ISBL Asshat of the Week: Shannon Bream

But first … a programming note: 

Carlos and I are both off work today and will be out and about taking care of some errands most of the day, so my Golden Globes Post, AKA A Golden Stream … of Consciousness, will post tomorrow, as will my Best and Worst Dressed lists because you just know this queen loves awards shows and awards show fashion and awards show hot men.

So stayed tuned tomorrow, but right now we’ll present our ISBL Asshat of the Week:

After the recent terrorist shootings at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, satirical magazine, all the news channels have been on high alert with stories of terror around the world.

As happens, though, Fox News has been busy trying to make this Obama’s fault … Thanks Obama … by making Charlie Hebdo the new Benghazi. But this isn’t about Fox News being stupid, it’s about Fox News’ show ‘Outnumbered’ and the host Shannon Bream being stupid and racist and stupidly racist.

On the show last week, the hosts and panel got into a discussion about how Paris police didn't have enough weapons, which is why, according to Fox News, Islamic extremist terrorists were able to murder twelve people at the magazine.

And that’s when Shannon Bream, an ALLEGED news anchor — and I use that word because it’s neither news nor is she an anchor — began talking off-the-cuff about how police would be able to identify "bad guys" if they wore ski masks because they wouldn’t "even know what color … what the tone of their skin was":

"That's my question about these guys because if we know they were speaking unaccented French and they had, you know, ski masks on, do we even know what color they were? What the tone of their skin was," she tried to clarify – as if that were less racist. "I mean what if they didn't look like typical bad guys?"

You know, cuz bad guys are not white skinned, they brown or black skinned.

Worse than the fact that Bream, a corporate lawyer, so you know she at least has a college education, could say those things is the notion that none of the other Fox News talking heads even questioned her statement.

This is, again, ALLEGEDLY a news channel and the blatant racism of the hosts of the program not only occurs, but goes unchecked by other panelists.

Is it any wonder we still need the conversation about race in this country when the racism is blatant, in your face, and on TV spewing forth from the mouth of a Fox News bimbo unchecked?

Shannon Bream, our ISBL Asshat of the Week!

via NCRM

Another Christmas Asshat: Stacey Clueless Dash

Stacey Dash used to be an actress. She was marginally successful in Clueless — which was, perhaps, an omen of her future life — but she’s really just a bit part actress  looking for a line to read.

Then came Mitt Romney vying for the White against Barack Obama, and Dash, an African American woman, Tweeted her support for the Republican; as is her right. Lotsa folks jumped on the Dump Dash bandwagon but then Fox News got a brilliant idea, why no augment our white old men, white blond women line-up of pundits with an actual woman of color and suddenly Stacey Dash was the newest addition to the news channel which everyone with half a brain knows lies nearly all the time.

And Dash fit right in.

I have no idea what qualifications she has to be a Fox correspondent or to be called an expert on the channel, because she’s really just an unemployed bad actress before she got the call and became the darling of the wingnuts from the network; like when she said this about Republican opposition to same-sex marriage:

“We [Republicans] are for equal marriage. We’re not against that at all. We believe that everyone should have the same right.”

Well, we all know that’s a load of hooey, because look at every single lawsuit filed against states where same-sex marriage is legal and you will find that they were filed and supported by Republicans.

See, Stacey’s dumb. 

Of course, then she tried a different tack when she was asked about that blatant open in-your-face opposition among many Republicans towards the legalization of same-sex marriage:

“That’s just propaganda, it’s not true. You know? That’s just a certain amount of people. You can’t just throw a blanket over everyone because certain people have one opinion.”

A “certain amount of people” that all identify as Republicans. But that isn’t why Stacey Dash, failed actress, and future failed “news’ pundit is our Christmas asshat. No, she took an extra dose of stupid recently when discussing  a recent Census Bureau report showing that 65% of American children are living in a home receiving some sort of government assistance, she whipped out the “slavery” anecdote” and then whipped out her less-than-smart statements:

“This is the Democratic party’s new version of slavery to me, I am a believer in the American dream. But as long as you are told where you have to live, what you have to eat, what you have to wear, where you have to go to school, you will never know the true meaning of expression. And, the power and value of self achievement. You’ll never know what that is.”

Okay, let’s hold up. She doesn’t think children should be told where to live, what to eat and what to wear and where to go to school? Isn’t that why most children have parents because children do not make those decisions for themselves?

Stacey? You’re dumb.

And Stacey? Stop playing the “slavery” card because the only thing that is like slavery is actual slavery.

I think I was wrong; Stacey Dash isn’t stupid, she’s an asshat, and just in time for Christmas.
ForwardProgressives

A Christmas Asshat: Anti-Veteran Republican Tom Coburn

Okay, can we all stop pretending that the GOP cares about Veterans? I mean, sure, they’re all pro-veteran when it’s time to send them off to war, but once those men and women return home, the GOP is all, I’m sorry, and you are?

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a peek at one such Republican Senator, Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma — oh, Oklahoma, that may explain his dumbassery. Anyway, last week, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for Veterans bill passed the House along … wait a minute … it does happen …. It’s a Christmas miracle … an actual bi-partisan vote. And then it went to the Senate, where it was believed the same thing would happen, leaving only the need for President Obama’s signature, but then …

Enter Coburn. He blocked the bill, calling it too expensive, though he has never had a problem sending troops off to war no matter how many billions and billions of dollars that costs., But when these soldiers come home, and need our help and need our support, suddenly Tom Coburn is all about the Benjamins.

But how expensive is the bill? Well, it’s the whopping sum of $22 million; far under any other war expenditures that Tom Coburn is all too happy to slap his signature on.

Coburn, who is apparently called “Dr. No” in the Senate, and just loves the nickname, has missed 238 of 3,133 votes, or 7.6% during his tenure; the median is 2.1% for lifetime records of sitting senators. And in just the last few weeks, he’s missed 60 of 88 votes, putting him in the 99th percentile. He's just about the laziest Senator we have, and for that, once again, we can thank the not-so-good-or-bright people of Oklahoma. Still, if there was to be one vote Coburn missed, why couldn't it have been this one?

See, the suicide rate among veterans is currently about 22 a day. Yes, that’s right; twenty-two men and women who served our country commit suicide every single day; one veteran an hour. And Tom Coburn doesn’t care about them, not one bit because, he says, it’s just too darned expensive to care about human life. The number of veterans who have killed themselves is now more than all military personnel who died in Afghanistan since 2001 or Iraq since 2003 but it’s just too expensive to worry about.

It’s just human life; it’s just men and women who fought for this country and returned home, hoping to be welcomed as the heroes they are, and instead find Tom Coburn saying, “Fuck you.”

I say, “Fuck you, Tom Coburn.” Christmas Asshat.

AddictingInfo

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Senator James Inhofe

First off, though, we cannot forget to also name as asshats those in Congress who will, most likely, name Republican, and climate change and basic science denier, Oklahoman Senator James Inhofe as the next chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Inhofe has made a career, and, apparently, some pocket change, out of denying that global warming is real and, well, he knows who started this whole mess: Barbra Streisand.

According to David Corn, writing for Mother Jones, Inhofe first brought up this theory at the United Nations' climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009:

Look around us, I said, spreading my arms wide. There are thousands of intelligent and well-meaning people in this gigantic conference center: scientists, heads of state, government officials, policy experts. They believe that climate change is a serious and pressing threat and that something must be done soon. Do you believe that they have all been fooled?

Yes, [Inhofe] said, grinning.

That these people who have traveled from all points of the globe to be here are victims of a well-orchestrated hoax?

Yes, [Inhofe] said, still smiling.

That's some hoax, I countered. But who has engineered such a scam?

Hollywood liberals and extreme environmentalists, Inhofe replied.

Really? I asked. Why would they conspire to scare all these smart people into believing a catastrophe was under way, when all was well?

Inhofe didn't skip a beat: To advance their radical environmental agenda.

I pressed on: Who in Hollywood is doing this?

The whole liberal crowd, Inhofe said.

But who?

Barbra Streisand, he responded.

I nearly laughed. All these people had assembled in Copenhagen because of Barbra Streisand. A singer and actor had perpetuated the grandest con of the past 100 years?

That's right, Inhofe said, with a straight face. And others, he added.

So, I guess while making Yentl, Babs decided to also perpetrate this huge, global lie about climate change; in between recording tunes for The Broadway Album, she gathered her minions and sent them out into the world like flying like monkeys spread this massive lie; and on the set of The Prince of Tides Barbra actually melted glaciers, raised temperatures, altered weather patterns.

Or at least she told people that this would happen, according to Inhofe. Maybe if you play Evergreen backwards you can really hear Streisand’s plan to make the entire world believe that climate change is real, but since Inhofe never had that record he didn’t buy into the hoax.

Or … maybe he’s just an asshat who refuses to listen to science.

While Barbra Streisand is active in the climate change movement, it’s not because she wanted to fool billions of people, but because she believes what 97% of scientists believe.

That climate change is real and that James Inhofe is an asshat, an ISBL Asshat of the Week.

via NCRM

David Corn's Mother Jones Article

ISBL Asshat of the Week: GOP Communications Director Elizabeth Lauten

I’ve always been one to leave the children of politicians alone because they never asked for the limelight; they may not even agree with their parent’s policies and politics. And because they’re just kids.

But I did laugh a little whenever the Mama Grizzly Bore™ would take Chelsea Clinton, or Sasha and Malia Obama, to task when her brood is either out knocking people around — with their fists — or getting knocked up or using the word ‘fag’ as a derogatory term against people they don’t like.

Still, the rule is: Leave the kids out of it.

Apparently, though, GOP Congressman Stephen Fincher’s communications director — Yes, the communications director — Elizabeth Lauten was so incensed at Sash and Malia Obama that she simply had to go on Facebook and rant, apparently forgetting she’s a grown-ass woman, and again, a  communications director, and not some schoolyard bully.

Last week, when Obama was partaking in that yearly ritual of Pardoning the Turkey — and I don’t mean Boehner or McConnell — he had the nerve to allow his daughters to attend and stand right behind him and act like, well, let’s have Elizabeth Lauten take it from here:

Dear Sasha and Malia,

I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.

Nevertheless, stretch yourself. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised public events.

Wow. Way to attack the children of the President; way to communicate.

Of course, when her little diatribe, her Mean Girls rant, went viral, and her boss, and the press and the media and anyone with half a brain who knows that adults shouldn’t be using social media to belittle children, went viral, Lauten returned to the scene of the crime, Facebook, to offer her apologies:

I reacted to an article and quickly judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager.

After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents and re-reading my words online, I can see more clearly how hurtful my words were.

Please know that these judgmental feelings truly have no place in my heart.

Furthermore, I'd like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience.

Wait. What? You call yourself an adult and then you behave like a child, and you needed your parent’s help? Grow the f**k up, lady. I wonder how that conversation went ...

Elizabeth Lauten: Oh Mommy! oh Daddy! I saw Sasha and Malia at a White House event and dint like how they were dressed and how they folded their arms so i went on Facebook and called the Obama's lousy parents and told the girls to show some class. What should I do?

Mommy and Daddy [in unison]: Oh Elizabeth. Grow the f**k up.

And so, not sure her parents were right, Elizabeth began to pray on the subject; I wonder how that conversation went:

Elizabeth Lauten: Dear God. I saw Sasha and Malia at a White House event and dint like how they were dressed and how they folded their arms so i went on Facebook and called the Obvama's lousy parents and told the girls to show some class. What should I do?

God: Oh Elizabeth. Grow the f**k up.

Seriously, girl, take some responsibility. You are not some misunderstood teenager; some loudmouthed girl at the back of the class. You are, and again I say this with both shock and awe, a communications director who has no known abilities to actually communicate.

Please follow your pledge and ‘grow’ from this experience. Learn that, as an adult, you don’t bully children; something most of us already know, and most of us in positions of importance, like communications director, or not, already know.

The good news is that Elizabeth Lauten won’t be communicating anymore; she resigned this morning because, you know, belittling children is very professional … or kind … or right.

Liberal America
HuffPo

ISBL Asshat of the Week: It's A Tie!! Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Elisabeth Hasselbeck

So, a few months back, when it was announced that her arch nemesis Rosie O’Donnell would be returning to The View, Fox News Talking Air Head, Elisabeth Hasselbeck took time from her vacation to phone in to her pals on Fox & Friends to bemoan Rosie’s return, whine about the comeback, and complain about the new job. It reeked of petty jealousy.

And so how does an insecure wannabe handle it when her new job, which is basically just a retread of every single other Fox News job for the blond set, is set to collide with her old enemy’s return to a more popular TV show?

Well, she decides to go full out crazy in the hopes that people will talk about her, and her little show, and not about Rosie and The View. I mean, how else do we explain that just yesterday on her little TV show Elisabeth Hasselbeck said she would require people take a “citizenship test” before they would be allowed to vote; she says it would make voting “more meaningful.”

It apparently all started when two Republican … naturally … Utah legislators announced a bill that would require students to pass a citizenship test before graduating. And so Hasselbeck decided to up the ante and require a citizenship test to vote:

“Should you have to answer, I mean, the majority of these questions? If not by graduation of high school, but by the time you vote? … It’s a more meaningful measure when you vote perhaps too.”

Hasselbeck should heed her own advice and look back into American history when, as recently as the 1960s, these so-called “literacy” tests were used to disenfranchise black voters during segregation. 

Failing that, I think Hasselbeck should take a test to prove she has at least two active brain cells to rub together before she accepts her ISBL Asshat of the Week Award.

Along with her co-winner … Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Shortly before announcing her campaign for citizenship tests, Elisabeth Hasselbeck used her perch on Twitter to … wait for it … remember she’s a Republican … wait for it … remember she works for Fox News … wait for it … tie the NFL’s domestic abuse scandals to the Obama administration's handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack on the American Consulate in Libya.

Oh, but she did, Tweeting this:

“Imagine if everyone that asked for transparency in the #nfl @nfl Demanded that same #transparency in our #government #Benghazi #IRS”

#STFU.

But is it really such a stretch to compare the bombing of an American Embassy with a man who punched his girlfriend in the face on an elevator, or the man who took a switch and beat his son across the testicles?

Not such a stretch since the people who sign her paycheck, and possibly pay to keep her blond and stupid, Fox News, has devoted hundreds upon hundreds of hours and “journalists — it’s hard to type that without laughing … Fox News journalist — to the alleged cover-up by the White House. And not such a stretch since her husband made quite the lovely living in the NFL.

The only thing that is truly transparent is Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s desperate need for attention, to make herself feel relevant, or even intelligent, because it’s not working.

And that is why she gets the Second ISBL Asshat of the Week Award for the week!

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Voter's Test

Elisabeth Hasselbeck NFL-Benghazi

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Todd Starnes

Todd Starnes works for Fox News. Strike one.

Todd Starnes is the, ahem, ‘religion reporter’ for Fox News. Strike two.

Todd Starnes, news man, religious aficionado, has come out now saying that same-sex marriage will lead to men marrying dogs. Strike three.

Now, to be fair, this is far from the dumbest thing Starnes has said, because he rarely opens his mouth without stupid — packed neatly in a sequined clutch I imagine — fall out. He has called diversity "ethnic cleansing;" he also said, of this year's Grammy's mass wedding—which included a few same-sex couples—“a display of intolerance, bigotry and hatred” though he refused to explain why or how because he attended the GOP Convention on “If You Say It Long Enough and Loud Enough People Will Believe You” class given by Michele Bachmann. 

Starnes has also suggested that President Obama is gay, and he responded to the news that NBA center Jason Collins is gay by tweeting, “The NBA is turning into GLEE.”

You know, cuz Glee is gay. But, now, his new mantra is the same old mantra that we’ve been hearing for eons: that same-sex marriage will lead to one-man one-cat (or dog) marriage.

Yup, that old adage is back, even though not once, never ever, since same-sex marriage became legal in this country — in Massachusetts back in ’03 — or in any place in the world where equality truly exists, have we seen one man ever marry an animal, or a clock, or a car.

But that doesn’t matter to people like Todd Starnes — who may ALLEGDELY have his own secret closet — because if you say the lie often enough, and if you say it under the guise of being a journalist … and that causes a fit of giggles that may see no end … then it must be true.

It isn’t. And every single day, as more and more same-sex couples marry, and more and more states join the equality movement, the idiot arguments of the likes of Todd Starnes, even on a channel that calls itself news like Fox, will be washed away in fits of giggles and snorts.

He’s a liar, and panderer, a fear monger, and, perhaps, ALLEGEDLY a self-loathing, deeply closeted gay man, but he is neither a news man nor a religious man because neither would spread lies and hate as often as Starnes.

Pathetic little man. And pathetic little ISBL Asshat of the week.

ISBL Asshat[s] of the Week: The NRCC

This makes no sense to me. I mean, when you have Fox News and its minions of ALLEGED “reporters” and talking heads at your beck-and-call, why create a fake news site?

But, apparently, the National Republican Congressional Committee [NRCC] which just last year created a series of fake Democratic candidate websites — sites that were taken down when it was revealed they were nothing but lies and fakes created by the NRCC — has now launched another set of phony websites, this time designed to look like local news sources.

The NRCC has created over twenty fake news sites that they use to challenge Democratic candidates for office and is using Google to promote the sites. These one-page websites look like a local news site, with logos like "North County Update" or "Central Valley Update"  and the “articles” look like an impartial news story about a Democratic candidate.

And, if you think you’re reading an impartial news source about a candidate for office in your area, you suddenly find the “news” site bashing the Democratic candidate. And it you read all the way through to the bottom you find the itty-bitty disclaimer that the NRCC paid for the site.

Just as the NRCC did last year with the fake Democratic candidate sites, they promote these “news” websites through Google search ads. For example, if a voter in Democratic Representative John Barrow's Georgia district searches his name on Google, the first ad that appears leads to a faux news site called ElectionUpdate2014, that bears the tag-line: "Find Out More About John Barrow. We'll Provide The Facts: You Decide."

When you click that link you find yourself at a page called "Augusta Update" — Augusta is a city in Barrow's district — and the article begins, "Today, we're reviewing Barrow's record to see if his campaign rhetoric matches his record."

All well and good if it was an impartial news site, but it’s created and funded and run by the NRCC and ends with the line: "That kind of record doesn't sound like someone who puts Georgia first. It sounds like someone who has put President Obama ahead of his constituents."

Andrea Bozek, communications director for the NRCC, and apparent asshat extraordinaire, says: "This is a new and effective way to disseminate information to voters who are interested in learning the truth about these Democratic candidates."

Except the site is a lie; it’s not news, it’s a political ad, and a lie, disguised as news and created by the GOP's campaign arm. It says a lot about the GOP that they feel the need to resort to these kinds of tactics in order to “get the word out.” I mean, I guess the truth takes too much time? Or maybe the truth doesn’t fit within the GOP.

Sadly, the sites appear to be within legal limits, even though the NRCC's disclaimer box at the very bottom of the faux-news sites does not include the URL of the committee, which is a requirement.

Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee [DCCC] says this about the fake sites: "[The] House Republicans' campaign strategy to overcome their own historic unpopularity is to resort to deception — again."

Andrea Bozek’s response: "They're just jealous, that they didn't think of this strategy first."

Only the GOP and the NRCC and people like Andréa Bozek can call a lie, a deception, a fake news site, “strategy.

The NRCC. ISBL’s Asshats of the Week.

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ISBL Asshat of the Week: Congressman Curt Clawson

We all know this has been a Do-Nothing Congress for the last, well, since Obama took office, but is it too much of a stretch to say that, while some members ‘do nothing’ other members ‘know nothing’?

Case in point, our nominee for this week’s ISBL Asshat of the Week. Florida Republican Congressman Curt Clawson; for the record, Clawson is the man who replaced Congressman Trey Radel who was arrested in a drug bust a few years back.

During a recent hearing at the Capital, Congressman Clawson was speaking to two U.S. government officials, Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar, as though they were visitors from another country when, in fact, they hold senior positions at the U.S. State Department and Commerce Department:

“I am familiar with your country; I love your country, and I understand the complications of so many languages, and so many cultures, and so many histories, all rolled up in one. … Just as your capital is welcome here to produce good-paying jobs in the U.S., I’d like our capital to be welcome there. And there to be freedom of capital, and I ask cooperation and commitment and priority from your government in so doing. Can I have that?”

Remember, he is speaking to two Americans, but, apparently, because their names sound foreign and because they have brown skin, well, they must be foreigners. In fact, Arun Kumar, is alleged to have laughed openly at Clawson’s remarks — perhaps the “I am familiar with your country” remark — while  Nisha Biswal responded like this:

“I think your question is to the Indian government. We certainly share your sentiments. And we certainly will advocate that on behalf of the US.”

Stunned deeper into stupidity, Clawson muttered, “Of course. OK. Let’s see some progress.”

And then, following Clawson’s opening statement, Congressman Eliot Engel, the full panel’s ranking Democrat, noted that Biswal and Kumar work for the United States:

“Thank you both for your service to our country, it’s very much appreciated.”

Clawson, of course, as Republicans are apt to do when it comes out that they have no idea what they are saying, or even to whom they are speaking, later apologized:

“I made a mistake in speaking before being fully briefed and I apologize. I’m a quick study, but in this case I shot an air ball.”

Something to learn, say, before running for public office, might be knowing the men to whom you are speaking, and know the topic at hand before sitting down.

But, failing that, I guess, with a Do-Nothing Congress, and men like Clawson in office, maybe it’s a good thing they get nothing done, because just think of all the damage they could cause if they knew what was going on.

Curt Clawson, the ISBL Asshat of the Week.

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[another] ISBL Asshat of the Week: Adam Kwasman

We all know what’s going on out there in oracle, Arizona, with the good Christian Conservatives, republicans and Teabaggers lining the highways with signs, and sometimes guns, to protest the bussing of undocumented migrant children to United States shelters.

Well, this week one of those wingnuts, Arizona state representative Adam Kwasman — who is running in the GOP primary for the U.S. House against Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin and businessman Gary Kiehne — was in Oracle railing against the migrant children and hoping to parlay that into some extra votes in the upcoming primary, when suddenly he stopped railing.

A bus! A bus was coming! Migrant children were being driven right by!!

Kwasman ran at the bus, trying to see inside, and spot all those young refugees. He even Tweeted about the poor, sad children on the bus, but, sadly, before he could hold a press conference, he was whisked away to a meeting in Phoenix. It wasn’t until later in the day that a reporter was able to catch up with Kwasman and discuss the horrors that he had seen.

"I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces.... This is not compassion."

One problem, Adam; that yellow school bus wasn’t filled with refugee children, no undocumented minors; it was a group of American children on their way to a YMCA camp. And the fear on their faces was probably due to seeing a bunch of wild-eyed wingnuts running at them with cameras and signs.

And how did Kwasman spin his little blunder? How did he respond when he was told that it wasn’t a bus filled with migrant children, but just regular old white kids on their way to camp?

"They were sad, too. OK, I apologize. I didn't know. I was leaving when I saw them. So if that was a school bus. People are not happy down the line. That's an error by me."

No, that was you trying to use children as a political ploy and yet not having the good sense God gave a goat to know what you’re talking about.

But then, it’s Arizona so ……

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ISBL Asshat of the Week: Bill Cassidy

Not many people know the name of Bill Cassidy, a Republican state Senator from Louisiana, but here’s a little background on the man.

Cassidy, like Mama Grizzly Bore™ before him,  is one of those “abstinence-only” crusaders who, just last year, co-sponsored the Abstinence-Only Reallocation Act that awards grants and special funding to public and private schools that teach only abstinence in their sex education programs. The bill was authored by, oh lucky me, South Carolina’s resident Republican loon, er, Senator Lindsey Graham and has been tabled in Congress though teenagers in Louisiana aren’t in the clear.

Despite efforts by some legislators and educators to discuss sexual behavior, birth control, condoms, and the like in schools, Louisiana is one of the leading abstinence-only promoters in the country. In about 305 of schools in the state, students are taught exclusively abstinence. No safe sex. No birth control. Nothing but “Don’t do it.”

And, since most teenagers don’t listen to their parents, or some of their teachers, it should come as no surprise that Louisiana currently has the 6th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation; in fact, while most of the country has seen major declines in teen births, Louisiana’s has hardly changed.

So, why does this make Bill Cassidy an asshat? His own daughter, in her teens, is pregnant and, well, of course, Bill wants y’all to know that he’s just fine with it:

“Earlier this year, Laura and I learned we will become grandparents this summer. Our children have been the greatest blessing of our lives and we welcome our grandchild as a joyous addition to our family. Our daughter now faces a more challenging future than her peers. She has our unconditional love and support.”

How lovely that Bill Cassidy and his wife will support their daughter, um, because they have to support her; she’s a pregnant minor so, yeah, it’s their responsibility just like teaching her that abstinence is the only way to go.

And doesn’t it just smack of the Mama Grizzly Bore™ and her abstinence-only stance, even while her seventeen-year-old daughter Bristol was banging Levi?

I mean, here we have the post politicians for abstinence who can’t bother to instill that lesson into their own children, but they want to legislate it into law that you have to do it for your children.

Pot.Kettle.STFU.

Bill Cassidy, ISBL's Asshat of the Week.

Sidenote: Yes, abstinence is the only 100$ surefire way to avoid teen pregnancy, and STDs and HIV and all sorts of things, but it’s clear that many teens, and adults, aren’t adhering to that ideal, so wouldn’t it be best to arm them with knowledge about sexual behavior? Or is that too much common sense for the GOP and Bill Cassidy and Mama Grizzly Bore™?

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ISBL Asshat of the Week: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory

Up there in neighbor to the north, North Carolina that is, Republican Governor Pat McCrory has opted to pass over protections for LGBT workers when he signed a new executive order that bars employment discrimination for state workers on the basis of “race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability and genetic information.”

Let me make this queer: he wants to make sure that no one is discriminated against in the state’s hiring policies unless those people are LGBT and then let the discrimination roll!!

And while North Carolina LGBT advocates have condemned the policy, and are demanding an explanation, a McCrory spokes-tool, Ryan Tronovitch, claims McCrory’s new executive order mirrors federal employment language which already includes protections for LGBT workers.

Except that isn’t true.

Still, McCrory declared, as he signed the order, “This order ensures fairness and encourages people to work for state government. Insisting on nondiscrimination will strengthen our state and demonstrate that we value diversity of thought and each of our citizens’ unique backgrounds.”

Nondiscrimination, though, does not apply to sexual orientation or gender identity. So, really, it’s not nondiscrimination, it’s discrimination.

North Carolina — one of 29 states were LGBT employees can be fired based solely on their sexual orientation and gender identity — currently has no employment protections for LGBT workers. And efforts to pass employment protections for state workers and teachers have consistently stalled in the Republican –controlled state legislature because, well, gay.

Workers tied directly to the federal government are already protected under pre-existing presidential executive orders and rulings from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and last week President Obama said he would issue an executive order more clearly prohibiting discrimination in federal employment on the basis of gender identity.

It might be a tough sell in North Carolina because the Governor, and his flunkies, don’t seem to know what the law entails, or what it even means. See, when asked to comment on the lack of employment protection for North Carolina LGBT employees, McCrory Deputy Communications Director Ryan Tronovitch stated that McCrory’s executive order was similar to both federal language and past executive orders from previous North Carolina governors:

“This Executive Order mirrors federal language as well as orders issued under Governors Hunt, Martin, Easley and Perdue over the course of more than 30 years. Insisting on fairness and nondiscrimination for employees and applicants to North Carolina’s state government is a tradition that Governor McCrory is proud to continue.”

But, federal equal employment policies do, in fact, cover sexual orientation, instituted by executive order of President Barack Obama, as well as gender identity, as interpreted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And when this fact — and you know how republicans handle facts … they act like they don’t exist — was pointed out to Tronovitch, he replied, “Actually…you are wrong” and then directed the writer from qnotes — the source for this post — to an outdated 2009 version of federal employment policies.

And when it was pointed out, again, that he was wrong, Tronovitch finally acknowledged his earlier, incorrect statement, but then fell back on that old, still untrue, standby argument that McCrory’s new executive “mirrors” federal regulations.

Like I said, they don’t need no stinking facts.

Asshats never do.

Asshat of the Week: ExxonMobil

Last week President Obama announced that he will soon issue an executive order extending essential workplace protections to the LGBT employees of federal contractors, and suddenly everyone was eyeing ExxonMobil Corporation — a Fortune 100 corporation and one of the nation’s largest federal contractors.

See, ExxonMobil has — for the last nearly twenty years — resisted instituting non-discrimination protections for its LGBT employees, even though most other Fortune 500 companies treat these kinds of protections—like not being fired just because you’re an L, a G, a B, or a T — as a rule of thumb. So, folks were wondering what ExxonMobil was going to do in the face of Obama’s announcement and it turns out that they’ve decided to lie.

In a statement ExxonMobil is now claiming it has “a longstanding policy that strictly prohibits any form of discrimination by or toward employees, contractors, suppliers and customers in any ExxonMobil workplace. Our global, zero-tolerance policy applies to all forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Lie.Lie.Lie.

Human Rights Campaign [HRC] Vice President for Communications Fred Sainz:

“Put bluntly, this statement is a lie. ExxonMobil’s Equal Employment and Opportunity Policy has clearly and consistently omitted enumerated LGBT non-discrimination protections for its personnel. Though their statement sounds like it’s taking a very progressive stand, it is in fact a master class in doublespeak — crafted, no doubt, by a team of well-paid lawyers. Until a nondiscrimination policy is enumerated, it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.” 

Let’s go back to facts, something ExxonMobil thinks they can hide: in the last 17 years, ExxonMobil’s shareholders have voted 17 times to kill non-discrimination protections for ExxonMobil’s LGBT personnel — and did it again last month.

And let’s go back further, because when Exxon merged with Mobil in 1999, the newly formed company immediately rescinded domestic partner benefits that had previously been offered to Mobil’s LGBT employees.

In fact, ExxonMobil’s blatant disregard for its LGBT employees has earned it the only negative score in the 12 year history of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. 

Asshats trying to rewrite history, to rewrite lies. I mean, rather than, say, oh I dunno, change their minds after all these years, they’re simply going to lie about policies they do not have in place.

ExxonMobil does not now, nor has it since merging ion 1999, given a rat’s ass about the LGBT community and I think, if you don’t already, we should return the favor.

source: HRC