“BAKE THE FUCKING CAKE AND SHUT THE FUCK UP”

Young Turks Ana Kasparian blasted republican lawmakers in Mississippi on Wednesday over the lengths to which they have gone to promote their “religious liberty” with the passage of HB 1523.

“Religious business owners in the state would rather lose out on business because they’re so hateful toward a specific group of people,” she said. “Think about that for a second. Just bake the fucking cake and shut the fuck up. Seriously, why is it such a big deal? What’s gonna happen? Do you think that as you’re in the process of blending your ingredients, you might think about touching some other man’s dick? What goes through their minds? Just get over it.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF YOUNG TURKS



The law allows employers to cite “sincerely held religious beliefs” as the basis for implementing dress codes and other criteria in the workplace, and also lets businesses choose to refuse to render services to same-sex couples.

It has already provoked criticism both online and from the private sector, has also prompted three states to ban non-essential state travel to Mississippi.

“Here’s one thing that Republican politicians eventually listen to: businessmen,” co-host Cenk Uygur argued. “When corporate powers start telling you to bow your head, that’s what Republican politicians were made for.”

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Roger West

“WELFARE CRAZY CHECKS”

WING NUT GENE ALDAY

A Mississippi state lawmaker said he opposed putting more money into elementary schools because he came from a town where “all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call ‘welfare crazy checks.’ They don’t work.”

In an interview with the Clarion-Ledger regarding education funding, state Rep. Gene Alday stated his opposition to a push to increase funding to improve elementary school reading scores. Alday implied that increasing education funding for children in black families would be pointless.

Alday continued, saying that when he was mayor of Walls, MS, that the times he’d gone to the emergency room had taken a long time. “I laid in there for hours because they (blacks) were in there being treated for gunshots,” he told the newspaper.

At issue is something called Mississippi’s “third grade reading gate,” a measure passed in 2013, which won’t allow students to advance to fourth grade if they can’t read proficiently. A survey of Mississippi’s school superintendents estimated that about 28 percent of the state’s third graders would have to repeat a grade because they couldn't pass the reading proficiency exams.

The idea for the policy came from Florida, where the state invested about $1 billion into schools to pay for reading coaches, teachers and increased attention to students who struggled with reading.

The Mississippi legislature recently advanced a bill that would provide exceptions to the reading policy for students with learning disabilities. The bill is opposed by Gov. Phil Bryant , who supports the third grade gate policy.

“It’s disappointing that 62 members of the House of Representatives would vote to socially promote children who cannot read,” Bryant told the Clarion-Ledger. “With votes like this, it is little wonder that Mississippi’s public education system has been an abysmal failure.”

Bryant’s critics suggest that he needs to change his approach. “If the governor is sincere about making universal literacy a gateway, rather than a gatekeeper, he would support full funding for what it will take to get the literacy job done,” said Mike Sayer, co-founder of Southern Echo, a grassroots civil rights group that works with African-American students.

Alday staunchly opposes increasing the funding. “I don’t see any schools hurting,” he said.

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STAFF WRITER

MISSISSIPPI GOP WAR TAKES CENTER STAGE

Mississippi Republicans continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. Virginia ex-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has entered the fray (any similarity here to a Republican Super Smash Brothers is, I assure you, intentional), targeting Senate Republicans who backed fellow senator Thad Cochran over preferred insane person Chris McDaniel. Specifically, he says:

These senators fully funded ads that urged Democrats to cross over and vote in the republican primary and claimed that a McDaniel win would be a loss "for race relationships between blacks and whites." 

They also helped pay for fliers that said, "The Tea Party Intends to Prevent You From Voting" and suggested McDaniel would roll back civil rights.

In response, he's demanding no less than a defunding of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which I think we can all get behind merely for the humor factor.

On the other side of the fence you've got Mississippi's Republican political machine. They're not backing down from pointing out that McDaniel is pretty much a horrible human being even for a Republican.

“That conduct was reprehensible and was not good for Mississippi or the Republican party,” [Henry] Barbour says. “Many Mississippians, who were already disgusted by McDaniel’s race-baiting talk-radio-show comments, heard the code words that insinuated that African Americans were not welcome in the Republican primary.”

That defense was offered after it turned out that one of the outside PACs running incendiary ads against McDaniel was funded in entirety or near-entirety by Henry Barbour's group. Yes, it is possible to be too racist for the Mississippi political machine to stomach—or at least, too vocal in your racism. So that's something.

As for the head pouter himself, he's in full spite mode.

Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel said the Republican Party should be "purged" of people who paint their fellow members as racists.

"It goes to show that there are elements within our own party that have to be purged … There are elements within our own party that have no business being Republicans. Republicans should not behave in that fashion."

So it's open war between the half of the party that want to purge radio loudmouths with a history of racist-tending comments and the half of the party that want to purge or defund anyone that points out their racism exists. There isn't enough popcorn in the world for watching that fight.

Cross Posted from daily Kos

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STAFF WRITER

MAYBE THEY ARE GETTING THE MESSAGE?

HATING FOR REPUBLICAN JESUS

On January 31, the Mississippi Senate unanimously passed SB 2681, a bill that adds “In God We Trust” to the state seal. It also contained language just like that in Arizona’s freshly-vetoed bill that would allow people to use religious beliefs as a defense in civil cases — thereby instituting the same “license to discriminate” that prompted a national backlash in Arizona. The bill passed under the radar, without any discussion about whether it was anti-LGBT, but thanks to pressure from the ACLU, the bill is receiving a significant rewrite.

Late Wednesday night, the Mississippi House Civil Subcommittee voted to strike all of the problematic language that would have protected discrimination. Instead, the bill will resemble the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRA) that 18 other states have. These laws, along with their federal counterpart, help protect individuals’ religious practices from government intrusion without allowing them to be imposed on others.

Mississippi is only the latest state to scrap, stall, or defeat a “license to discriminate” measure disguised as “religious liberty.” In addition to the veto in Arizona, bills were defeated this week in Ohio, Indiana, and Georgia and last week in Kansas, Maine, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Idaho. Missouri is currently the only state where such a bill is still on the table.





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STAFF WRITER

MISSISSIPPI BURNING

MARCO McMILLIAN

What the fuck is wrong with people in this country? In yet another disgusting display of ignorance, hate and bigotry, we see that some troglodytes can't grasp that everyone has a right to occupy space in this land!

The family of Marco McMillian, a 33 year-old openly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi released a statement yesterday saying that he was beaten and set on fire before his lifeless body was dumped near a river. Last Thursday, police arrested a 22-year old man who, like McMillian, is African-American and charged him with the mayoral candidate’s murder. Although the motive for the murder remains unknown, the circumstances of the murder suggest a possible anti-gay hate crime. According to the family, “[w]e feel this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found.”

For all the so-called "Christians" out there preaching hatred against the gays, this is the bitter fruit of your bigotry asshats! True Christians preach love, not discrimination and hate.

Apparently the white ignorance of Mississippi is still alive and strong. These troglodytes will never evolve as a species until they can learn to appreciate others for their differences instead of hating and harming each other because of them.

Mississippi; that says it all in one word.

The state of Mississippi, you are today's worst people in the world!





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Roger West