Political WTFuckingtosh

That's literally insane.
 
I thought the same thing, but then I thought that was perhaps his plan all along. Get everyone to agree to a shorter flag and get it passed. It's ridiculous either way. Luckily it seems no other member is co-sponsoring the bill and maybe, just maybe, it'll die a quiet death.
 
I am going to sum this up before I post any links.

A guy is running for a Congressional seat in Montana. He is being interviewed by a reporter from the Guardian. The guy then flips out and body slams the reporter, breaking his glasses, and tells him to leave. The reporter does leave, but calls the police and files a report. The guy tells police that the reporter was acting aggressively by trying to record the interview. Two Fox reporters witnessed the incident and refute the candidate's version of events. The candidate has now been charged with misdemeanor assault.


Here is the audio recording.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana?CMP=edit_2221

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...s-gop-house-candidate-body-slam-reporter.html

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/335072-montana-house-candidate-charged-with-assault
 
This makes the election results interesting to see unfold. As of now it doesn't seem to have had much effect, but it's too early to say for sure.
 
And he won.
 
To be fair, I did not know this last night but apparently the majority of ballots were absentee and cast before the bodyslam. The Missoulian is reporting that about 37% of registered voters sent in their ballots before the assault. Montana has approximately 700000 registered voters, so 37% is about 259000 of the 377000-ish total votes cast, a clear majority. Could be the slam did have an effect on those who voted on election day, but given the numbers any such effect would be too small to change anything.
 
He also raised 100k after the assault. So there's that too. You know there are a number of people that think assaulting journalists is fine and that they have it coming what with all the fake news and stuff.
 
Anger management but no jail in Gianforte body-slam saga

HELENA, Mont. (AP) ? Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte avoided jail time after pleading guilty Monday to an election-eve assault on a reporter that turned the race for Montana's lone U.S. House seat into a full-fledged political spectacle.

The Republican tech entrepreneur instead will serve 40 hours of community service and attend 20 hours of anger management classes for throwing Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman on May 24.

For all the national attention the audiotaped assault brought to the race in its waning hours, the judge, prosecutors and the new congressman's attorneys maintained Monday he was treated like any other first-time misdemeanor offender.

There was one notable exception, however: Gallatin County Justice of the Peace Rick West said he would allow prosecutors and the defense several weeks to argue over his order that the rookie politician be fingerprinted, photographed and booked like other defendants.

West ordered Gianforte to pay $385 in fines and court costs in addition to his 180-day suspended jail sentence, meaning he will be under court supervision until late November and will be able to petition to have the conviction removed from his record.

Gianforte is expected to travel to Washington within the next few weeks to be sworn in by House Speaker Paul Ryan.

A coalition of press groups had called on a congressional committee to censure Gianforte for the attack, and Democrats have demanded he step aside. Some of Gianforte's fellow Republicans, including Ryan, have criticized him over the assault but said he simply needed to apologize.

"This was not a proud moment, but I'm ready to move on," Gianforte said outside the courtroom.

From the start, there was little question that Gianforte would avoid jail time in light of the extent of Jacobs' injuries and Gianforte's clean record.

"Given a complete lack of a criminal history, given all that he's done for the community and who he is, I think the assault was aberrant behavior that will not be repeated on his part," county Attorney Marty Lambert said outside court.

Gianforte was questioned by sheriff's deputies at his headquarters shortly after the attack, then didn't appear in public again until his victory speech the next night, in which he apologized to voters and to Jacobs.

Audio posted by Jacobs shortly after the attack recorded sounds of a scuffle, followed by Gianforte yelling for the reporter to "get the hell out of here." Jacobs tweeted that Gianforte had "body slammed" him and broke his glasses while he tried to question him.

During Monday's hearing, the judge tried to extract details of the confrontation from Gianforte.

"I knowingly made physical contact with Mr. Ben Jacobs that was insulting or provoking in nature and although it was not my intent to hurt him, I understand Ben was injured in this contact," Gianforte said.

"I grabbed for his wrist. A scuffle ensued, and he was injured," he said. "In the scuffle we fell on the floor, and I understand his elbow was injured."

A Fox News reporter who witnessed the attack said Gianforte, completely unprovoked, pushed Jacobs to the ground and punched him.

Despite the confrontation, Gianforte was elected by 6 percentage points over Democrat Rob Quist to serve the remainder of the term vacated by Ryan Zinke, who resigned to become Interior Department secretary.

The vast majority of ballots were cast by mail well beforehand.

Gianforte's attorneys, including former U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer, noted that he had already paid more than $4,600 in restitution to Jacobs as part of a quick civil settlement. Guardian spokeswoman Meghan Pianta told The Associated Press the money went toward medical expenses.

Gianforte also agreed to give $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists and wrote Jacobs a letter of apology in which he acknowledged assaulting the reporter for asking a "legitimate question about health care policy."

Despite those repeated apologies, Gianforte has yet to fully address why his campaign's initial account of the confrontation cast blame on Jacobs.
 
Exactly. What it really called for is a smack to the plumbs.
 
Missouri Legislator Decapitates Live Chicken on Facebook Because Abortion


Lest anyone needed more proof that state Representative Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove) has completely lost his marbles, the Tea Party Republican provided ample proof yesterday on Facebook. Perhaps most astonishingly, Moon wasn't cornered by pesky reporters (a la Greg Gianforte) or tricked into an error in judgment by a good-looking girl on Twitter (sigh, Weiner). He did all by himself.

In a brief video posted to his official Facebook page, Moon muses about the special session recently called by Governor Eric Greitens, which will attempt to repeal St. Louis' so-called "sanctuary city" law sheltering women from discrimination for their reproductive choices. All normal enough ? except for that fact that, during his one-minute monologue, Moon decapitates a chicken with his bare hands and then pulls out its heart.

"Like any good career politician, when I get the call, I go back to work," Moon says, snapping the animal's neck. "God gave man dominion over animals. He allows us to raise them properly, care for them, and then process them for food so we can sustain life. And that?s what I?m doing here with this chicken."

As he talks, Moon is chopping up the bird. He digs in, pulling out its organs as he continues: "So we?ve been called back to this special session for the primary purpose of supporting life, protecting the unborn specifically."

Then he goes for the heart.

"I think we need to get to the heart of the matter here," Moon says, holding the heart out to the viewer. (Ewww!!!) "So today, I?m filing a bill that will lead to the stopping of abortion in the state of Missouri, and I hope you?ll support it. So stay tuned for more details."

That's it. No explanation of how dismembering chickens relates to abortion, no explanation of how he's going to get around the U.S. Supreme Court and somehow stop something that the courts have found you literally cannot just stop. (Says Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, "The only thing more absurd than that video is the GOP rep?s call to ban abortion in the state of Missouri.") Just feathers, blood and a weirdo who kills animals for fun. Is anyone starting to get the sense this guy is desperate for attention?

You can watch the whole bizarre thing below. Or maybe don't. We can pretty much guarantee it'll be on all the stupid cable news talk shows soon enough, Exhibit A in the ongoing story of just how backwards Missouri is. As if the mustache wasn't bad enough.
 
That sounds like a visual dog whistle of sorts. Given the region, I wouldn't think too many of his constituents would be grossed out by him killing and dressing a chicken. However, it's also possible (given his apparent history of crusading against abortion and being reelected) that his constituents would believe the worst rumors about abortion providers and would compare the organization and abortion in general to human butchers, making his butchering of a chicken an apt comparison to them of what he hopes to do to abortion providers by filing bills to make abortion illegal.

Far more likely, in my mind, is that he just wanted to go for the visual aid of getting to "the heart of the matter".
 
This is one of these cases where someone may totally have the right to do something, but maybe shouldn't do it because it is likely upsetting to some people (not even speaking about children). This is just an unnecessary provocation that does nothing good. It convinces nobody, it doesn't even really have anything to do with the topic at hand - it's just metaphorically giving the finger.

I am not a vegetarian btw. Far from it. I have gutted fish and stuff before which is not that different. But I would still question the sanity of my elected representative if he would think that would be good idea.
 
Ash Grove is about 60 miles due east of me. The area is very rural, so raising chickens for food is normal. However this was for pure shock value. The video did it's job and has everyone on both sides of the issue of abortion (plus animal rights folk) up in arms.

I've seen chickens culled before in chicken houses. It isn't a pretty sight to see your uncle chasing a deformed chicken around with a lead pipe... Why do I eat meat again?
 
Meat tastes good!
 
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