Illegal abortion and ‘The Way of the World’

A colleague of mine quipped the other day that the only religion he believes in is his own. “Sure,” I countered. “You piously believe in your own opinion.”

The Naughty!

Presumptive nominee Mitt Romney is seemingly fixated on apologies. He’s obsessed with apologies like Bristol Palin is obsessed with teen abstinence—like BP is obsessed with clean energy—Marcus Bachmann with curing homosexual men ...

Olympians Represent The Best of Our Team Efforts

We can all stop pretending continued Republican anger about the Affordable Care Act is news. Some figured a Supreme Court ruling would settle things. And since the GOP said it was unconstitutional with the same fervor as people who’ve read the Constitution—it was easy to assume a decision from the nine justices in the highest court in the land—regardless of the outcome—would chill them out.

If you ask the typical hyper-political gun owner (and I have ... at Thanksgiving dinner), why it’s important to own a gun, they’ll bark about the Constitution. Yes, the Second Amendment: “The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed!”

Conservatives really wanted a fight about religious freedom. It appeared to be an easy win: turn an ObamaCare mandate that insurers cover birth control into a war on religion. The GOP, void of any ideas Obama hasn’t contaminated by agreeing with, finds itself in an election year frantically looking for a bold battle cry. That sweet hot button issue that can excite their party and (hopefully) win them the White House (or maybe the Senate).

Part of being a Democrat is acting like you're losing even when you're winning. Part of being a Republican is acting like you're winning even when you're losing. The phrase "silent majority," that brilliant bit of Nixonian rhetoric, is a way to augment Republican numbers and voices. "Nearly all people agree with me and they're not only in my imagination ... you just can't hear them."

A perfect summary of the Grand Old Party's relationship with the U.S. Constitution comes from Texas Governor Rick Perry at Mike Huckabee's candidate forum on Fox News last Saturday. Governor Perry claimed as president he could overturn a law passed by Congress by executive order (he can't), and then to show his bona fides on the subject, he pulled out a copy of the Constitution from his breast pocket - displaying it proudly to the national audience.

I asked an Occupier in DC named Rob Wohl, why the movement he's a part of is resonating with people - why as over 3,000 Americans have been arrested in demonstrations and even journalists and vets have endured tear gas and rubber bullets, the movement is still growing.

I spoke with a thirty-something mother of two residing in suburban New Jersey about the Occupy Wall Street movement. She was disgusted by their antics. "Our business failed, our house was foreclosed on, we lost everything and you don't see us blaming someone else for it!" she exclaimed. "It's about personal responsibility!"

Pirates, at least the traditional image we have in our minds (the ones with the parrots on their shoulders and wooden legs from the 1700s), were in reality rapists, thieves and murderers. They were violent outlaws; terrorists of the Caribbean colonies. Some of them were hired as mercenaries called privateers, but they were still pirates even with a note from the King. They pillaged, slaughtered and plundered for a couple hundred years.

Tina Dupuy

Tina Dupuy

Tina

Dupuy

Tina Dupuy

GOP leaders in Congress don't want a balanced-budget amendment. The party, which rails against government bureaucracy, is counting on government bureaucracy to prevent them from successfully changing our founding documents. It's perfect because they don't actually want to amend the Constitution -- well, not in a serious way. Maybe in a drunken, overly-clever, 1:30 a.m. in a Hill-adjacent dive bar kind of way: "The 28th Amendment should outlaw blue food on Wednesdays... that'd be hilarious!"

Guest commentary by Tina Dupuy

Tina Dupuy, guest commentary

Guest commentary by Tina Dupuy

Tina Dupuy, guest commentary

Tina Dupuy, guest commentary

Tina Dupuy, guest commentary

Tina Dupuy, guest commentary

Right after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a dry cleaner’s storefront was vandalized and set ablaze in Modesto, Calif. The reason? The business was named “French Cleaners.”

The MSNBC documentary series “Lock Up” ran a story earlier this month about a Maricopa County Jail inmate charged with identity theft named Cecil Kunkel. The 29-year-old Kunkel has a swastika tattooed on top of his “skinhead.” He’s covered in “white power” slogans and imagery. The only ink-free spot on him is an empty space in the shape of another swastika over his heart. The crew first finds him spending time in the hole as disciplinary action for refusing to house with black inmates. When asked why he refuses, Kunkel says, “Because it’s wrong... nothing personal — it’s just the way it is.” In the next scene Kunkel is caught on camera beating an African-American inmate who is, of course, smaller than him.

It's not that Republicans aren't hypocrites - it's more the label just isn't an effective dig. First, hypocrite is a fancy foreign Greek word like amnesty, ethics or Europe - how is that going to appeal to Republicans? Second, espousing virtues you don't personally have to live up to is basically the point of being a Republican.