Are these really the issues you worry about, GOP?

These guys know what's important, alright.

The New Hampshire primary is today.  It doesn't really matter how it turns out.  GOP priorities are completely out of whack.

10th Circuit Court slaps down Islamophobes

A "ban on Sharia law" passed by voters in Oklahoma (ah, Oklahoma!) was ruled unconstitutional by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.  While the Court's ruling is certainly good news, why is our over-burdened justice system forced to deal with this kind of nonsense?

After all, as the Court stated, "[supporters of the ban] do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted at the preliminary injunction hearing that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma."

Get it?  Neither the Court, nor even the proponents of the ban themselves, could identify how Sharia law is a threat to anyone.  (Sharia law, of course, is an Islamic school of thought that deals with individual religious practice, not with societal laws.) 

Just as they have done with gay rights issues and undocumented immigrants, Republicans have been whipping up fear of Muslims as a sure-fire way to win the support of under-educated Red State folk.  (I'm talking to you, Representative Peter King.) 

Romney, Santorum, and Newt vow to stamp out pornography

A group called Morality in Media demanded to know of several GOP presidential candidates if they would strictly enforce obscenity laws.  Because we all know what a terrible threat is posed by pornography, yes?

Mitt, Rick, and Newt were all over it.  Each of them bravely stepped forward to assure the Morality in Media folks that any Attorney General in a Romney/Santorum/Gingrich administration would certainly enforce obscenity laws.  (You've got to wonder how Senator David Vitter feels about that...)

Remember back in Junior's first term when Attorney General John Ashcroft directed the FBI to spend 13 months and use 2 full time agents to close down a prostitution ring in New Orleans?  That morally-forthright administration felt that prostitution was a mortal threat to our way of life, apparently.  Certainly more than terrorism, in those pre-911 days.  But who can argue with success?  Because we all know that prostitution has been eradicated in New Orleans.  Right?

Don't you get it, people?

GOP demagogues love these kinds of issues because they distract from the real issues we have in this country:  issues about income disparity and corporate oligarchy. 

There won't be much talk from GOP candidates about the need for banking or tax reform.  Not this year.  Not when they can rant and rave about people who have no public voice, who can't effectively defend themselves.

It's the Republican way.