Today's Dispatch From The Stupid Party

South Carolina Republican State Sen.  Lee "Not Very" Bright opened up what was supposed to be a debate over the state's continuing to fly the flag of slavery and treason on the state capitol grounds, but got a little off-course:

Bright argued that lawmakers should be protecting county clerks from the “tyranny” of having to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples instead of debating the Confederate flag.

“Our governor called us in to deal with the flag that sits out front, let’s deal with the national sin that we face today!” he exclaimed. “We talk about abortion but this gay marriage thing, I believe will be one nation gone under like President Reagan said. If we’re not one nation under God, we’ll be one nation gone under.”

“And to sanctify deviant behavior from five judges, it’s time for us to make our stand, church!” Bright yelled. “It’s time to make our stand and we’re not doing it.”

The senator choked up as he continued: “We can rally together and talk about a flag all we want but the devil is taking control of this land and we’re not stopping him!”

There's video of the speech by this porcine seditious theocrat at the link.  Meanwhile, the clock is running on how long before it's discovered that "Not Very" Bright (fill in the blank with some account of hypocritical behavior).  As far as trying to turn a debate about the flag of slavery and treason to a rant about gay marriage?  The man has a future in the Stupid Party, all right (or at least Fox "News").

And as far as the infallible St. Ronnie of Hollywood disapproving of the "gay marriage thing"?

The daughter of President Ronald Reagan says she thinks that her father would not “stand in the way” of gay marriage.

“He was a very tolerant person,” Patti Davis, 60, the late president’s youngest daughter, said on a YouTube show about gay rights on Wednesday. “He did not have prejudices against gay people.”

So "Not Very" Bright knows as much about St. Ronnie as he does about how our system of government works.  Shocking.

Today's Cartoon Twofer - It's Not Tradition, It's Hate

(click on image to enlarge)

(Dan Wasserman, via Gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Want To Honor the Charleston 9? Start With This

In the aftermath of the racist massacre of 9 black churchgoers this week in Charleston, SC, there have been renewed calls for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the State Capitol to acknowledge the reality of the racial divide and to make a small step toward closing it.  Indeed, while both the U.S. and state flags were lowered over the capitol building in Columbia out of respect for the victims, the symbol of slavery remained at full mast. The usual suspects are resisting the removal of the flag, bringing up their time-worn excuse of "tradition" and "honoring the fallen."  Keep in mind that this flag -- this flag of treason against the U.S. -- was flown in a fight to maintain the vicious system of slavery in the South, and is carried in demonstrations today by the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, and assorted white supremacists. There's no honor associated with that flag, and that needs to be said over and over.

A column by the late Steve Gilliard from 10 years ago, reproduced by Driftglass, drives home the point that this flag has become the American equivalent of the Nazi swastika, which was co-opted from ancient Sanskrit as a symbol of hope and good will.  One hundred and sixty five years after the end of the Civil War, the symbol of racism still holds a place of honor among many Southern whites, and a continuing stab in the heart of black Americans who know exactly what "tradition" that flag represents.

BONUS:  Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' article in The Atlantic, calling for the banishment of this symbol, and  screw the apologists and the rabid white supremacists.