Iowa Is Not a Field of Dreams, but a Land of Delusion

As the early stages of the 2012 Presidential election campaign begin to churn, pollsters are busy, busy, busy. My last blog was about a Mississippi poll. This time, Iowa gets the limelight.

Again, the polling is of "usual Republican primary voters."

Of those polled 48% do not believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, and another 26% "are unsure" where he was born.

(This is actually pretty close to the national data on GOP members: 51% believing he was not born in the US and another 21% being "unsure." So maybe, I'm being unfair to Iowa and I should just be mocking 72%-74% of the GOP.)

One of my colleagues at work (who I hope was playing devil's advocate) reminded me that anyone can get a forged birth certificate (as if no one had suggested that before).

Snopes
and Factcheck.org have both debunked the forgery allegations and document the many verifications and corroborating facts that prove the President's Hawaiian birth. People who persist in raising their shoulders and eyebrows and fake-innocently asking, "Why doesn't he just provide his Birth Certificate?" are either being patently dishonest (*cough Donald Trump cough*) or are suffering from some kind of FoxNews induced delusion.

I suppose you can create conspiracies in your cray-cray head dismissing every piece of evidence - like the TWO newspaper reports in Honolulu papers announcing his birth within weeks of his birthday (It's on the factcheck.org link.) - and just persist in claiming that "no one really knows." By this logic (illogic?), I don't know if my parents are US citizens, or for that matter, if I am. I mean, for all I know, I was born in Moscow and planted here as a sleeper agent and could be awakened by a phone call any day to wreak havoc on the imperialist corporatists that oppress the workers of the world!

Can we get down to the itty bitty nitty gritty? Barack Obama is "other," "different," "black." He's got a weird name and he's black. He's young and calm and cool and black. And also, he's black. A lot of this stems from a lot of white people being really out of sorts because their president is black. I mean, they hated Bill Clinton, but no one ever asked for his birth certificate. Have you ever seen it?

Early on, strong Hillary Clinton supporters got on the birther bandwagon, but they grudgingly concede Barry's Americanness when faced with the facts. But not 72% of the GOP. Facts will not interfere with their convictions and commitment to the foreignness of the black man in the white house.

In 2004, there were 55 million registered republicans in the US. That means at least 39.6 million Americans (I mean, I'm only assuming they are Americans. Anyone can get a forged birth certificate.) think the government of the state of Hawaii, two newspapers from 1961, and the federal government are (or may be) participating in a vast 50-year conspiracy to trick everyone into thinking Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in August, 1961 (when in fact he was born somewhere else) so he could be elected President of the United States in 2010. To these 39.6 million people, this absurd and completely implausible conspiracy fiction is more reasonable - or at least as reasonable - as relying on an officially issued, sealed, signed, certified Certificate of Live Birth.

America has always had problems. But have we always been this ridiculous?

And In an Addendum to His IQ Test, Bubba Would Like to Comment...

I was searching the web looking for fodder for my blog-rant, and found this:



The article he is commenting on can be found here.

The article itself is something to rant about. The state of Tennessee wants to require doctors' testimony to prove mental retardation (IQ under 70) instead of just relying on time-proven testing. (Medically, and officially, this condition is still known as "mental retardation.") I'm sure the prosecutors in Tennessee would never do something as unethical as seek out paid experts to say that every defendant is above 70 IQ despite what the testing says. *eyes rolling* Just reading about how desperately the good Christians of Tennessee want to execute their mentally challenged neighbors sends a chill up my spine.

Maybe the problem is simply that so many of them cannot pass the 69IQ threshold, that they want to lower the bar so SOMEONE can get gassed. What's the point of having the right to kill your citizens if you don't exercise it!

Ok, so maybe questioning the Tennessee population's intelligence is politically incorrect. Admitted. How about if I question their morality? Or their level of education? Or their ability to be sympathetic to someone less fortunate? Or how about if I just cut to the chase and question their so-called Christian values?

Do you know why we don't execute people with IQs under 70 for homicide crimes? Because the law presumes that individuals with IQs that low are not responsible for their actions, cannot form the necessary criminal intent, do not fully appreciate the wrongness of their actions.

Both adults and children with mental retardation may also exhibit some or all of the following characteristics:

Delays in oral language development

Deficits in memory skills

Difficulty learning social rules

Difficulty with problem solving skills

Delays in the development of adaptive behaviors such as self-help or self-care skills

Lack of social inhibitors

Citation here.

If you know someone with an IQ below 70, or if you have ever spoken with someone with an IQ that low, you know that no further evidence is needed to take the death penalty off the table. Such individuals are "innocents" despite the acts they might have committed or might commit in the future.

But the reason I decided to enter this discussion was not the article. It was the moronic comment. (See photo above)

First, there is no constitutional right to be executed, you ignorant tea bagger! In fact, the law protects these individuals' constitutional rights by preventing them from being executed without evidence of criminal intentions.

Second, the limitation on executing mentally retarded individuals is not about their being ignorant of the law. It is about their inability to form the necessary criminal intent. (Yes, I know. It is very nuanced. It requires thinkin' and concentratin' and openin' your mind and all.)

It occurred to me as I was writing this that maybe Bubba the Commenter is facing a murder trial and wanted to start building that case that his IQ is below 70. He's convinced me!

At Least 46% of Republican Mississippi Primary Voters Polled Are Racist. Are You Shocked?

This is remarkable to me in 2011, but in a recent poll of usual Republican Mississippi Primary voters, 46% said that interracial marriage should be illegal. 40% said it should be legal. The other 14% were undecided. (How does one not have an opinion about this? Are they not sure if they are racist or not?)

Mitt Romney, a Mormon, also did not fare very well in the poll (only 48% approval), although serial adulterer Newt Gingrich did OK (58% approval).

And we wonder why the GOP keeps nominating and electing idiots. Your candidates are only as good as your voters!

In Mississippi, it's better to be a professional politician and adulterer than a successful Mormon businessman who is faithful to his wife. Also, best not to date outside your race since the extreme-right-trending political climate in red states might mean your wooing efforts are in vain.

The one good sign? They apparently don't know who Michele Bachman is. That's a relief!