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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / The Latest From The American Taliban

The Latest From The American Taliban

by John Cole|  June 14, 20125:12 pm| 65 Comments

This post is in: The War On Women, Teabagger Stupidity

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Apparently the words vasectomy and vagina, when uttered by women, requires silencing said women:

A male Republican House leader in Michigan silenced two female Democratic state legislators on Thursday after the pair tried to advance a measure that would have reduced access to vasectomies.

While discussing a bill that would erode the availability of abortion, Reps. Barb Byrum and Lisa Brown introduced an amendment to apply the same regulations to vasectomies that GOP lawmakers wanted to add to abortion services. The debate grew heated, as Republicans sought to gravel down the women. Byrum was not permitted to speak in favor of the measure and Brown was repeatedly interrupted. “I’m flattered that you want to get in my vagina, but no means no,” she said. The next day both were silenced.

What is up with these guys- they remind me of 6 year olds who would giggle when someone says the word penis. And when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

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Previous Post: « Now There’s Just No Chance For You and Me
Next Post: Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Callton (R-Vagina) Offended by the Word “Vagina” — VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA! »

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Bubblegum Tate

    June 14, 2012 at 5:16 pm

    What a bunch of pussies. Oops, don’t gavel me!

  2. 2.

    Ben Cisco

    June 14, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    Michigan turn into Alabama

    Dirty little secret: Misogony, like racism, has always been in pockets around the country. Only difference is, these misanthropes feel embiggened to let their freak flag fly.

  3. 3.

    Jay B.

    June 14, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    The country is closer to Alabama than it is to Massachusetts.

  4. 4.

    James E Powell

    June 14, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    And when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    Some might say in 2010. But you know about the militias, right?

  5. 5.

    The Sailor

    June 14, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    There’s your government censorship!
    Hey rethuglicans, where are the jobs?

  6. 6.

    FlipYrWhig

    June 14, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    Ooh, I know this one! It’s nobody’s business but the Turks!

  7. 7.

    Linnaeus

    June 14, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    And when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    It didn’t turn into Alabama – the state has the urban/rural divide that pretty much every other state has. The moderates and liberals tend to be concentrated in the southeast part of the state.

    The Michigan GOP has gone very hard to the right over the last 20-30 years. The dominant faction used to be the George Romney & Bill Milliken-style moderates, but that faction is nearly extinct. The controlling faction is now the very conservative, Calvinist religious folks from the west side of the state.

    The GOP won big in Michigan in 2010. They now control all of the major statewide offices, have a majority in the state house, a supermajority in the state senate, and the state supreme court is stacked with conservative appointees (which began in earnest under John Engler). There is a lot of work to be done in the state to reverse that.

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    June 14, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Why can’t these women make me a sandwich and shut up?

    /MI, white males over 55

  9. 9.

    22over7

    June 14, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    It’s not immaturity. It’s power and control. They have it.

  10. 10.

    Piratedan

    June 14, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    @Ben Cisco: must be due to all of that Enzyte floating around out there on a free trial basis. Perhaps after 4 hours of being embiggened they’ll seek advice from a doctor.

  11. 11.

    ruemara

    June 14, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    2010, when America calmly turned over most of it’s governance to sociopathic lunatics.

  12. 12.

    Egg Berry

    June 14, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    @Bubblegum Tate: Don’t gavel me, bro!

  13. 13.

    Brachiator

    June 14, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    While discussing a bill that would erode the availability of abortion, Reps. Barb Byrum and Lisa Brown introduced an amendment to apply the same regulations to vasectomies that GOP lawmakers wanted to add to abortion services.

    They do realize, don’t they, that the Catholic Church would also like to restrict or eliminate vasectomies?

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 14, 2012 at 5:25 pm

    @BGinCHI: I’d like a sandwich too. Thanks.

  15. 15.

    Jeff Spender

    June 14, 2012 at 5:26 pm

    John, I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life. Most of it has been in areas where the urban/rural divide has been prominent. I’ve lived in Lansing, some suburbs of Lansing, and Ann Arbor.

    What Linnaeus says is correct. Parts of Michigan are a lot like Alabama, and have been for a very long time. I lived for a time in one of the areas that resembled Alabama. In fact, my best friend’s dad was the mayor (before his tragic death last December), a liberal swept into power during the Obama wave of 2008.

    Since then, the Republicans in the town have been doing everything they can to disrupt the governance of the town. Once, the mayor started an official town meeting without doing the pledge of allegiance, and they tried to get him recalled on that, calling into question his patriotism.

    It goes without saying that these people will win the next election.

    More to the point, the state is controlled, now, by lunatics. And it scares me.

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    June 14, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    @Piratedan:

    I hear that real conservatives don’t use boner pills because they can’t move for a few hours after taking one.

  17. 17.

    satby

    June 14, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    Yeah, a sliver along the southwestern lakefront of Michigan is purple-ish, but mostly because of the transplants from IL (like me!) but go east 13 miles and you’d think you were in MIchiganippi.

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    June 14, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    What is up with these guys

    You have to ask? They think that any woman who lips off to them needs to be taught a lesson.

  19. 19.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 14, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    The Bible never specifically mentions abortion so it’s not clear upon what the American Taliban is basing its agenda. Are these Michigan legislators primarily Fundamentalists/Protestants or Catholics?

    OTOH, the Jewish representative had a fairly interesting rebuttal, in that her religion permitted, even encouraged, abortion in many cases.

    At any rate, it’s kind of discouraging to be having the same arguments in AD 2012 (“my deity says..”) as they were having in 2012 BC.

  20. 20.

    Forsetti

    June 14, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    When did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    When we took a gigantic hit during the financial crisis. MI lost it two largest economic drivers with the housing crisis and near collapse of the auto industry. This situation put people into an economic panic and allowed the Republicans to get elected on a “Jobs First” platform which, as we have sadly seen, has been dominated by social not economic polices.

  21. 21.

    eric

    June 14, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    John, Michigan turned into Alabama when Alabama turned into religious protectorate of the Southern Baptist Convention.

  22. 22.

    April

    June 14, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    Wait, wait, wait. You mean that there is a parlamentary manuver that is called “silencing” someone?

    They literally silenced them?

  23. 23.

    BGinCHI

    June 14, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    As long as these conservative fucks don’t touch Founders Brewery, Dark Horse Brewery, Bells, and the Vander Mill cidery we’ll all be OK.

    Also leave the cherries alone.

  24. 24.

    Jeff Spender

    June 14, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    I mean, what can you expect from a state with a sizable KKK organization, Nazis, AND a fuckload of right-wing militias (remember Hutaree)?

    We have a number of sovereign citizen cells as well. It’s whacky.

    Like I said a while ago, Malcolm X’s father was killed in Lansing in an “accident” that everyone knows was racially motivated.

  25. 25.

    22over7

    June 14, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    The Bible never specifically mentions abortion so it’s not clear upon what the American Taliban is basing it’s agenda. Are these Michigan legislators primarily Fundamentalists/Protestants or Catholics?

    Abortion is the new variation of “I saw Goody Proctor speakin’ with the devil!” Certainly the Bishops would like nothing better than to take a few uppity women out to the town square and teach them a lesson.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    June 14, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    How sad.

    I had not realized how unbalanced Michigan has become.

  27. 27.

    buckyblue

    June 14, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    The same thing that happened to WI. Dumbass libs angry that Barack the Magic Prez couldn’t wave a wand and make us Sweden, so they stayed home. Now we have fascists running the state taking us back to 1932.

  28. 28.

    gussie

    June 14, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    Lisa Brown is Jewylicious. She killed that speech. “I’m a Jew. My religion teaches that abortion is not only acceptable, but mandatory, to protect the mother’s life–regardless of the age of the fetus. I’m not trying to make you adhere to my religious beliefs. Why are you making me adhere to yours?”

  29. 29.

    AA+ Bonds

    June 14, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    And have you checked those breweries’ donations

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 14, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    Hmmm, “the American Taliban”.

    Surely you’re not angling for your own Moore award nomination, are you John? So shrill! So uncivil! So painfully on target!

  31. 31.

    Egg Berry

    June 14, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    I blame the Yoopers.

  32. 32.

    Mark S.

    June 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    At any rate, it’s kind of discouraging to be having the same arguments in AD 2012 (“my deity says..”) as they were having in 2012 BC.

    Since they were all polytheists back then, they were probably more tolerant of other beliefs.

  33. 33.

    BGinCHI

    June 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: Yes, and they were thoroughly delicious.

  34. 34.

    wesindc

    June 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    ROFL the rebuttal from Barb Byrum made my day!

  35. 35.

    Egg Berry

    June 14, 2012 at 5:42 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: American Taliban is Markos’ term. Cole can’t win with another person’s metaphor.

  36. 36.

    amk

    June 14, 2012 at 5:42 pm

    And when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    Shouldn’t the question be, what is the left going to do about it ?

  37. 37.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 14, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    @gussie: Meh, I think her setup about keeping kosher painted her as out of touch (Who can really afford 12 sets of dishes) and pretty fucking stupid. Yeah, God doesn’t want yer kid to have a cheese and bologna sandwich. This is what the UBERDEITY OF THE UNIVERSE is concerned about.

  38. 38.

    Older_Wiser

    June 14, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    Maybe we need a modern day Lysistrata. And that’s no joke.

  39. 39.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    June 14, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    And when did Michigan turn into Alabama?

    I am not certain that there is anywhere in the United States – right now – that has more of a race-relations problem than Michigan.

    This manifests in Republicanism of a particularly virulent type. As we can now see.

  40. 40.

    Linnaeus

    June 14, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    @amk:

    Shouldn’t the question be, what is the left going to do about it ?

    That’s a very good question. There is a history (not the only one, but there is one) of progressive politics in the state. But the forces that brought that about are in disarray right now. For a lot of reasons.

  41. 41.

    slag

    June 14, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I’d much prefer the uberdeity of the universe be more concerned with some Representative’s kid’s ham and cheese sandwich than with some poor girl’s eggs.

  42. 42.

    Cris (without an H)

    June 14, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    The debate grew heated, as Republicans sought to gravel down the women.

    Is that how they stone you in Lansing?

  43. 43.

    gussie

    June 14, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Nah, that’s just establishing her credibility. She follows crazy laws, but she wants to follow crazy _Jewish_ laws, not crazy _Christian_ laws. It all works.

    (And my parents have meat, milk, and Pesach dishes. Hasn’t cost them that much, because each set is 40 years old.)

  44. 44.

    Linnaeus

    June 14, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Are these Michigan legislators primarily Fundamentalists/Protestants or Catholics?

    Depends on where they’re from. Many – if not most of them – are conservative Protestants, especially if they’re from the west side, where there is a strong influence of a very conservative version of Calvinism.

  45. 45.

    gex

    June 14, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    When? When the troglodytes decided we needed a permanent republican majority. There was no way to grow the GOP to this size without catering to all the white male bullies within the white male demographic.

  46. 46.

    MattR

    June 14, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    @Cris (without an H): Heh.

    It does bring up the question. Which reason was the bigger factor in the Republican decision to sancation these women – the content of their speeches and the use of the words vagina and vasectomy or because they did not pipe down when the men in the room told them to?

  47. 47.

    kgc16

    June 14, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: I saw what you did there.

  48. 48.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    June 14, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    Shouldn’t the question be, what is the left going to do about it ?

    @amk: Issue strongly worded statements, and then retract them when some wannabe Nazi Gauleiter objects to the incivility, and a bunch of so-called leftists who lack the courage of their weak convictions agree that yes, the statement was uncivil and tut tut, can’t have that.

    I’m one election cycle away from lumping Democrats in with the Vichys of Nazi-occupied France and throwing in the towel on politics. The craven bootlicking and self-hating groveling must stop.

  49. 49.

    Mike E

    June 14, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: plus she gets points for tweaking their Joooz fetish as being good Xtians and all. Strong supporter of Israel!

  50. 50.

    Regnad Kcin

    June 14, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: is that why my gal from Kalamazoo got the works?

  51. 51.

    FlipYrWhig

    June 14, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    @kgc16: @Regnad Kcin: People just like it better that way.

  52. 52.

    Tonal Crow

    June 14, 2012 at 7:09 pm

    Oh-oh Mich-i-ganna…your Cadillac, has got a wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track…I come to you and see all is ruin, what are you doin’? Mich-i-ganna?

  53. 53.

    qwerty42

    June 14, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    The Speaker was probably all in a tizzy afterwards. And will doubtless cry himself to sleep. She should have just said “down there”, and his fee-fees would not have been so hurt.

    More seriously, this all seems to be a part of a rolling dictatorship the state legislature has going on; apparently only Rachel Maddow has commented on it. Could some of the MI folks say something about this?

  54. 54.

    mouse tolliver

    June 14, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    Haven’t you been watching Rachel? She’s the only one covering it. Republicans have been running Michigan like a dictatorship for a while now. They’ve actually eliminated representative government in some parts of the state. They’ve even been putting radical laws into immediate effect even though they don’t have enough votes to legally do this.

    This is how democracy dies. It morphs into a totalitarian state and the media doesn’t bother to tell anybody.

  55. 55.

    Cap'n Magic

    June 14, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    As an born and raised Detroiter, I cry for my hometown state on this recent insanity.

  56. 56.

    qwerty42

    June 14, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    @mouse tolliver: If it doesn’t come over the air, I don’t see it. But I believe something on this was either here or at TPM a few weeks ago. This issue was over at TPM and a commenter brought this up.

  57. 57.

    Cap'n Magic

    June 14, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    @Linnaeus: You nailed it. Even my late father, who was a knee-deep Republican as they come, absolutely loathed Engler.

  58. 58.

    JGabriel

    June 14, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    __
    __
    Republican Standards: It’s a sin for Democratic women to use the word vagina, but perfectly legitimate for a Republic man to call women bitch.

    .

  59. 59.

    Don K

    June 14, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    @Egg Berry:

    Blame the DeVos family. They own Amway, and they own the MI Republican Party.

  60. 60.

    Cap'n Magic

    June 14, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    The Dems should have attached a rider banning the sale of condoms in addition to the vasectomy rider. And they should have taken a page out of Franken’s book and called for a roll-call vote.

  61. 61.

    The Other Bob

    June 15, 2012 at 8:18 am

    @BGinCHI:

    Unfortuantely one of the best (if not the best) breweries in Michigan, New Holland, is owned by a tea party asshole who ran for Congress. Damn he makes good beer though.

  62. 62.

    PWL

    June 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    This is getting back to the days when women’s legs were called “limbs,” because “legs” was too sexually provocative, piano legs were covered with lace lest naughty associations be made, and saying that a women was “pregnant” was a no-no. Instead, she was “with child”…

    Yep, the return of a sickly and stifled Victorianism. Truly this country is going backwards and getting stupider at the same time…

  63. 63.

    .

    June 15, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    These republicans are anti-American to a degree not exceeded by the Taliban.

    They are despicable bullies, guilty of (at least attempting to) destroying democracy in America.

    These republicans deserve and have earned the hatred of everyone who believes in the American way. They hate freedom, and are doing everything they can do to destroy all aspects of our freedom, especially freedom of and from religion.

    They distort historical fact in attempting to claim that America was created as a “christian nation” – when the only mention of religion in the founding documents of the nation is to prohibit a religious test for office holders.

    This is hardly the sort of thing christian founders would insist be in the Constitution, now is it?

    I’m trying to express my rage without descending into cursing and threatening violence, someone help me out here if you can.

    I already participate in traditional democratic ways of fighting the hatred of these republicans for America and american ways, like organizing and volunteering and contributing to candidates’ campaigns and such.

    What else can we do?

    To me it’s obvious that the republicans hate everything that made American great. They’re in favor of torture – just like the countries we fought in WW II. They’re against free speech, even in legislative debate – just like the country we opposed in the Cold War.

    Yet they’re allowed to call Progressives who believe in American values, like freedom and justice for all, allowed to call us Commies, when they adopt the political tricks used by communist organizers working in democratic countries! And no one in the Mass Media calls them on their dirty tricks!

    This is what happens when we forget history. We may have to fight all those battles all over again. We’re lucky it will be so hard for then to disenfranchise women and racial minorities. Or will it, once they own the supreme courts of all the states?

    I need to stop now, I’m just getting more and more outraged!

  64. 64.

    Nathanael

    June 15, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    The Michigan economic collapse (which has been ongoing for a long time now) caused a large number of the sane people — the liberals — to move out of state.

    Some right-wingers moved out of state too, but others settled into paranoid militias — and yet others saw the opportunity to “rule over hell”, and took it. I’m actually waiting for the conflict between the paranoid militias and the DeVos / Koch Brother types to flare up, as they don’t have much in common with each other.

  65. 65.

    Nathanael

    June 15, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    @Forum Transmitted Disease: Don’t give up on politics even if you give up on electoral politics within our current broken, phony system of stolen elections.

    Politics has a much larger meaning than election campaigns. Occupy is politics.

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