Bad Deeds for 2-29-2012

Wyoming, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas. If your state has Republicans, your rights are in danger.

Wyoming Republican Wants His Landlocked State to Acquire an Aircraft Carrier for Use in Doomsday Event – On Friday, the Wyoming House of Representatives advanced a bill to set up a task force to prepare for the total economic and political collapse of the United States. Per the bill, the panel would investigate things like food storage options and metals-based currencies, to be implemented in the event of a major catastrophe.

Then it goes three steps further. An amendment by GOP state Rep. Kermit Brown*, calls on the task force to examine “Conditions under which the state of Wyoming should implement a draft, raise a standing army, marine corps, navy and air force and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.” Wyoming’s largest body of water is Yellowstone Lake, which is frozen from December through June. The newest aircraft carrier cost an estimated $6.2 billion to construct (aircraft sold separately), 50 percent more than the state’s annual budget of $4 billion. (Is this what Republicans call fiscal conservatism?-JLV)

Update: The Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s Trevor Brown reports that, as of Monday afternoon, the aircraft-carrier amendment has been scrapped. The rest of the bill to create a Doomsday task force is still alive.

Wisconsin Republicans Want to Eradicate Equal Pay Law – Wisconsin Republicans don’t just have their sights set on union busting and eradicating safe, affordable access to health care for women and the poor. They are also looking to make it easier for corporations to pay women less for comparable work.

The Equal Pay Enforcement Act, passed by the Wisconsin legislature in 2009, made is easier for victims of wage discrimination to press charges by opening up Wisconsin state courts to claims. Usually victims of pay discrimination must bring those claims in federal court, a process that can be more cumbersome and difficult than bringing a claim in state court.
But in November the state Senate approved SB 202, a bill that rolls back this right and last week the Assembly passed their version of the bill. Both versions passed on party-line votes. The bill now moves to Gov. Scott Walker (R) where he is expected to sign it.

Oklahoma Republican Wants to Restrict Policies on Discrimination – A state representative who has previously pledged to return Oklahoma to traditional Judeo-Christian precepts has authored a bill which would strip rights from Norman and other municipalities if passed. State Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, introduced House Bill 2245 to limit nondiscrimination ordinances for municipal employees by restricting those protections to only those also provided for state employees under Oklahoma statute.

Texas Republican Lawmakers Pledge to End the Entire Women’s Health Program – Two of the Texas Legislature’s top public health leaders are defending Republican lawmakers’ pledge to end the entire Women’s Health Program rather than allow Planned Parenthood to participate. The joint state-federal reproductive health program provides contraception and cancer screenings — but not abortions — to 130,000 poor Texans, many of them at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Regards,

Jim