W00t! The slimeball was stopped!
David Vitter (R-hypocrite) earmarked $100,000 in an appropriations bill to sponsor an institution in Louisiana that promotes creationism. According to The Times Picayune:
Bowing to pressure, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has backed off an attempt to steer $100,000 in taxpayer money to a Louisiana Christian group that supports teaching religious and alternative theories of creation alongside evolution in science classrooms.
Vitter has taken heat from educational, religious and civil rights groups for earmarking money in the fiscal 2008 spending bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health, Human Services and Education for the Louisiana Family Forum, “to develop a plan to promote better science education.”
It should be noted that some of that heat came from the blogosphere, including our little piece of it here. For those of you who called your Senators to remove the earmark, good on ya! Don’t forget for a second that it was due to your help that this jerk got his pork yanked.
Um… well, you know what I mean.
The article goes on:
Vitter went to the Senate floor Wednesday and announced that “to avoid more hysterics,” he wanted to shift the money to science and computer labs in the Ouachita Parish schools. He said the earmark had been misconstrued.
Gee, I thought it was a gross and hamhanded attempt by a slimy hypocritical politician to kick the Constitution (while it was down, too), shred the First Amendment, and fund antiscience liars so they can brainwash kids with creationism.
Which part was misconstrued, exactly? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
And avoid hysterics? How ironic/hypocritical can you get? We should have a unit of gall in this country, and call it the Vitter. Killing your parents and claiming mercy for being an orphan would be about one deciVitter, I think.
Anyway, victory is sweet. Never ever forget: these guys can be beaten. All it takes is action.
Take action. Do it.
Tip o’ the hat to DefConBlog.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Now that is good news!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Whoo-hoo! We rock!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Boo Creationism.
Hooray Science!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Evolution! It’s Science!
Hooray Science! *flashes on the screen a few times*
“Don’t forget for a second that it was due to your help that this jerk got his pork yanked.”
I want no part in yanking this jerk’s pork.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Yes, writing to them works. At Congress.org, you can send a message to your representatives any time about any subject you choose. They make it easy.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Ooops, sorry for the double post, tried to correct a spelling mistake.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
If we’re coming up with a new unit of measure then it should either be simple – like base 10, or even more f’d up than imperial which is base 12 and base 16 at the same time.
Maybe Vitters should be base 27.09 and a deciVitter will be 73.10137 Vitters.
PS. Can we have the metric system already?!?! PLEASE!!!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
You guys came through! To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt:
“Do the right thing if you can. Do the wrong thing if you must. But never, ever sit there and do nothing.”
October 19th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Excellent news! Score one for the good guys…we were bound to win one sooner or later.
October 19th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Three Cheers for Reason!
October 19th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
It just makes me so glad that with the Internet, this kind of information can be spread rapidly, in order to get it stopped as it well should be. I’m a bit ashamed to admit I did not even understand what an “earmark” was until a couple months ago. Who knows how much of this stuff has gotten through in the past?
October 19th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Not American, but I’ll drink to that. Cheers!
October 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
At first I read that as “these guys can be eaten.”
I thought it was an interesting take on A Modest Proposal.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Even though he was being cynical with the phrase “to avoid more hysterics,†, I don’t mind him saying it. He and his ilk had better recognize that they are playing with fire when they pull this crap.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for putting all your effort into this Phil. Skeptics are a difficult group to coral. We are very diverse, and have opinions all over the map. Our one common thread is our commitment to searching for the truth. Again, than you for being one of the leaders in this chaotic community that can steer us in one direction. For a little while….
October 19th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Nice to see the good guys winning!
October 19th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
sagan is smilling
“we search for the truth no matter where it lies”
October 20th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Being from Louisiana, it’s hard for me to believe that someone in this state’s corrupt government didn’t get his way. I think he only folded because he was found out. I worry that next time, he or someone like him will simply bury their plans deeper in the paperwork.
Sorta like the shell game. You may win the first few, but he’s only setting you up to be a bigger mark.
Wow. That seems pretty cynical. It’s just been one of those watch-the-world-die kind of days. I apologize.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Most wonderful.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:37 am
As the creos lose more and more in the political and educational arenas, the next course of action will most likely be to tie up the judicial system.
I recently found out about a particular book published in April of this year. In “Creation and the Courts: Eighty Years of Conflict in the Classroom and the Courtroom”, Norman Geisler appears to call out for a grass roots movement among creationists to “take on” the legal system. I’m not advocating the book, but suggest that those who believe that science should be taught in science classes (and religious doctrine be studied in churches and (comparative) religion courses ONLY) might be interested in recognizing the tactics being used.
More info on the book at http://www.gnpcb.org/product/1581348363
Yes, it sounds like a shameless plug (and I should say that I haven’t actually spent money on or read the book), but I think that it helps to study the tactics of the opponent.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:51 am
>>> Skeptics are a difficult group to coral.
Yeah, what with their not being ocean based lifeforms and all.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:44 am
KaiYeves, I love quite a few of Teddy’s quotes, he also made this hum-dinger:
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Different times back then…
October 20th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Oops, skipped an ‘r’.
/quote ‘not being ocean based lifeforms and all.’
Not completely true. There is PZ, who (as everyone knows) is a descendant of the squid lords.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Just one small criticism…
I barfed just a little in my mouth with the “Bueller” joke.
The utterer of that was Ben Stein. Who is no friend of science. He is a peddler of ID crap.
October 21st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
we had an incident in Oz about 2 years ago where the Creation (Anti) Scientists managed to get a meeting to present to the then Minister of Education. He made comments that he was open to their views and indicated that he would explore a balanced education of evolution and creation science.
We the Aussie Blogsphere reacted with a storm of emails and faxes.
Quickly the whole issue disappeared under the weight bad publicity.
Well done to you our U.S. cousins…
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:28 am
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October 23rd, 2007 at 7:17 am
This round has been won but you gotta stay on top of these religious reichwingers because, like a bad burrito, they’ll keep repeating on you if you don’t stay vigilant.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
“jerk got his pork yanked” ?
Ahhahahahhahehhehhe