10 Crazy Things the Right Did This Week

Just when you think the NRA couldn't come up with wackier ideas......and Gabriel Gomez deserves special mention in #6. This 'new kind of Republican' seems like the 'old kind of Republican.'

A racist report from the Heritage Foundation surprises someone? The immediate rush of condemnation from fellow racists was amusing. The mistake was abandoning those 'code words.'

#4 Deserves special recognition because of the backlash Ayotte and the NRA created.

That Happened

By ThinkProgress War Room on May 10, 2013

 

10 Crazy Things the Right Did This Week

Another week, another 10 helpings of crazy brought to by the right wing.

1. Heritage Foundation puts out shoddy report claiming immigrants are takers not makers, conservatives pounce. In a remarkable display this week, the Heritage Foundation put out a study claiming that immigration reform will cost $6.3 TRILLION over the next ten years (Ed. note: it won’t). Immediately, conservatives like Grover Norquist and groups like the American Enterprise Institute and Cato stepped up to trash the report.
2. Heritage Foundation report co-written by racist who has previously written for white nationalist websites. The co-author of the aforementioned report, Jason Richwine, wrote his PhD dissertation about how racial minorities like Hispanics have inherently lower IQs. In addition to these obviously racist views, he also wrote for a white nationalist website and appeared at a conference alongside a well-known white nationalist. Richwine resigned from Heritage late Friday afternoon.
3. Senator proposes ‘Downton Abbey amendment’ to immigration reform bill. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is an avowed enemy of immigration reform including a pathway to earned citizenship, but he appears to have found some jobs he approves of undocumented immigrants being allowed to have: domestic workers. Lee proposed an amendment to allow undocumented immigrants to be hired, but only as domestic workers, specifically including cooks, waiters, butlers, governessess, maids, valets, gardeners, footmen, grooms, and chauffeurs.
4. Shadowy conservative group cuts ad featuring New Hampshire moms, except the moms turn out to be GOP activists. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has seen her standing with Granite Staters plummet since she voted against expanded background checks. AnIowa-based secret money group rode the rescue this week with an ad backing Ayotte that purported to show regular moms supporting her. It turns out these regular moms were actually regular GOP activists.
5. House GOP stages Benghazi hearing, learns nothing new. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) continued the GOP’s Benghazi witch hunt this week with a dramatic hearing. After the hearing, however, Issa admitted that the only thing we learned is that it was a terrorist attack — something President Obama acknowledged in the Rose Garden the day after the attack happened. In other words, we didn’t learn anything new at all as a result of the hearing. In fact, many of the GOP’s star witnesses actually debunked various right-wing conspiracy theories.
6. GOP senate nominee claimed a $281,500 deduction that the IRS has referred to as a “tax scam.” Massachusetts GOP senate nominee Gabriel Gomez made an agreement with a local conservation association not to alter the facade of his historic home, something which earned him a $281,500 tax deduction. It turns out that he was already legally barred from making any changes. The IRS and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have both highlighted this practice as an egregious “tax scam.”
7. Tea Party activist calls for armed march on Washington, D.C. A Tea Party radio host called for protesters carrying loaded rifles to cross into the District of Columbia, which has very strict gun laws, from Virginia. After the police indicated they would meet the gun-toting protesters at the D.C. line, the host then called for mass lawbreaking in addition to the armed gun march.
8. GOP demands budget process then prevents said process from happening. For the past few years, the GOP has demanded that the Democratic-controlled Senate pass a budget and then confer with the House under the “regular order.” Democrats passed a budget in March, but now Senate Republicans are blocking Senate Democrats from starting an official conference committee with the House, since that would expose the GOP’s unwillingness to compromise. “I think for us to after four years of complaining about Harry Reid’s failure to bring up a budget and then we do one and block conference is something that’s incomprehensible,” said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
9. Fox News brings on convicted cover-up expert to discuss alleged Benghazi cover-up. Following the aforementioned House GOP hearing on Benghazi, Fox News brought on Oliver North to discuss the alleged cover up. North himself was of course actually convicted of participating in the Iran-Contra cover-up.
10. NRA makes some suspicious suggestions. At their national conference last weekend, the NRA suggested that parents store their firearms in their children’s rooms (in case of a home invasion). And the NRA’s youth magazine suggested that children build their own indoor, at-home shooting ranges.

How sick is this one?

BONUS: An exhibitor at the NRA’s national convention was selling a female zombie target that bleeds when you shoot it, which the company called “the ex-girlfriend.” After outcry from groups like UltraViolet, not only did Amazon drop the product but the company agreed to stop making it.

http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/that-happened-2/


Mayors Against Illegal Guns offered this in response to Ayotte and the NRA #4 --

Help Keep Our TV Ad on the Air

The NRA is running dishonest ads to protect Sen. Kelly Ayotte from her vote to block expanded background checks.

Help set the record straight and make sure the NRA doesn't get away with it.

Ayotte voted against the bipartisan background check bill. Then she went home for recess to find her constituents outraged and her approval ratings plummeting.

Now, the NRA is running a new TV ad in hopes of protecting Ayotte from the backlash. What’s amazing is that the ad claims Ayotte actually supports background checks and voted to protect them. In fact, the bill she voted for would have weakened the background check system. The ad makes an absurd leap of logic, even for the NRA. And we can’t let them get away with it.

Senators across the country are being confronted by an undeniable fact: Americans overwhelmingly support background checks, and we aren’t going to forget the senators who blocked the legislation that would have expanded background checks and saved lives.

That's why the NRA is going to rush to protect them, even if it means distorting the facts. The NRA's TV ad points to a bill that Senator Ayotte supported that was designed to sound good enough for a TV ad or op-ed. But, in reality, Ayotte voted for a gun lobby shadow bill that would have undermined public safety -- a vote against her constituents, against law enforcement, and against common sense.

We can't let the NRA get away with it. It's time to hold our elected officials accountable for their votes. Senator Ayotte voted against expanding life-saving background checks.

Support the truth and help spread the word by making a donation of $33 or more to keep our ad on the air:

https://donate.DemandAction.org/Donate/Ayotte_Ad-1

Thank you for standing with us and fighting the distortions and lies of the gun lobby.