# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 700
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13981 "2014-04-10T05:19:04Z")
> [@Oldeb](#): > > Confederate Apologists better be ready to up their game. It sounds like the Heritage Foundation is no longer sure the Civil War even happened. [Jim DeMint doesn’t believe the government had any role in ending slavery.](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/09/1290818/-Jim-DeMint-grumbles-that-big-government-didn-t-free-the-slaves) It was just a pet project of Lincoln. Who apparently wasn’t part of the government. And certainly didn’t do something like declare the majority of slaves free by presidential decree. Holy fuck. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13982 "2014-04-10T14:06:07Z")
[UN banned from monitoring Tennessee elections.](http://www.europeandailynews.org/2014/04/10/united-nations-banned-from-monitoring-tennessee-elections/) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13983 "2014-04-10T15:07:06Z")
> [@Oldeb](#): > > Confederate Apologists better be ready to up their game. It sounds like the Heritage Foundation is no longer sure the Civil War even happened. [Jim DeMint doesn’t believe the government had any role in ending slavery.](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/09/1290818/-Jim-DeMint-grumbles-that-big-government-didn-t-free-the-slaves) It was just a pet project of Lincoln. Who apparently wasn’t part of the government. And certainly didn’t do something like declare the majority of slaves free by presidential decree. So government didn’t free the slaves. It was Lincoln who freed the slaves. Its just a coincidence that he happened to be the leader of the government at the time? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13984 "2014-04-10T15:08:44Z")
And the Union Army was just a bunch of independent altruists who voluntarily collaborated in the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13985 "2014-04-10T15:12:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [UN banned from monitoring Tennessee elections.](http://www.europeandailynews.org/2014/04/10/united-nations-banned-from-monitoring-tennessee-elections/) Well nothing says fair election as much as preemptively banning monitors. How would this thing work anyway? Would they be on the look out for shady characters hanging around polling places with thin moustaches, wearing berets and striped shirts and eating baguettes and throw them out? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13986 "2014-04-10T15:17:17Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Well nothing says fair election as much as preemptively banning monitors. > > How would this thing work anyway? Would they be on the look out for shady characters hanging around polling places with thin moustaches, wearing berets and striped shirts and eating baguettes and throw them out? The really disturbing part is: > [@](#): > > **There was no debate.** Senate approved the bill 23-2. the House earlier approved the measure 75-20 after some discussion. House sponsor Rep. Micah Van Huss characterized the measure as an assertion of the state and nation’s sovereignty. Van Huss said he was upset that a United Nations affiliate organization sent two representatives – one from France and one from Armenia – to monitor Tennessee elections in 2012 because the state had enacted a law requiring photo identification for voting. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13987 "2014-04-10T15:42:45Z")
Tennessee is a free and independent Amerricun state! Ain’t no FURRINER gonna be allowed to watch while the Republicans steal the election! That’'s a treat reserved for US citizens only! ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13988 "2014-04-10T16:01:27Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Holy fuck. No kidding. I am honestly blown away that someone could be that willfully blind. ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13989 "2014-04-10T16:37:49Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Well nothing says fair election as much as preemptively banning monitors. > > How would this thing work anyway? It works because it bans something that doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but paranoia and pandering. First, it only bans observers from the United Nations. The United Nations has no election monitors. Second, it seems like it’s taking a shot at Obama by only allowing exceptions for treaties approved by the Senate with no mention of the President. But all treaties have to be approved by the Senate, that’s just how it works. Third, the people they’re presumably trying to ban were from the Organization of American States and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights who really did send observers for the 2012 elections. The OAS was formed in 1967 with the US as a member and the ODIHR is part of the 1990 Paris Charter, to which the US is a signatory. And neither group’s presence at US elections was anything new. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13990 "2014-04-10T17:14:44Z")
> [@Oldeb](#): > > It works because it bans something that doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but paranoia and pandering. > > First, it only bans observers from the United Nations. The United Nations has no election monitors. > > Second, it seems like it’s taking a shot at Obama by only allowing exceptions for treaties approved by the Senate with no mention of the President. But all treaties have to be approved by the Senate, that’s just how it works. > > Third, the people they’re presumably trying to ban were from the Organization of American States and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights who really did send observers for the 2012 elections. The OAS was formed in 1967 with the US as a member and the ODIHR is part of the 1990 Paris Charter, to which the US is a signatory. And neither group’s presence at US elections was anything new. I feel like you’re forgetting the Agenda 21 kooks. Which, while on the whole too completely looney tunes to really belong to any party tend to congregate towards the Republican party because new is scary and not-100%-isolationist is Quisling. But Murika-born Quisling, gawd demmit. Anyway, point is, there’s plenty of votes in Stupid. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13991 "2014-04-10T18:05:21Z")
Didn’t they initially propose that as a rider to the Unicorn Stampede Prevention Act? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13992 "2014-04-10T19:07:27Z")
Too good not to spread around: Rick Wiles of TruNewswill be arrested at a gay cruising spot any night now. > [@](#): > > It’s not an exaggeration to say homofascist because the German Nazi Party was homosexual, Hitler was a homosexual, the top Nazi leadership, all of them were homosexuals, it was a radical homosexual movement that gained political power, military power, and they were creating a homosexual special race. That’s what it was all about. It wasn’t this thing about an Aryan race of white people, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, white people, Hitler was trying to create a race of super gay male soldiers. That’s what he was creating. When you understand what the real agenda of the homosexual movement was in the 30s and 40s and you see it is happening now here in the United States of America. I’m telling you, this is not an exaggeration. If it’s not stopped, it will end up in America just like it was in Germany but it won’t be the Jews that will be slaughtered, it will be the Christians. I mean, I just … wow. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13993 "2014-04-10T19:15:46Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Too good not to spread around: Rick Wiles of TruNewswill be arrested at a gay cruising spot any night now. > I mean, I just … wow. I for one, welcome our… I mean me as your new homosexual overload. There are gonna be changes let me tell ya! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13994 "2014-04-10T19:20:13Z")
You Nazi super gay male soldiers are going to do some tasteful redecorating, you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13995 "2014-04-10T19:24:04Z")
I’m redecorating like a Boss! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13996 "2014-04-10T19:31:48Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > You Nazi super gay male soldiers are going to do some tasteful redecorating, you mean? You didn’t hear it from me, but that’s our achilles’ heal. We’ll be so busy with catty in-fighting over uniform styles we’ll never get around to our other diabolical plans. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13997 "2014-04-10T19:33:05Z")
The Utah defense of the SSM ban has decided they can no longer rely on a debunked study showing that SS parents are inferior… so they’ve decided to argue that SSM hurts the children of heterosexual marriages. At least, I think that’s what [this](http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2014/04/utah-distances-themselves-from-anti-gay-marriage-a.html) is supposed to mean: > [@](#): > > First, we wish to emphasize the very limited relevance to this case of the comparison addressed by Professor Regnerus. As the State’s briefing makes clear, the State’s principal concern is the potential long-term impact of a redefinition of marriage on the children of heterosexual parents. The debate over man-woman versus same-sex parenting has little if any bearing on that issue, given that being raised in a same-sex household would normally not be one of the alternatives available to children of heterosexual parents. The Regnerus study was lambasted in the Michigan SSM ruling. The Utah defense had cited the Regnerus study in footnotes. Now, it’s not looking like something people want to be citing at all. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13998 "2014-04-10T19:34:42Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > You didn’t hear it from me, but that’s our achilles’ heal. We’ll be so busy with catty in-fighting over uniform styles we’ll never get around to our other diabolical plans. Epaulets: très chic or très weak? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13999 "2014-04-10T19:48:48Z")
I would guess it depends on how much fringe is involved. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/14000 "2014-04-10T20:08:45Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Too good not to spread around: Rick Wiles of TruNewswill be arrested at a gay cruising spot any night now. _Heilige Scheiss_. Somebody _has_ to do one of those YouTube \*Downfall \*parodies about this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=699) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=701)