Fourth Graders Get Close-Up View of Republican Fuckery

This is both sad and hilarious:

Fourth graders from Lincoln Akerman School in Hampton Falls received a warm welcome at the State House last Thursday. They and their teacher, James Cutting, were guests in the Gallery.  That reception quickly turned chilly as students got a glimpse of the cold, harsh realities of politics in the Granite State.

In the spirit of learning by doing, students drafted a bill to learn the process of how a bill becomes law. They proposed House Bill 373, an act establishing the Red Tail Hawk as the New Hampshire State Raptor. Even though it passed through the Environment and Agriculture committee with a majority vote, some representatives were far from receptive.

Rep. Warren Groen, a Republican from Rochester said, "It grasps them with its talons then uses its razor sharp beak to basically tear it apart limb by limb, and I guerss the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood."

Groen made that horseshit comment in front of the visiting fourth graders, and Republican Representative John Burt followed it up by stating: "Bottom line, if we keep bringing more of these bills, and bills, and bills forward that really I think we shouldn't have in front of us, we'll be picking a state hot dog next."

The bill was killed by a vote of 133-to-160.  Jim Cutting, the kids' teacher, had this to say on NPR the other day:

I think that they were a bit discouraged to hear anybody speak against their bill. Most of the comments I don't think that they really - I think that they had a sense of the tone of it and they were tuned in to the reaction of other people, whether it was their families that were with them. There was some laughter on the House floor, and one child asked, why did people laugh at us? But I think that, in particular, the Planned Parenthood comment was not something that they really understood.

Well, join the club -- I don't get it either.  Perhaps the best way to explain that comment to kids is by simply telling them that Republicans are assholes and leave it at that.