It’s not enough for them to fund and support a massive public relations campaign to convince the American people to look the other way, as the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious.

Now the Republican Party wants to destroy the scientific agency that studies the causes of climate change for clues on how to stop the onrushing train: US Lawmakers Seek Deep Cuts to NASA Climate Research.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives want NASA out of the climate-change business.

A bill floated by leaders of the House Science Committee seeks to restore “proper balance to NASA’s science portfolio” by slashing roughly US$500 million from the agency’s Earth science division, which received $1.785 billion this year. The move is part of a broader push by Republicans to replenish NASA’s planetary science division, which has seen drastic cuts in recent years.

But the severity of the Earth science cuts even shocked Steven Squyres, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in New York, who led the planetary community’s 2011 decadal survey. He told lawmakers today that the proposed cut to Earth science research is “alarmingly deep”.

Via White House photographer @petesouza.

Here’s one of those open threads we don’t see much any more - hey, open thread, why you no come around here no more?

YouTube

C-SPAN3 is broadcasting a live feed from the Teabagger hate rally now underway.

The turnout is pitiful; here’s an overhead crowd shot.

@gatewaypundit Noted idiot Jim Hoft overestimates the tiny #AuditTheIRS “rally” by about 6 thousand. pic.twitter.com/GYkcdIUREL

— FreedomWorks Panda (@NicoleGennette) June 19, 2013

Speaking right now: Rick Morlen of the Albuquerque Tea Party group:

Also, here’s some more of that Nazi imagery they keep saying never appears at Tea Party rallies:

Nazi imagery prominent again at the Tea Party #AuditTheIRS rally… http://t.co/7Mm0FcZtKZ @Green_Footballs @GatewayPundit #tcot #TeaParty

— FreedomWorks Panda (@NicoleGennette) June 19, 2013

More Nazi imagery used at the Tea Party #AuditTheIRS rally… http://t.co/DejYTUmanv @Green_Footballs @GatewayPundit #tcot #p2

— FreedomWorks Panda (@NicoleGennette) June 19, 2013

(Correction: it’s very similar, but Morlen’s hat isn’t a Confederate general’s hat - it’s a cavalry officer’s hat. Sorry for the confusion.)

Teabonics sighting! RT @pberry1_98: #audittheirs #teaparty pic.twitter.com/cHuDAVV2YO

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 19, 2013

Another Nazi reference: “Defeat Fascism… Again!”

More Nazi symbolism:

Subtle? RT @aseitzwald It wouldn't be a political rally without a subtle Nazi reference. pic.twitter.com/UfVPjBbKO8

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) June 19, 2013

MSNBC Video

I predict “war on men” will prove a more enduring idea than “war on women.”

— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) June 19, 2013

Discuss.

Here’s a pretty amazing development that may finally destroy the last shred of partisan hitman Darrell Issa’s credibility: Breaking: Full House Committee Transcripts Shed New Light on Genesis of IRS Targeting.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have just released a full transcript of testimony from a key witness in the investigation of IRS targeting of conservatives — and it appears to confirm that the initial targeting did originate with a low-level employee in the Cincinnati office.

It also shows a key witness and IRS employee — a self described conservative Republican — denying any communication with the White House or senior IRS officials about the targeting.

The ranking Dem on the committee, Elijah Cummings, has promised that the account provided by the witness — the IRS manager who supervised the screeners of applications for tax exempt status, a self described conservative Republican — would undercut Committee chairman Darrell Issa’s suggestion that the decision to target conservative groups had originated in Washington.

Cummings released the full transcript today in two parts, making it available to a select group of reporters, with redactions of names of individuals, and accompanied it with a letter to Issa explaining his decision, in which Cummings concludes that the transcript “debunks conspiracy theories about how the IRS first started reviewing these cases.”

The letter from Cummings to Issa concludes:

These facts are a far cry from accusations of a conspiracy orchestrated by the White House to target the President’s political enemies. At this point in the investigation, not one witness who has appeared before the Committee has identified any involvement by any White House officials in the identification or screening of Tea Party applicants for tax exempt status, and the Committee has obtained no documents indicating any such involvement.

How much money has Darrell Issa wasted with this series of fruitless, politically-motivated witch hunts?

Undoubtedly the most absurd, ridiculous GOP op-ed you’ll see today: creationist Gov. Bobby Jindal’s latest “don’t be stupid” piece for Politico: Opinion: GOP Needs Action, Not Navel-Gazing - Gov. Bobby Jindal.

After the re-election of Barack Obama, Jindal demanded that the GOP reflect on what caused the loss. Well, he’s over that now. After ranting that the GOP really doesn’t need to change anything, but just go on the attack, Jindal uncorks this hilarious litany of falsehoods and straw men:

At some point, the American public is going to revolt against the nanny state and the leftward march of this president. I don’t know when the tipping point will come, but I believe it will come soon.

Why?

Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too.

This freaky laundry list of right wing red meat silliness ends up simply driving home the point that the GOP is hopelessly mired in reactionary idiocy. The guy who tells the GOP “don’t be stupid” also mockingly says:

…wild weather is a new thing…

There you have today’s GOP in a nutshell: belligerent, anti-science, anti-women religiously fanatical reactionaries, who think they’re being smart.

Related:
Gov. Bobby ‘Don’t Be Stupid’ Jindal Comes Out in Favor of Teaching Creationism in Public Schools

FLV Movie

Via CharlieRose.com.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party continues pushing insanely stupid regressive social issues, but let’s all look over there at the NSA: Texas Congressman: Masturbating Fetuses Prove Need for Abortion Ban.

As the House of Representatives gears up for Tuesday’s debate on HR 1797, a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions 20 weeks post fertilization, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued in favor of banning abortions even earlier in pregnancy because, he said, male fetuses that age were already, shall we say, spanking the monkey.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

That observation led Burgess to say he had argued for the abortion ban to start at a much earlier stage of gestation, 15 or 16 weeks. (This is less than halfway through a pregnancy.) He appeared to liken Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, to the 1893 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that formally legalized racial segregation, and was not fully reversed until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.