Do I even need to bother identifying U.S. Representative Paul Broun as a Republican? With an economic wasteland left by this president, as well as military carnage, waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption, of course this guy has to pull out the Homo Straw man — he has nothing else to run on. (Washington Blade):
Backlash from the California Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage continued this week as U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said he plans to introduce an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Broun, a freshman Congressman from Augusta, announced his intent May 20.See him bleat about the California Supreme Court ruling after the jump.U.S. Rep. Paul Broun says an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is needed to protect heterosexual marriage from ‘activist judges.’
“What the activist judges in California have shown is that the traditional definition of marriage is under assault by a cadre of lawyers and judges who hold the will of the voters in contempt,” Broun said in a press release. “As a result, a political and social question that should be resolved at the ballot box is being imposed by a handful of liberal elites.”
…Broun’s proposed amendment states: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”
Above: from CSPAN, Broun inarticulately condemns the California Supreme Court decision.
Broun’s web site has this breathtakingly hypocritical statement right up front:
I am committed to protecting the constitutional rights and pocketbooks of every American. I will apply the following four-way test to every piece of legislation that comes before the House for a vote:I guess LGBTs aren’t Americans.1) Is it Moral / Right? 3) Is it Necessary?
2) Is it Constitutional? 4) Is it Affordable?
***
By the way, he is also into some serious womb control, though that’s hardly a surprise. He’s also the author of H.R. 4157, the Sanctity of Human Life Act, called the Zygote Political Enfranchisement Act or the Anti-Fertility Act by That’s My Congress.
Under Broun’s proposed law, this award of full legal protections to all fertilized eggs, even one created just one minute ago, would be given regardless of the ability of the fertilized egg to implant in a womb and grow to become a baby. H.R. 4157 states this very directly:
A fertilized egg must be given all the legal protections of a person, irrespective of health, function or disability? That means that even if a fertilized egg or blastula (a tiny hollow ball of human cells post-fertilization) is somehow determined to have a terrible genetic disease, it would nonetheless have to be given full medical treatment in order to make sure that it survived to be born. If that treatment was not given, its parents could be criminally charged with child abuse or neglect.If “killing” a fertilized egg is murder, Rep. Broun, there are a lot of questions that follow — what is the punishment? Who is punished — the woman, the man who drives her to the abortion clinic (is he an accomplice/accessory to the crime), the doctor (hired for the “hit”)??“the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.”
What if the woman spontaneously aborts? Did she commit a crime? Does the pregnant woman get to drive in the HOV lane since she’s carrying a legal person inside? Argh. These anti-gay, womb control fiends. Is there any chance this guy can be defeated at the polls? (The Dem with the uphill battle is Bobby Saxon, who is an Iraq War combat veteran).
Read more about Broun at Georgia Politics Unfiltered.
9 Responses to “Georgia wingnut to revive federal marriage amendment”
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Life begins with cloning!!! Does this mean that if you can’t find a woman to plant the cloned cells into and toss them that you are a murderer and can be executed? Hmmm… how long before women are forced to be impregnated with those cloned cells to save the lives of those American citizens?
“Do I even need to bother identifying U.S. Representative Paul Broun as a Republican? ”
I don’t know…Zell Miller also hails from the state and is very capable of the same statements.
GA’s Dems are like most other southern Dems…some leftover Dixiecrats, and the others are mostly near the moderate end of the party (Cleland voted with Zell quite a lot; even Jimmy Carter was pro-life.) 20% of state Dems voted for Bush in ‘04, one of the highest in any state (which puts the “only 33% of Clinton supporters in KY will vote for Obama!!11!!” stuff into perspective; that was a similar state in terms of defections.)
a political and social question that should be resolved at the ballot box
But… California is resolving it at the ballot box. And he’s trying to override that using federal intervention…
What are the legal consequences of freezing someone with “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood” until you get around to having them implanted and gestated?
Would that be kidnapping? Unlawful restraint? Would the state be required to step in and find wombs for them all? Talk about being homeless! As homeless minors, do they qualify for welfare?
What do you do with ectopic pregnancies? I suppose the zygote can be evicted as a squatter, but when? And how are papers served in utero? Does Child Services need to be called to take charge of the zygote once doctors operate, or will the situation around the whole country devolve into the medieval nightmare that is the strict approach some Catholic-run hospitals have to ectopic pregnancies? (where the only offered option is removal of the fallopian tube, since simply terminating the not-ever-gonna-be-viable pregnancy would be abortion)
I just wish congress would put this much effort into preventing the killings of people who actually made it out of their mother’s womb! Oh, but wait, the baybeez are “innocent” and “defenseless”, unlike all real murder victims who totally deserve it and always, always have some way of adequately protecting themselves.
And I’m all for supporting the disabled, but why, why can’t we put those energies toward the *viable* disabled? The ones whose lives aren’t going to implode when they are just a few thousand cells big?
It kills me because the idea of “right to life” is not bad… if we could just apply it to real people who have been born already instead of zygotes. But of course it’s not really about protecting “life” is it? Because then we’d have to work together to protect yucky brown people, and poor people and people from other lands and lots of other unworthy souls. And that’d be the worst!
Broun:
Actually, sir, what the judges in California have shown us is that the very structure of our government provides avenues to reverse situations in whith the voters themselves hold their fellow citizens in contempt.
Broun is just yet another gibbering idiot who doesn’t understand the purpose of the judiciary in this country. He’s clearly never bothered to read the Constitution even once in his entire life. If he had, he’d understand that the Constitution itself tells us that the will of the voters is not sacrosanct and above reproach or remedy.
I can’t say this enough times: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN “ACTIVIST JUDGE.” When fascists and bigots like Broun use the term “activist judge,” what they really mean is “a judge who is doing their job properly, but in a way that doesn’t suit me ideologically, because I am a self-obsessed piece of crap who thinks that the world revolves around me and what I think.” I think that the term “activist judge” ought to be forcibly excised from our political discourse, and the people who use it unironically need to be summarily removed from the public eye and prohibited from ever entering it again for the rest of their lives. Self-serving stupidity and half-witted narcissism shouldn’t be rewarded with political power.
Broun is my congressman. I would cut off my dick before I voted for him. We can only hope that he is defeated and replaced by someone better. His last opponent was even dumber than Broun. His name was Whitehead and he should have won, but he was such a moron he alienated everyone outside of Augusta. So, I dunno.
He represents Appling and Columbia County! The people there need to get rid of him and stop listening to the sexist, homophobic bile coming from Rep. Broun and Vern Simon.