Ways Of Shutting That Down

We hope that over the last week and a half, while we were enjoying some vacation, and attempting to get on top of other projects, you stayed informed with other news sources and had a few days off yourself.

Quite a lot has gone on over the last two weeks. After a nearly criminal ruling on the Voting Rights Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled in surprisingly just and fair ways on both DOMA and Prop 8, while President Obama announced a series of major actions he'll be enacting toward cleaner energy. Unfortunately, a major oil spill and explosion just over the border in Canada killed five (as of publication time) and destroyed an entire town in Quebec. There was also a major plane crash in San Francisco with fatalities, major deadly fires out West, and major political shifts in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt.

There wasn't was much action on Capitol Hill, where Congress' inaction not only allowed the interest rates on student loans to double but effectively cancelled the Independence Day holiday for some of our service members and their families, thanks to the sequester cuts that Congress STILL hasn't dealt with. In fact, House Republicans are already rattling their swords, preparing to come back to Washington and demand even more federal budget cuts - meaning once again, Republicans at the national level appear ready to hold the nation's economy hostage.

We suppose that's better than what Republicans at the state level have been doing these last two weeks. In states from North Carolina to Ohio, and from Wisconsin to Texas, the GOP declared war on women once again - and this time, not even the celebrations of our nation's birthday were enough to stop the roving horde of misogynists and women haters that seemingly makes up the tattered remnants of the Grand Old Party these days.

In case you missed it, Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and the Republicans in the state legislature there jammed a series of anti-choice and anti-women legislation into a last-minute budget bill. Kasich then signed what is effectively a declaration of war on Ohio's women, flanked by only male members of the Ohio Legislature.

Not to be outdone, Wisconsin's GOP Gov. Scott Walker signed his own bill attacking doctors who perform abortions - though Walker was immediately sued by hospitals, women's centers, and abortion clinics for doing so.

Despite being blasted by North Carolina's own Republican Governor, and by Senate Democrats, North Carolina's extremist GOP jammed through even more anti-abortion laws in their state Senate. That rash act could set up a serious Republican civil war in the state that began the first American Civil War.

Last but not least, you likely heard about the eleven-plus hour filibuster by Texas Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis. Her efforts stopped Republican Gov. Rick 'I can't count to three' Perry and the Texas GOP from cramming through yet another anti-choice, anti-woman law in a special session of the Texas Legislature. Perry has since called for yet another special session of the Texas Leg, and has even bragged they'll jam the anti-woman bills through this time in under two weeks, claiming that Texans like him "want to protect life" - even as Perry signed the death warrant for Texas' 500th execution.

At this point, it almost has to be asked if some Republicans are actively trying to split their political party in two with these brainless attacks on half the population. Even if they are, for now it appears that the extremists in charge of the GOP plan on continuing to aim their misogynist policy guns at women, even after losing the war on women so badly at the polls in 2012.

To paraphrase one particular Republican loser from that election cycle, Republicans should have learned then - women have a way of shutting that whole misogyny thing down.