Republicans Are Getting Even Nuttier

Republican senate candidate in Kentucky, Rand Paul, has made numerous weird and ridiculous statements since winning the Republican nomination. But he didn't pull his nutty beliefs out of thin air. He came by them honestly -- from his father. His father, Ron Paul (pictured), a congressman from Texas and former presidential candidate in the Republican primary (that even Republicans weren't crazy enough to nominate) has quite a few unorthodox and looney views of his own (and they seem to be getting worse).

The elder Paul recently appeared on the right-wing radio show of Alex Jones. Jones floated the idea that BP had intentionally caused the oil spill because they wanted the American government to nationalize the American branch of their company (even though it is absurd to think any oil company ever wants to be nationalized). He also said that BP and President Obama were working together to get a new "carbon tax" and the global warming bill passed, and that this would lead to a world government. He then accused President Obama of wanting the oil disaster to get worse so he can institute "forced evacuations".

Ron Paul not only agreed with that nutty assessment, but tossed in a couple of his own assertions. He accused the president of using an executive order to force BP to put $20 billion into a fund to pay for damages caused by the oil spill. That was not just nutty but an outright lie. Their was no executive order and the contribution to pay for damages was negotiated and agreed to by both the president and BP.

Then Paul gets even sillier. He accuses the president of not being able to provide National Guard troops to help in the Gulf because he's using them all in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's another outrageous lie. The truth is that the president has authorized the use of thousands of National Guard troops, but many are not being used because the Republican governors of the Gulf states have failed to come up with any plan on how to use them. Once again, the president is being blamed for the Republican's own incompetence.

And Paul is not the only Republican pushing the oil spill conspiracy theories. Just a couple of days ago in a Georgia town hall meeting, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia) tried to float the notion that the president is intentionally failing to stop the oil spill because he wants to use the disaster to pass a new "energy tax". It wouldn't surprise me if these clueless liars tried to next blame President Obama for starting the Civil War and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.

Meanwhile, Republican governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, has come up with a couple of absurd ideas of her own recently. She claims that 87% of undocumented Mexican immigrants have a prior criminal record -- a claim that federal immigration authorities deny. When asked where she had gotten such a ridiculous statistic, her office replied that they couldn't remember. The real reason they couldn't remember is because it's a lie. It has never been true and it's not true now.

In defense of Arizona's recently passed racist law Gov. Brewer said, "We cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime to the drugs to the kidnapping and the extortion and the be-headings. . ." Be-headings?

The Arizona Guardian wondered if there had really been a rash of be-headings in Arizona by undocumented immigrants, so they questioned the coroners of some of Arizona's most populous counties (Yuma, Pima, Maricopa, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Cochise). It turned out that there hasn't been a single be-heading connected to undocumented immigrants. It was just another lie.

I think Brewer (and many of her Republican colleagues) have been spending too much time around the Alaska quitter, Sarah Palin. They've started saying whatever nutty thing that pops into their empty heads, sure in the knowledge that someone somewhere will be stupid enough to believe it. Facts are just an inconvenience to be ignored.

The next time you hear a Republican say something, anything, it would be wise to ask for proof.