Are you listening Tennessee Republicans? That means YOU are the worst lawmakers in the whole freaking country. And you thought the national media was always laughing at and mocking you because you are sexy.
Tennessee is seldom recognized as Number One, but hey, we finally made it!
Thanks for the non-stop embarrassment, worst lawmakers in the nation.
WMC TV appears to agree:
Mother Jones: Tennessee: America's ..Worst State Legislature:
(1) Tennessee: MoJo's cutting-edge algorithm awards a 500-point bonus to any state legislature that inspires a news story with the phrase "gateway body parts" and "governor signs" in the same paragraph. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam accomplished the feat in May when he signed into law a new abstinence-only sex education program that critics warned would prohibit almost any discussion of sexual activity during sex ed. As Bristol's WCYB dryly reported, "News 5 looked into the bill and learned its language has been mocked across the country…" The gateway body parts bill was part of a new push to crack down on various other gateways, including gateway words, such as "gay." GOP state Sen. Stacey Campfield's bill sought to prohibit the discussion of homosexuality for grade schoolers. Campfield articulated his views in a January radio interview:
Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community—it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually—not completely, but virtually—impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex.Things went downhill from there. The Legislature passed a bill in April (later vetoed) to provide cover for teachers who question evolution and climate change in their classrooms, along with legislation that classified miscarriages as murder, and a bill cracking down on saggy pants. Democrats complained that the saggy pants bill did not go far enough. Although Haslam declined to sign a resolution, passed by the Legislature in May, condemning Agenda 21, a spokesman emphasized that the governor did, in fact, oppose the 1992 UN action plan on sustainable development.
As impressive as the laws it passed were, though, the Tennessee Legislature was perhaps defined by its individual acts of #fail. In January, GOP state Sen. Bo Watson introduced legislation designed to crack down on the scourge of transgender citizens, by introducing legislation that, per ThinkProgress, "would institute a $50 fine for anybody who does not use the public restroom or dressing room that matches the sex identification on his or her birth certificate." In April, Republican state Rep. Matthew Hill introduced a bill to disclose the names of all doctors who perform abortions in the state, along with demographic information about patients that could possibly be used to identify them. In July, the Huffington Post reported that GOP state Rep. Kelly Keisling "emailed constituents Tuesday morning with a rumor circulating in conservative circles that President Barack Obama is planning to stage a fake assassination attempt in an effort to stop the 2012 election from happening."
via Steven Hale @ The Scene
Memphis Flyer: Tennessee Awarded Title of Worst State Legislature
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