Rachel's absolutely right, this is not a contest one should want to win, yet disturbingly, we keep getting more and more candidates, don't we?

Arizona Congressman Trent Franks told blogger Mike Stark that African Americans were much better off under slavery. [..] FRANKS: In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say "How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can't believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible." And we're right, we're right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America's soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?

That pain that feels like an ice pick gouging your brain for being exposed to such utterly ridiculous and historically ignorant ramblings? I have it too.

First and foremost, the statistic of half of all black babies being aborted is one wholly made up by someone who doesn't grasp math, as BruinKid at DKos points out. And they're not babies, but pregnancies. But the privileged white man from Arizona--the same state who fought against a MLK Day--saying that compared to today, blacks had it so much better while being considered a non-human piece of property is stunning. Being separated from your family, beaten, raped, starved, and generally mistreated. Nor, apparently, did Franks consider how many black babies of white slave owners were aborted--or worse, victims of infanticide--by the slave women unwilling to subject another generation to the treatment to which they were forced to endure.

Trent Franks has never been the brightest bulb in the House, sadly, so no one is particularly surprised with this latest egregiousness. This is the same man who pandered to the birthers and called Obama "an enemy of humanity" and suggests that having terror trials in NYC is akin to asking for a nuclear attack on the same city. He also worried about Muslims spies "infiltrating" Washington because some of the interns who worked on the Hill are *gulp* Muslim. However, as Mike Stark points out, Franks is authentic in his concern about the prevalence of abortions:

To be fair, Congressman Franks is as sincere as he is conservative. The issue of life never falls out of first place in his legislative priority list. I don’t believe for one second that he intends to insult anyone; I don’t think he sees the racism (or paternalism) in what he’s saying. Still… This is pretty bad.

Yes, yes it is.