches: They do know how to brand an issue. Never mind that they don't really believe in what they are bible-thumping over. That doesn't matter. They are "Pro Life", which leaves the rest of us to be, what? Pro Death? That's really not working for us, is it? But that's what happens when we let them define us.

So what are we to make of the Pro Life Party now? Last week they erupted into frenzied applause when PRick Perry preened about the stage and crowed over the number of death row inmates he had murdered.

I didn't get to watch last night's "debate" for some technical reasons (satellite dish problems), but I awoke to the news that Crazy-Old-Man Ron Paul got the Teabaggers rockin' when he talked about "personal responsibility" and health care.

It appears that if you get sick and don't have insurance, or if your insurance cuts you off, that's pretty much on you. You should have known better and planned for it. That's what Ron Paul would have done to this hypothetical patient -- turned him over to the good graces of "Christian" charity. Society has no useful role in making the potentially ill be healthy or keeping the soon-to-be-dead from fulfilling their destiny as inhabitants of a morgue-bound body bag.

When moderator Wolf Blitzer called him on it -- "Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?" -- the crowd erupted into shouts of "Yeah!"

And they are the Pro-Life Party. Uhhhh, yeah... okay....

Weiner Just a Wiener Wagger

Come on the guy Weiner was a freakin' piker when it comes to a side-by-side meat shop comparison with the offenders on the ReThuglicon side: (From www.republicansexoffenders.com/"):

• Tom Ganley, former Republican Congressional candidate, and current "Family Values" hypocrite, is facing three felony charges of gross sexual imposition, and single counts of kidnapping, abduction, solicitation, and menacing by stalking, according to Ryan Miday, a spokesman for County Prosecutor Bill Mason. No arraignment date has been set. Mr. Ganley allegedly groped a woman in his car dealership and attempted to insert his fingers in her vagina after sticking his hands down her pants. See the original complain here.
• Alan David Berlin, 40, a longtime staffer for a Republican state lawmaker, was charged on May 29, 2009 with a first degree felony for unlawful contact with a minor. He is also charged with criminal attempted sexual exploitation of children, criminal solicitation to commit sexual abuse of children, all second-degree felonies, and other offenses. authorities say Berlin suggested dressing up in animal costumes during online sex chats with a 15-year-old boy. During a search, agents found wolf- and cat-type costumes in his home.
• Republican sex offender & former Regent University law school assistant dean Stephen L. McPherson, who was indicted June 7, 2008 on 13 felony sexual assault charges involving two girls, has entered a guilty plea to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22. There was no agreement on a potential sentence, except that prosecutors will recommend a cap of 18 years and six months.
• Republican sex offender and former North Country assemblyman and current state Parole Board member, George "Chris" Ortloff, 61, was arrested on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008 on federal charges that he used the Internet to solicit sex with minors. He was arrested following a sting operation at a Colonie motel and had allegedly arranged for a date with a minor he met on the Internet. '' The New York Post reports that he had child pornography and sex paraphernalia in his possession when he was arrested. State Police reportedly searched Ortloff'''s home in Plattsburgh and a computer had been seized from his Lake Placid real estate office, officials said. Ortloff, married with two sons, retired from the Assembly in 2006 having represented the 110 th District. '' He was appointed to the part-time position on the Parole Board, a six year term which expires in 2012, a position paying him $102,000 a year.
• Republican sex offender & Missouri State Rep. Scott Muschany, (R)-Frontenac, was indicted today, Aug 6, 2008, in connection with a reported sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl on May 17, the day after this year’s Legislative session ended. The alleged victim is the daughter of a state employee. The girl’s mother and Muschany, a married father of 2 children, were romantically involved, the woman said. (Aren't "Family Values" a wonderful thing?) In a morbid twist of irony, Muschany was a co-sponsor of legislation that toughened sex offender laws in 2006. According to his legislative biography, Muschany and his wife were licensed as foster parents with the Division of Family Services.
• Republican sex offender & longtime stalwart Republican operative Peter Hong was arrested July 23, 2008 for solicitation of prostitution. Police spokesman Peter Panos said that the arrest came during the first day of a two-day sting operation during which "johns" and prostitutes responded to ads placed on the Internet and in print. Thirty-five people were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, Panos said today.
• Republican sex offender & candidate for Mineral County (W.Va.) Commission Wilton Frederick Bland, 30, of Bayberry Place, was arrested March 23, 2007, after police received a complaint concerning a juvenile boy who said Bland had wanted him to appear nude on the Internet. Bland charged last year with 136 counts related to sexually based crimes against children has been sentenced to a possible total of 85 years after pleading guilty in both Grant and Mineral counties. was charged at the time with 73 counts of possession of child pornography, 45 counts of sexual assault in the first degree for allegedly having sex with a child under age 11, nine counts of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor, seven counts of display of obscene matter to a minor and two counts of employing a minor to do sexually explicit conduct, according to the West Virginia State Police.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Go read the full list and then come plock back here with your paltry ideas of equal parity between Rethugs and Democrats.

What a bunch of arrant bullshit. But they all seem to be lacking one of the things needed for civilized man to get along with his fellows: A fully developed sense of shame.

Huckabee and the Lakewood Cop Executions

I know that everyone by now has heard about the execution-style slaying of four Lakewood (WA) police officers over the weekend.

Lakewood is probably twenty minutes away from where I live, so this is awfully close to home. Especially coming so close after the Seattle cop shootings of a few weeks ago.

It turns out that the prime suspect in the Lakewood murders is a guy who was originally serving a lengthy sentence in Arkansas for armed robbery, but was let out by then governor Mike "Huckleberry" Huckabee because ... well, I don't really know why. Allegedly the guy convinced Huckabee that he'd "changed" and was going to be a good citizen from that point on.

So now Huckleberry is back-pedaling as fast as he can to try to put as much distance between himself and the alleged shooter.

It's the fault of the Arkansas justice system, he says, along with that of the state of Washington. Typical Rethug tactic, blaming everyone in sight for your own shortcomings. Or in this case, your own tragic misjudgment that resulted in the deaths of four police officers from small-city Lakewood.

Huckabee, you are supposed to be a big shot in the Xian community. It's nice that you had the compassion to let this fucker out of prison (probably because the prisoner claimed to have been "saved" by Jaysuss-uh!), but now it's time to stand up and tell the families of the murdered cops that you have compassion for them as well.

But chances are you won't take your share of the responsibility. That's too much to ask of a Repugnican...

Pretty much the only positive thing about all of this is that with this, his own "Willie Horton" moment, Huckabee will be pretty much out of the running for the GOOPer nomination in 2012.

Too bad.