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LGBT

CPAC Speakers Seek To Dismiss The Lives Of LGBT People

By Zack Ford on Feb 13, 2012 at 10:11 am

While it is no surprise that this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference was rife with anti-gay rhetoric, what was even more troubling was the framing of that rhetoric. For conservatives, social issues like marriage and discrimination are mere concepts, and throughout the conference they demonstrated their ability to discuss them as if LGBT people do not even exist.

Last week’s ruling by the Ninth Circuit that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional was a frequent subject throughout the weekend, but not with any concern for the couples seeking to marry. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) teamed up with retired game show host Chuck Woolery to dismiss the decision, promoting the idea that the people’s vote is all that matters and “Majority rules.” Woolery even went as far as to reject all civil rights, claiming he’s discriminated against because he’s old and “a one percenter.” National Organization for Marriage Chairman John Eastman also claimed the Prop 8 ruling will have “catastrophic consequences for civil society.”

Others at the conference expressed that bullying and violence against LGBT people should persist. The President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) attacked the United Nations for urging countries to protect LGBT people from persecution and execution, suggesting that “their theory of international law is done by lying, coercion, and trickery.” Focus on the Family’s Candi Cusman, meanwhile, continued her crusade against anti-bullying efforts, suggesting that “sexual advocacy” groups were hijacking the safe school message to indoctrinate young people. At no point did they express concern for the actual victims of harassment or acknowledge that the harassment was even taking place. Tea Party activist Kevin Jackson didn’t hesitate to further demonize LGBT people by claiming the Left has ”changed the definition of pedophilia.”

All of this rhetoric fed into the weekend’s  condemnation of America’s diversity. For example, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and a panel of white nationalists discussed how “the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American identity.” It’s no wonder conservatives are so unsympathetic to the plight of LGBT people — they refuse to admit we even exist.

Green

Rep. Steve King At CPAC: ‘Nancy’s Stasi’ Made Me Use Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs

By Guest Blogger on Feb 10, 2012 at 6:00 pm

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asked the crowd, “What is happening to our liberty?,” before launching into a long-winded story about how he took back his freedom by replacing the energy-efficient “curlicue bulbs” at the Capitol with “good Edison light bulbs.” At some point during his anecdote, King even went so far as to compare the Capitol Hill janitors who replaced his incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient ones to “East German communist secret police, describing them as “Nancy [Pelosi]‘s Stasi troops.”

So I got this green bag right here. And I filled it up with the black market light bulbs. And I brought them back to my office here in the Capitol. Whenever I need to put a bulb in the lamp, I reach in this green bag and I screw it in there and smile. A little bit of my liberty back. A little bit of our freedom back. And I want to challenge you to do the same thing. Bring back some of that liberty, some of that freedom.

Following his attack on energy-efficient light bulbs, Rep. King took on the water-saving showerhead in his shower, before bringing his tirade to a close with the declaration, “I want my liberty back!”

Watch it:

The new light bulb efficiency standards have faced strong opposition from members of the GOP, who consider the rules not only a ban on light bulbs, but as another example of unneccessary federal regulation. Environmentalists and energy-efficiency business groups disagree and are quick to point out that the standards do not ban incandescent light bulbs, but requires them to be more efficient. Despite the GOP’s best efforts to pass measures that would block funding for the standards’ enforcement, The Energy Department rules went into effect at the beginning of the year.

– Fatima Najiy

Politics

Rep. Steve King: A Ron Paul Presidency Would Be ‘Dangerous’

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:00 am

King at a Paul campaign event in August (courtesy Gage Skidmore)

Just days before the Iowa GOP caucuses, one of the state’s most high profile conservative politicians is strongly warning Republicans against voting for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). In an interview with Politico, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) suggested a Ron Paul presidency would be “dangerous” because of the candidate’s libertarian foreign policy positons:

“Iowa Rep. Steve King’s assessment on Ron Paul, one of the two co-frontrunners going into his state’s caucuses next week: “He’s not dangerous unless he’s president.” [...]

“I don’t think that the Paul supporters have really stepped back and thought about what would happen if Ron Paul were operating out of the Oval Office and the commander-in-chief of our armed forces,” King said.

Paul’s campaign has soared in recent days, leading the field in Iowa in some polls. Finally taking his candidacy seriously, a number of high profile Republicans and conservative leaders have publicly condemned the unorthodox Texas congressman.

King has previously been somewhat bullish on Paul, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that people shouldn’t underestimate Paul. “He has a group of solid core, very dedicated supporters that will be there,” King told CNN in July of the Ames Straw Poll. King even appeared at a campaign event in Ames with Paul in August.

Politics

Steve King Complains About ‘Boring’ Hearing On Stop Online Piracy Act

By Jeff Spross on Dec 16, 2011 at 6:40 pm

Yesterday may have seen the first instance of House Representatives having to deal with the fallout from a tweet in the official Congressional record. During a day-long hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on the Stop Online Piracy Act, tea party congressman Steve King (R-IA) took to Twitter to vent about his fellow member Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (R-TX):

Upon discovering the tweet several hours later, Jackson Lee took a moment of personal privilege during the hearing to respond to King’s snark, which quickly turned into a verbal sparing match with two Republicans on the committee:

JACKSON LEE: I have no reason to think that anybody cares about my words, but I would offer to say that Mr. King owes the committee an apology… I’ve never known Mr. King to have a multi-task capacity, but if that is his ability, I do think it’s inappropriate while we’re talking about serious issues to have a member of the Judiciary Committee be so offensive.

So I’m putting on the record — he is not here — I…

REP. F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): Chairman I demand the gentlewoman’s words be taken down.

JACKSON LEE: Well I’m not taking them down. So you can break this hearing, because I’m not.

[CROSS TALK]

Excuse me, I’m in the middle of my dialogue and I will continue.

REP. LAMAR SMITH (R-TX): No, the gentlewoman will suspend.

JACKSON LEE: I have a personal privilege at this point.

Watch it (the exchange begins at 1:30):

It seems Rep. Sensenbrenner concluded that King’s use of “boring” did not fall afoul of House rules against “unparliamentary language,” but Jackson Lee’s taking offense did. When she refused, Rep. Smith — the committee’s current chairman — went at it again, saying he was attempting to “avoid making an official ruling” that Jackson Lee had “impugned the integrity of a member of this committee.”

Jackson Lee again refused, and demanded King “give the committee an apology.” But by this point, unfortunately, King was no longer at the hearing and could not respond. After further back and forth, Jackson Lee consulted with a parliamentarian and eventually relented, agreeing to have her use of “offensive” altered to “impolitic and unkind” in the Congressional record. The hearing then returned to its official business.

Later, an apparently undaunted King took to Twitter once again to comment on the dust-up:

Rep. King, it would appear, does not lack for self-assurance.

NEWS FLASH

Steve King: States Can Mandate That People Purchase Health Insurance Coverage | Rep. Steve King (R-IA) discussed Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich’s history of supporting an individual mandate after the ABC News/Iowa GOP Debate in Des Moines, IA with CaffThoughts and agreed with Romney’s argument that states have the right to require residents to purchase health insurance coverage. The comment is revealing since some conservatives — including King’s friend Michele Bachmann — have argued that state mandates are also unconstitutional. Watch his comments toward the end of the video:


NEWS FLASH

Steve King Publicly Interrogates Veteran About His Immigration Status | Notorious anti-immigrant Rep. Steve King (R-IA) inadvertently inserted some disturbing irony into a congressional hearing yesterday. While Democrats were encouraging immigration officials to adopt safeguards against racial profiling, King was practicing some profiling himself. Singling out the only immigrant on the panel, King questioned congressional witness and former Sacramento police chief Arturo Venegas about why he came to the U.S. Venegas said he was brought to the country as a child by his U.S.-born mother (which means he’s also an American citizen). King responded, “Can you just tell us what year and what visa, then, Mr. Venegas?” — apparently not knowing or caring that U.S. citizens born abroad don’t need special visas to enter the country. Venegas also fought for his country in the Vietnam War.

Justice

Rep. Steve King Says Asking Hospital Patients Their Immigration Status Would Not Be Going ‘Too Far’

By Scott Keyes on Nov 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm

ThinkProgress filed this report from the Values Voters bus tour in Waukee, Iowa.

Portions of the nation’s most harmful immigration law went into effect last month in Alabama, causing widespread fear and panic among the state’s Latino population. It requires school officials to verify students’ immigration status, prompting thousands of frightened Latino students not to show up for school. The new law even makes it a felony for utility companies to provide water in undocumented immigrants’ homes.

ThinkProgress spoke with one of the leading anti-immigration voices in the House GOP, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), yesterday in Iowa to get his take on Alabama’s law. King brushed aside concern that the law may go too far, arguing instead that police officers ought to “see somebody on the street and say, ‘Why are you here? What are you doing? Who are you? I don’t know who you are.’” When we asked whether forcing hospital patients to prove their immigration status would cross the line, King disagreed, stating, “I don’t know why that would be too far.”

KEYES: Do you think that Alabama went too far in terms of asking schoolchildren their immigration status or having utility companies be able to shut off water to families if they don’t provide their immigration status?

KING: [...] Going too far to ask someone about their status? Whether they can be legally or illegally in the United States? Not in the world I grew up in. In the world I grew up in, a police officer would see somebody on the street and say, “Why are you here? What are you doing? Who are you? I don’t know who you are.” [...]

KEYES: Is there anything you think that could be too far, like asking people in the hospital about their immigration status?

KING: I don’t know why that would be too far. It depends on who is doing the asking. But I have walked through the hospitals down along the border, and I know what goes on. Tucson University Hospital, for example, is the most southerly trauma center in Arizona. The reason for that is all the rest of them had to close because they’ve been required to provide free medical care to people who are in the United States illegally.

Watch it:

In his eight years in Congress, King has amassed a long record of castigating immigrants and Latinos in general. Last year, he declared that Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s (D-AZ) southern Arizona district may have been “ceded…to Mexico.” Prior to that, King called immigration a “slow-motion Holocaust.” And while discussing a border fence on the House floor in 2006, King proposed electrifying it, noting that “we do this with livestock all the time.”

Politics

Rep. Steve King Would Repeat Slavery Era, Says There’s Nothing He Would Change About American History

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Oct 7, 2011 at 3:20 pm

Tea Party Rep. Steve King (R-IA) fired up the socially conservative crowd at the Values Voters summit today, telling them that God controlled the Founding Fathers “like men on a chess board.” But the arch-conservative congressman seemed to forget his grade-school history when he told the crowd that there was not a single thing he would change in America’s history to make it better:

KING: Could you reverse engineer the United States of America and come up with a better result that what we have here? Could you go back through history and turn us in history in any way where our mortal wisdom could supersede the actual history that we’ve experienced as a country? I say not.

I believe that the Bible was written with divine inspiration. I believe that the declaration was written with divine guidance. I believe that God moved the Founding Fathers around this country and the globe like men on a chess board.

Watch it:

King’s affirmation of the entirety of U.S. history ignores, of course, the country’s dark chapter of legalized slavery. Many of the Founding Fathers, who King believes God micromanaged, were slave owners themselves and enshrined protections for slavery in the original Constitution. Would King really want to repeat this history?

In 2009, King was the only member of Congress to vote against a House resolution to acknowledge the role that slave labor had in constructing the U.S. Capitol building. The resolution would merely authorize the placement of a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center, but King opposed it because he said it would not present “a balanced depiction of history.”

Last year, King’s good friend Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) caught flack for erroneously claiming that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery.

Health

Rep. King Dismisses Affordable Care Act’s Closing Of the Medicare Donut Hole: ‘It Isn’t A Significant Piece Of Policy’

By Scott Keyes on Oct 5, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) dismissed a key accomplishment in the Affordable Care Act – elimination of the Medicare donut hole – today, calling it “a minor part of this whole picture” and not “a significant piece of policy.”

King made the comments to ThinkProgress following a Republican press conference on Capitol Hill today. The Iowa congressman joined several Republican colleagues to renew their call for repealing the landmark health reform law “by the roots,” as King often says, including its provisions to close the Medicare Part D coverage gap, also known as the “donut hole.”

ThinkProgress asked King about what would happen to the millions of young people and seniors who are already enjoying the Affordable Care Act’s successes. King ridiculed the notion out of hand, saying, “I can’t imagine there being any seniors who have seen any benefits of Obamacare.” When we pointed out that millions would benefit from closing the donut hole, King was dismissive: “That’s such a minor part of this whole picture.” He said the provision was a “talking point for the Obama administration” rather than “a significant piece of policy.”

KEYES: What do you make of the millions of young people and seniors who are seeing some of the benefits already and would have those obviously stripped away if the bill were to be repealed?

KING: I can’t imagine there being any seniors who have seen any benefits of Obamacare.

KEYES: I guess in terms of the donut hole being closed.

KING: That’s such a minor part of this whole picture. I’ve had no constituents come to me and say, “it’s so good that the donut hole is closed.” I haven’t heard that subject even brought up in six months. That is a talking point for the Obama administration but it isn’t a significant piece of policy.

Watch it:

In fact, closing the donut hole is a key part of making health care affordable for seniors. Before health reform was passed, Medicare only covered prescription drug costs between $0-$2,700 and anything over $6,154. However, seniors were forced to pay for the entire cost of their prescription drugs between $2,700 and $6,154 with no Medicare coverage, presenting a major hardship for many older Americans.

The Affordable Care Act will phase out that donut hole over the following decade, allowing millions of seniors to afford the care they need. The benefits are already apparent; new data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows that “nearly 1.3 million people have received a 50 percent discount on their brand name prescription drugs when they hit the donut hole, saving a total of $660 million so far this year.”

Special Topic

Rep. Steve King Tells Protesters Wall Street Isn’t ‘The Scene Of The Crime’

By Marie Diamond on Oct 5, 2011 at 2:20 pm

A central irony of the Wall Street protests and subsequent arrests by police has been, in the words of one observer, “0 Bankers Were Arrested After Purposely Crashing Our Economy. Nearly 1,000 Have Been Arrested for Speaking Up About it.” But according to Rep. Steve King (R-IA), crime doesn’t really count if it’s done from a board room. The lawmaker revealed his willful ignorance of the systematic wrongdoing on Wall Street during an appearance on Fox last night when he said, “I wouldn’t say it’s the scene of the crime“:

King was responding to a clip of Van Jones describing Wall Street as “the scene of the crime against our future.” Republican lawmakers who disproportionately benefit from Wall Street’s generous contributions have conveniently forgotten the corporate malfeasance that inspired the protests in the first place, choosing instead to focus their contempt on protesters themselves.

(HT: Political Correction)

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