Tales from the States as they try to outdo one another toward retrogression.
In short, if you’re an atheist, you either have to lie about your religion or you won’t graduate from high school, if those legislature Republicans have their way about it.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
Wonder if I should send back my diploma. This is fucking embarrassing.
House Bill 368 passed the Tennessee House of Representatives on a 72-23 vote on March 26, 2012, theChattanooga Times Free Press (March 26, 2012) reports. The bill would encourage teachers to present the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of topics that arouse “debate and disputation” such as “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning”; it now proceeds to Governor Bill Haslam, who will have ten days to sign the bill, allow it to become law without his signature, or veto it. Haslam previously indicated that he would discuss the bill with the state board of education, telling the Nashville Tennesseean (March 19, 2012), “It is a fair question what the General Assembly’s role is … That’s why we have a state board of education.”
+4 to Tennessee for the reconciled bill passing both chambers. Damn, I really don’t want to give the last 5 points a few days from now.
Just a reminder: There’s a petition against it right now addressed to Haslam, and it’s sitting on a rather meek 125 signatures. Please, sign and spread the word.
Today Was the Last Day of Legislative Businees in The 2011-2012 Legislative Session In Georgia!! It Went Out With a Bang Today!!
Here’s just a sampling of what passed both the Georgia State House and the Georgia State Senate today in its last day of legislation today:
- The controversial Georgia House Bill 1176 passed the GA State House and Senate today, and it awaits Governor Nathan Deal’s signature. The bill would reduce the prison terms of some offenders and divert others into treatment instead of locking them up in prison. It would create three categories of burglary and would punish people who burglarize at night, or with a weapon, or hurt someone the harshest. Lesser punishment would be allowed for burglars who burglarize structures where people don’t live (like businesses such as restaurants, convenience stores, shopping centers, etc.) The bill could conceivably let someone go free for a burglary of a non-dwelling structure. Also, the bill would allow for people with lesser amounts of illegal drugs a looser sentence, while those with a lot of illegal drugs would be punished the harshest. The bill would allow offenders who are currently on probation or parole to graduate to a lower level of supervision if they follow a self-improvement plan. The door could be opened for Governor Deal to make similar decisions to former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who pardoned murderers and rapists because of politics. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
- A bill that would force people who want to receive welfare to take a drug test passed the GA House and Senate and is awaiting Governor Deal’s signature. The bill closely mirrors its Florida counterpart, and in that same light, the bill is unconstitutional, due to the Fourth Amendment protection from illegal and unlawful search and seizure without a search warrant. The Florida version with a similar drug test requirement has been blocked by a federal judge for that reason. Georgia’s law could be heading down the same path as other GOP states. [GPB News]
- Once GA Governor Nathan Deal signs it, a bill that bans assisted suicide will become law. Under the bill, if a person assists in another person’s suicide in the State of Georgia, they would be charged more than likely with felony murder or felony manslaughter. Regardless, they could face up to ten years in prison for suicide assistance. [NECN]
- The Georgia Legislature OK’s the display of the Ten Commandments in all government buildings and schools. This bill will most certainly be deemed unconstitutional due to the First Amendment barring any establishment of a national or state religion. The tradition of the “Separation of Church and State” which originated from US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black stated that government and religion not be intertwined with each other. By passing this bill, the Georgia Legislature is basically slapping the US Constitution and the Framers in the face! Even though I personally think that displaying the Ten Commandments in government buildings and schools isn’t such a bad thing, I have to side with the law on this one. The display would publicly endorse a religion (Christianity) and I feel that the bill should be deemed unconstitutional. Like the Supreme Court struck down similar displays in two Kentucky courthouses in 2005, when this is taken up in court, it will be struck down also. [The Florida Times-Union]
- A controversial pro-life abortion bill passed the GA House and Senate late in the final day of the 2011-2012 legislative session. Awaiting Governor Deal’s signature, the bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except when pregnancies threaten a woman’s life or health. However, the bill did not have exceptions for a woman being raped, essentially meaning that a raped woman would be forced to carry the child that her rapist gave her. She would be forced to carry a reminder of the horrific day she was raped. The bill also allows for abortions to be performed if a fatal defect is found in the fetus at 5 months or after. [The Augusta Chronicle]
And after all this controversy occurred today, Governor Nathan Deal visited the Georgia State House and State Senate and congratulated them on a job well done this legislative session.
Excuse me? How is having the worst record in unemployment in the country a job well done? How is lowering the pay of teachers and paraprofessionals who are already struggling to make ends meet just so you and the Georgia DOT can make a failed HOT lane project and waste millions of dollars that could have went to education and paying teachers? How is that a good job? How is having a carbon copy of one of the most controversial anti-immigration laws in the country enacted in our state going to help our state, and our country’s economy?
Only in the demented brain of a Republican could a horrible unemployment record, a horrible record on jobs, a horrible record on overhauling the HOPE Scholarship that helps people attend college, which is funded by the Georgia Lottery that spends over 40% of the millions they make each year to fund advertising, usually mundane and stupid advertisements, be seen as DOING A GOOD JOB!!
Whatever happiness pill Georgia’s Governor Deal is taking, I want some! Either he’s lost touch with the current reality of Georgians’ lives, or he sincerely doesn’t give a damn about any of us that live and work in Georgia!!
#1 actually doesn’t seem so bad (minus the possible abuse by Gov. Deal), and I don’t know what to think of #3.
#2, #4 and #5, however, all ass-backwards, and all +10s (or the penultimate points of said +10s) to Georgia, with Deal poised to complete the deals with his vile signature.
Candy-coated with the name of the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act:
“The bill requires school boards to provide a method, based on “neutral criteria,” for the selection of student speakers at school events and graduation ceremonies. School systems would also must adopt a policy regarding a limited public forum and voluntary student expression of religious viewpoints. Only students in the highest two grade levels of the school and who also are a student council officer, football team captain, top class officer or other position of honor established by local schools “based on neutral criteria” would be eligible to use the limited public forum.”
In other words, not just anybody can express their religious views in school. School boards will decide who gets to bombard the school with prayers and religious viewpoints. With such a small percentage of students being qualified for selection, students of other non-Christian and non-religious views are less likely to be able to express them since Christianity is the dominant religion. Holt says that schools will be mandated to let Muslims and Wiccans express their views but how will that come to pass if only Christians qualify or if the community expresses outrage towards schools administrators for doing so?
So, yeah, +3 Tennessee for this passing committee, showing yet again how much the legislators in that state respect the Establishment Clause.
The state Senate gave final legislative approval Monday night to a bill allowing local governments to erect monuments or displays of the Ten Commandments, along with such other “historically significant documents” as the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence and the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions.
The bill was among 10 that the Senate passed collectively on a single 30-0 vote as part of the “consent calendar” of relatively noncontroversial bills, without debate.
The House had unanimously approved the legislation on March 19.
The bill’s preamble says that such documents “are treasures that should be displayed proudly and resolutely in public buildings and on public grounds.” The bill says the documents may be displayed in public buildings and on public grounds in the form of “statues, monuments, memorials, tablets, or any other display that respects the dignity and solemnity of such documents.”
Unbelievable. Except it is Tennessee, so it isn’t…
Tennessee is determined to stay ahead of the pack. +4 for this passing the second chamber.
The head of the Oklahoma ACLU chapter, former state legislator Ryan Kiesel, has aptly and wisely described this latest Oklahoma legislative misadventure as “a frivolous waste of legislative time.”
Oklahoma’s state motto, whether it’s “official” or not (and reportedly it was never officially adopted way back in the 1900s or whenever) is labor omnia vincit (“Labour conquers all things.”) It appears on the state seal.
And that is as it should be.
This is another exercise in a state House dominated by far-right conservatives and Christian Nationalists as an attempt to drive a wedge between Oklahomans who are fundie Christian fanatics and …
- Oklahomans that are Christians but aren’t fundie fanatics,
- Oklahomans that aren’t Christians because they adhere to some other faith tradition or none at all.
Seriously, I’m sick of this wedge issue shite. It keeps all these clowns from addressing REAL issues in the state.
The measure was introduced by a Democratic legislator, Danny Morgan (D-HD 32, Prague), but “Democrat” doesn’t necessarily mean “liberal.”
Unless he did this as an elaborate joke, but I doubt it.
+6 to Oklahoma for House passage. I’ll treat this resolution as a full law since it’s a real assault on the Establishment Clause.
Giving Florida the final +5 from this travesty.
Gov. Rick Scott on Friday signed a controversial law cosponsored by Sen. Greg Evers that would allow student prayer at mandatory school events, prompting several groups opposed to the law to warn school districts against implementing it.
The measure signed by Scott would pave the way for local districts to approve policies allowing students to decide whether to have another student deliver an “inspirational message” at school events. Scott signed the bill without comment.
Because, you know, fuck separation of church and state. It was passed unanimously by the House. (Yeah, for those who don’t know, even the Democrats in Tennessee, for the most part, suck.)
The sponsor of this was Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, who, you may recall, is the same genius behind that bill that would force the state Department of Health to release the names of doctors who perform abortions and demographic info about the women receiving them.
Tennessee gets 6 more points of separation.
Unfortunately, the one Facebook account I found for Mr. Hill does not have a wall open to public bombing, but here is his “official” site that you *ahem* may or may not want to attack with some Project TMI activities.
ETA: His Twitter account may be your best bet for public exposure (either for Project TMI or the Ten Commandments bill … or both.)
