Stephen Fincher is the Small Mind of the Day...again!

Representative Stephen Fincher (Republican-Tennessee) is now a two-time Small Mind. (His hypocritical stance on food stamps gained him recognition last time around.)

And now Fincher has passed his “Sound Science” legislation (H.R. 1287) through the House of Representatives. Sounds good! But what does his sound science bill do? It prevents federal agencies from using science to protect public health, safety, and the environment.

This happens by setting up a series of procedural hurdles “that would make science at federal agencies subject to endless challenges by special interests that do not want to see agency regulations move forward.”

But why would Fincher want to hamstring scientists and advance the causes of moneyed special interests? Dude, he’s a Republican!

Well, THAT'S a bad argument.

Story here.

Christian voters believe in redemption (for Republican politicians)

Courtesy of the New York Times, let’s look at two politicians who, in a decent world, would not be in politics at all:

1. David Vitter is a dyed-in-the-woolen breeches conservative from Louisiana. He’s also someone committed a “very serious sin” involving prostitutes six years ago.

In 2010, he ran for the senate against Charlie Melancon, a former Democratic congressman. Today, Vitter is the senator. In exit polls, he beat Mr. Melancon among white women by a 54-point margin.

2. Dr. Scott DesJarlais is a Republican congressman from Tennessee. In 2010, and again in 2012, sordid details of his past came to light. They are too lengthy to enumerate here, but included legal problems and multiple affairs with former patients. One of these women said Dr. DesJarlais pushed her into getting an abortion.

Eric Stewart was the Democrat who ran against DesJarlais. Why does he think that Republicans voted for this blackhearted scoundrel? “Voters talk a lot about hypocrisy but they don’t vote based on it.”

Yeah, but WHY? Some posit that religious conservatives just love a good comeback-from-sin story: “Where there is a large Christian voting bloc, they believe in redemption.”

A more likely explanation: Religious Republicans can count some diehard partisan, hypocritical sumbitches amongst themselves.

Stephen Fincher is the Small Mind of the Day

As you may have heard, Republicans in the House of Representatives eliminated food stamps from the recent farm bill.

Why? Representative Stephen Fincher (Republican, Tennessee) explained by quoting Thessalonians: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

The assumption here is that anyone on food stamps is unwilling to work, and thus, should not get a government subsidy.

What’s interesting is that Fincher is listed as one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington, DC. For example, over the years, Fincher himself has received $3.5 million in federal agricultural subsidies. See, he’s a cotton grower, and so stands to benefit from passing the farm bill.

But still, there’s got to be massive fraud in the food stamp program, right?

Wrong. The New York Times reports that error and fraud in the agricultural crop insurance program is significantly higher than in the food stamp program.

Another important thing—food stamps go to poor people. Farm aid goes to corporations. The smallest farms will get $5,000 of aid, on average. The biggest farms (which comprise the top 20%)? One million dollars and up.

Here’s Fincher again: “The role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity, is to take care of each other. But not for Washington to steal money from those in the country and give to others in the country.”

Hypocrisy, thy name is Fincher!