I said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s time for the GOP to change its emblem from the noble elephant to a scarab — specifically the scarabeous sacer, or dung beetle. Because these guys are dedicated to seeking out, storing up, prospering off dung. Via commentor Punchy, here’s Charles Johnson at LGF on the “Republican lunatics” and “heartless bastards” who voted against the rights of disabled people:
Following up on Rick Santorum’s new job at the conspiracy website World Net Daily, and his absolutely insane fear-mongering column about the UN treaty on the rights of the disabled, heartless Republican bastards in the Senate rejected the treaty today — even with Bob Dole making a special appearance in a wheelchair to support it: Republican Opposition Downs UN Disability Treaty.
WASHINGTON — Led by Republican opposition, the Senate on Tuesday rejected a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled that is modeled after the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.
With 38 Republicans casting “no” votes, the 61-38 vote fell five short of the two-thirds majority needed to ratify a treaty. The vote took place in an unusually solemn atmosphere, with senators sitting at their desks rather than milling around the podium. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, looking frail and in a wheelchair, was in the chamber to support the treaty.
The treaty, already signed by 155 nations and ratified by 126 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, states that nations should strive to assure that the disabled enjoy the same rights and fundamental freedoms as their fellow citizens. Republicans objected to taking up a treaty during the lame-duck session of the Congress and warned that the treaty could pose a threat to U.S. national sovereignty.
“I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.…
Johnson also linked to a useful Right Wing Watch article on the paranoid phantasies behind the GOP rejection:
…. Along with the false charges about abortion, opponents of the treaty claimed it will undermine U.S. sovereignty and harm children. Critics like Rick Santorum warned that the treaty may kill his disabled daughter; Glenn Beck said it could create a “fascistic” government and Sen. Jim Inhofe alleged the treaty would help groups with “anti-American biases.”
One of the lesser-known but extremely active opponents of the bill was homeschooling activist Michael Farris.
During an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, he claimed that the treaty will prompt the United Nations to ‘get control’ of children with glasses or ADHD and remove them from their families…
It’s always about control with this particular brand of flag-wrapped bible-thumper. They love ‘pre-born babies’ and ‘pillow angels’ like Bella Santorum, because fetuses and disabled toddlers are great political props. They love home-schooling, because if their kids never leave the rightwing bubble, they’ll never have the chance to commit the original sin of disobedience. But other peoples’ kids, disabled adults, even their own ‘corrupted’ teenagers? Well, Santorum has announced that his god is a “warrior god”, not the sort of namby-pamby do-gooder that talks about ‘doing unto others’ and ‘even the least of these… ‘
And why, may you ask, is Rick Santorum, failed presidential-primary candidate and official congressional representative of exactly nobody, so publicly in change of this shit-shifting parade? Because Mitt Romney may have captured the 2012 GOP nomination, but Santorum captured the GOP primary voters. He is Head Savonarola for their Talibangical wing, and by tradition in 2016 it will be “his turn” to stand at the RNC podium. Look forward to four more years of stomach-turning rhetoric like this, dedicated to the proposition that White Male Americans have the god-given right to make all the decisions for the rest of us, and the world.
Mary G
Oh, but that election will be a riot. Hilary vs. Santorum! I can hardly wait. That would be a thumpin’ for sure.
Suffern ACE
What would the UN do with children with glasses and ADD even if it got ahold of them?
Suffern ACE
@Mary G: I doubt he’s going anywhere. He’s signed on to the World Net Daily gravy train. He’s Palin 2008, disabled child in tow. It gets old and he’ll find his donor base to be no broader than hers was, even as he buys larger houses.
Ash Can
They’re basically coming out agaInst the rIghts of dIsabled people on the basIs of wacko conspIracy theorIes. If It really is Santorum’s “turn” next, hIs candIdacy could finally be what scuttles the GOP as a major political party.
PurpleGirl
@Suffern ACE: The Republicans don’t say. They claim the treaty would be a “living” document which wouldn’t mean the same thing in X-number of years than it does now. So who knows what the UN could decide to do with/to our children.
Chris
America is their personal fiefdom, and any potential international authority that might encroach on it and force them to run it decently (however fictional) must be zealously guarded against.
It’s a macro version of the way local elites all through American history (slave owners, robber barons, sharecroppers, machine politicians) zealously opposed any “overreach” by the federal government, lest said “overreach” prevent them from continuing to treat their state or district like their personal kingdom.
(Except these people actually had something to worry about, whereas Santorum and company are jumping at shadows).
mai naem
I caught up with a couple of college buddies this spring. I hadn’t talked to them in years. They were born agains in college but for whatever reason, I figured with some real life experience they would change their opinion. BTW, these are two of the nicest people I’ve ever known. And they are highly educated(post-grad.) They work in healthcare. Anyhow, a few days ago, I got their little yearly newsletter that they send out to family and friends. On one hand, I was disappointed that they hadn’t grown up. On the other hand, I laughed at the newsletter – they talked about one of the highlights of their year being waiting in line for Chik-Fil-A for family values!?!? Not quite sure how going to Chik-Fil-A equals Family Values. And the other part talked about still praying and believing in Jesus Christ after the election. Oy vey. I have not talked about politics with these folks but methinks they think Obama is a Musleem. And they probably agree with the freaks voting against this treaty today. I am kind of wondering if I even want to have these folks as my friends.
Mark S.
I had to read why Ricky thinks this treaty will kill his daughter. So,
And what does it say?
The paranoid delusions of these assholes. It’s unbelievable.
Anton Sirius
Hey now… what did the noble dung beetle ever do to deserve being associated with the GOP?
Punchy
That’s an interesting way to get control of a child. Is it like a giant drinking glass that you trap them in, like a SpiderChild, or does one use the Harry Potter round-frames to hypnotize the child into obeying? Dear God, dont ever let the priests near those things…
Chris
@mai naem:
I got that on my facebook; a couple wingnuts did the “Jesus is still supreme and that’s what counts” thing at the end of Election Night. It’s their version of drinking their problems away, I guess, since they can’t actually do that.
Hill Dweller
Which Village idiot will be the first to blame the failure to ratify the treaty on Obama’s lack of bipartisanship and/or leadership?
Steve
This is typical Republican thinking. They have to try and scare the hell out of people with their out of this world conspiracy theories. Fear of children with disabilities is right in line with fear of gays,foreigners and non-Christian religions. They have yet o realize that their is a completely different world out there apart from the USA>
Constance
Many of our disabled are veterans of incredibly stupid, unnecessary wars that those same fuckers voted for.
These people are Christians ( I am definitely not) and they don’t seem to know the old saying, “There but for the grace of god go I.”
WTF
Soonergrunt
Considering that these assholes think the ADA is an unconstitutional burden on commerce that is costing the job creators billions of dollars annually and they want to get rid of it at the earliest opportunity, there was no way in hell they were ever going to support it becoming international law that they couldn’t then repeal.
Face
I would like for someone to explain to me in non-fucktard terms specifically how this treaty affects homeschoolers in any way. Please point me to the exact verbiage, cuz I just aint seeing it anywhere on the tubez.
Shouldn’t a reporter demand these things are specifically explained after an epic fail vote like this? Can I as a Republican really just tell a pundit that I think the treaty will lead to gay dogs marrying box turtles wearing pink moomoos in August and have the pundit just accept it as a clause in the treaty, just because I said so? Yikes.
srv
@Suffern ACE: I’m thinking Google Glasses may be the next mark of the beast.
I could go for that one.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: it makes me wonder if they think that many disabled children are better off dead and therefore the concepts of the best interests of the child are tainted by those thoughts.
amk
#gop= group of paranoids
Mark S.
@Face:
Of course. We report, you decide.
mai naem
@Hill Dweller: Halperin? I was watching Morning Ho this morning. Between Halperin, Ho, Willie Geist,Meacham and Barnicle’s discussion of Obama’s “lack of kissing GOP ass” I wanted to start a WH petition for a drone attack on 30 Rock.
Dork
@Punchy: I suppose you could control a child with glasses if you framed him. The optics of that aren’t good, though. May take too many contacts to set it up. Maybe entice him to steal a Cataract Escalade, see if he lens it to his friends, then get him arrested and behind those metal rods.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Fuck those crippled people, anyway. Have you ever heard of some handicapped jerk adding value to an investor’s portfolio? Of course not. Cripples are takers, not makers. Fuck ’em and fuck their parking spaces, which I always park in when I’m late for a meeting with my broker.
red dog
How about we send all the dissenters to Gaza to observe over the barb wire fence what paranoid looks like staring back at them.
Linnaeus
Frankly, that’s an insult to dung beetles. They improve agriculture by recycling nutrients in the soil and they reduce livestock disease because they bury animal waste that would normally be available to pests that carry disease.
So, they actually do something useful. Unlike the GOP.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
The tenets of the Modern GOP is utterly indistinguishable from trolling. The only difference is that they’re trolling has actual consequences.
The Other Chuck
Dung beetles perform a vital function by carting away all that dung. The GOP just shits all over everything.
Ruckus
…dedicated to the proposition that White Male Americans have the god-given right to make all the decisions for the rest of us, and the world.
This old, white, male american doesn’t want to make decisions for the rest of you. Most days I don’t want to have to make that many decisions for myself. More than half the time I have a hard time deciding what to have for dinner. That doesn’t mean however that I want some evangelical, old, white, douchebag making decisions for me.
Punchy
@Dork: Nicely done. /golf clap
Ruckus
@mai naem:
No.
MikeJ
@Dork: So many puns. I want to be your pupil.
pseudonymous in nc
Pissing off liberals, daily.
As I said in an earlier thread, there could be a UN treaty declaring that US law applies everywhere else in the world forever and ever amen, and you’d get 34 GOP senators voting not to ratify it .
? Martin
Yep, China and Russia have agreed to stronger human rights than the GOP can bear.
Hang it around their necks in 2014.
cckids
Speaking as the parent of a disabled son, who’s now an adult, fuck them. Also too, their type, who so love feti & disabled toddlers, are the very first & worst to turn away from & ignore the needs of those people as they get older, less cute & cuddly & more expensive to take care of. See Sarah Palin, in 2008, urging residents of CO to vote against a 1/4 cent sales tax increase that would go towards group homes for disabled adults. The waiting list at the time was over 12,500 people.
And I know it is no more than anecdata, but I’ve been involved with parents groups for kids with disabilities for 25+ years, and for many disabled kids of very conservative parents, taking them away from those parents would be in the kid’s best interests. It would never happen, of course, but ultra-right-wingers can be horrifying parents. The selfishness & “me-first-ness” that are the hallmarks of conservativism run smack into the unending needs of a handicapped kid or adult, and guess who always loses.
Sorry for the judging & ranting, but I’ve seen real-life horror stories.
FlipYrWhig
@Mark S.: I think he thinks this means “UN Death Panels.” Stateless bureaucrats deciding that the best interest of your child is to die.
Ruckus
@Linnaeus:
@The Other Chuck:
What can you call conservatives except worse than useless? They don’t understand the teachings of the book they want to jam down our throats, they have the maturity of a 5 yr old brat, the thought processes of a block of wood, and the greediness of the wicked witch of the north. They are the shitstain on our country. Unfortunately soap and water doesn’t seem to wash them away.
Hill Dweller
Despite their obvious insanity, the wingnuts will still be invited on every cable and Sunday morning show, and any lack of progress in the austerity bomb negotiations will be blamed on the President.
Tonal Crow
@Face:
Um, you do realize that that would be committing Journalism, which is an aggravated felony these days?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@cckids: But then how are the parents to get the big social services checks?
Seen that shit too. It’s horrifying.
Ruckus
@cckids:
Never feel sorry for or apologize about ranting against stupidity, selfishness and greed. It’s the least they deserve.
Bnad
If this treaty, based on American law, cannot pass, then no treaty ever can pass. Which is the Real Amurkin way, we don’t need treaties when we have bombs, and all those other countries better do our bidding cause we’re just itchin to start the buhpocalypse! Real Amurka is like a guy walking down the street with a huge chip on his shoulder, twitchily eyeing every male passerby, looking for a fight.
srv
Maybe you folks aren’t hip to all the glasses sci-fi, but it is likely to become the primary intertubes input medium after the post-PC era ends.
What you see with digital glasses can be filtered. It would seem this would be a positive thing for the GOP. Proper viewing can be allowed, improper viewing can be filtered out. Copy of the Tropic of Cancer on that amazon library shelf? Poof! It isn’t there anymore. Start reading up on Critical Thinking? The text fades away.
There will be a “conservative” google or google filter and it will be what all those wonderful school and state textbook boards will mandate as curriculum. I can’t believe the FRC and others don’t have billions from the Koch’s to start developing this already.
Ruckus
Also, I’d like to apologize to the rest of the world that we haven’t been able to marginalize the american crazy. Many countries have their own batshit level crazies, but ours have a shrill voice that is far more than just annoying, it is dangerous to all life forms and the earth itself.
ETA to correct the totality of their stupidity.
Chris
@pseudonymous in nc:
That’s basically the story of the last century. America remakes the world order largely in its image, then decides that said world order is a plot against it. Paranoid doesn’t even begin to describe these fucking people.
Anne Laurie
@Suffern ACE:
Only the gay ones (hey, Leviticus says being gay is just as disabling as being blind or deaf or lame). Or the kids who get ‘seduced’ by the dark side, and announce they’re atheists or Darwinians or in love with someone of the ‘wrong’ color/sect/background. Basically, Santorum believes the UN wants to keep him from enforcing his own brand of sharia — on his unfortunate offspring, if he can’t do it to the rest of us — and that’s why he’s against it. Not kidding: the only difference between Rick Santorum and the maddest mullah calling for the mass murder of ‘deviants’ is that Santorum knows he’s still in the minority here.
KDUN
FSM bless Charlie Pierce, I can’t so much as think “Rick Santorum” without adding the obligatory “–and have I mentioned what a colossal dick he is lately?”
Felonius Monk
Here I think is the real tragedy of this shortsighted vote: Without the U.S. ratification of this treaty disabled U.S. citizens living in foreign countries will not be accorded the benefits that are provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our ADA was the model for this treaty and without our ratification we cannot participate in how this is implemented in other countries. The treaty appears to have virtually no impact on what goes on within the United States.
To their credit a goodly number of Republicans did vote in favor of it and in fact were strong supporters. It was mainly the wack-nuts that voted against it.
Reid says it will be brought up for vote next year because we owe it to our disabled veterans to pass it.
In the meantime could the Klingons come around and vaporize Ricky boy.
John M. Burt
@Felonius Monk:
Felonius Monk
@John M. Burt: Amen!
Villago Delenda Est
@Felonius Monk:
No we don’t.
Soldiers are utterly disposable. This is the true Bush Doctrine.
Use them like fucking tissue paper. Wipe and forget.
Thank you for your service! [Flush!]
cckids
@Suffern ACE:
Yes. Yes, they do. I cannot tell you the number of cons who, while talking to me, drop their opinion into a conversation that “when God calls him (meaning my son), he’ll be so much better off“. I mean wow, just wow. You’re talking about my kid here. And I can tell you, nonverbal, quad, mentally handicapped though he may be, he has brought more light & decency to the world than many on the right.
Calouste
@Felonius Monk:
If 38 out of 47 GOP Senators is “mainly the wacknuts”, the conclusion would have to be that the GOP in the Senate consists mainly of wacknuts.
Most, if not all of them would probably like to repeal ADA if they got the chance because it is an ebul regulation.
Pete Mack
I have real sympathy with the position that the treaty is not necessary: treaties are for international relations.
Disability rights are very much a national issue.
We already have the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). Does having a treaty make a meaningful difference in how the government treats the handicapped? If not, there’s really no reason to sign. A lot of the treaty text reads more like an ISO business standard than an international treaty.
That said, the reasons these guys come up with are just plain nuts.
owlbear1
Republicans have become the living embodiment of passive-aggressive cowardice.
Xenos
@Pete Mack: Yes, it does. I really don’t care to go into the details, but those of us with family members in multiple countries, some of whom are disabled or otherwise frail, would benefit from the consistent application of disability rules.
The lack of the ADA when you leave the states is really quite noticeable.
Rich (In Name Only) in Reno
And as God is my witness, as long is there is a single Republican left on this benighted orb, there will never be a Starfleet or a United Federation of Planets.
Ellyn
I ha.ve serious doubts about sticky ricky’s sanity
burnspbesq
@Pete Mack:
So you have a problem with the US showing leadership on an important global initiative?
Explain how you are meaningfully different than the looniest wing nut Republican.
burnspbesq
Nitpicking a righteous rant, but Charles Johnson’s understanding of the Supremacy Clause is dead wrong.
sherparick
I know it is ad hominem, but I don’t think it is possible to make rational, logical arguments with people like Perkins, Imhofe, Santorum and Ferris, since they reject the very concepts. They are simply Crazy, gone round the bend, and that they have lock on 40% of the vote of our fellow Murikans is both frightening and disgusting.
Central Planning
@Suffern ACE:
LASIK and Ritalin for all!
Susanna K.
Interesting that Michael Farris got involved in this. He’s not just a Christian homeschooling advocate, he’s one of the leaders in the “Quiverfull” or Christian Patriarchy movement. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/02/what-is-quiverfull-an-faq.html (e.g. the Duggar family)
weaselone
@Pete Mack:
Sure just like slavery and women’s rights are national issues. Handicapped rights are human rights. Setting a basic common code human rights is a key compenent of international relations if only because people from one country might actually visit another and should be able to expect to be accorded some basic level of human dignity if they do so.
SFAW
@Calouste:
Plus the First (for some “people”), Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth (for some “people”), 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th Amendments, plus the entire New Deal.
You may think I’m joking. I’m not. And I’m probably understating the extent of their desires.
Bokonon
The opponents to this treaty couldn’t even come up with a single unified theory or justification for opposing its ratification. But they knew that they opposed it! And they opposed it very vigorously. Which was all primarily based on a raft of unhinged conspiracy theories that have no basis in the actual treaty itself.
This “sovereignty” stuff is just the respectible, droning cable news face of the actual John Birch Society/black helicopters/anti abortion/Nazi Germany comparison/death panels reaction from the right. It all depended on which newsletter or media outlet or right wing pundit you were watching – Santorum? Mike Farris? Glenn Beck?
And ominously, the Senate GOP members knuckled under and did the bidding of the activists and screamers.
Is this irrational garbage going to the way things are going to be from this point out? No boundaries any more?
LevelB
You used the phrase “bible thumper”. I think it is more accurate to refer to this type person as a “bible humper”. There is no real connection to Christianity here.
Andrew Pulrang
@Face:
I haven’t ready the treaty, but my guess is one of two possibilities:
1. It contains some specific references to the right of children with disabilities to a free, appropriate public education, or some qualifier that suggests an objective standard for “good” vs. “substandard” education.
Or,
2. There are many ways to approach parenting a child with a disability, all of which may be loving in intent. However, someone predisposed to resent “the state” having any say in raising their children may also resist any attempt by anyone else to define what is “good for” their disabled children. In other words, as Ann said, it is all about control. Except that the emotions are even more intensified when disabled children are in the mix.
As an aside, not all homeschoolers of disabled children are right-wing fundamentalists. Unfortunately, lots of public schools do a really poor job with disabled children, and sometimes parents opt for homeschooling out of honest desperation.
Original Lee
@Susanna K.: I’m thinking that they are worried that in many Quiverfull families, where the older kids are taking care of the younger kids and everybody works in the family business, that perhaps children with disabilities would almost certainly not be getting appropriate therapies. The homeschoolers could also get into trouble with those darn librul Child Protective Services folk for child labor and neglect violations.
steve666
Too many of you use “conservative” interchangeably with “wingnut douchebag.” Conservatives used to be people with sane thought processes. You could disagree with their opinions, but at least they knew how they got there. There aren’t many of those folks left.
Sick Rick is a whole different animal (or vegetable). So are his flock of Teabaggers, American Taliban, KKK, and other troglodytes. What we need is a UN resolution declaring them as terrorists and requiring appropriate mental health care.