My home state…I love it’s lakes and its beautiful wilderness, but the people in it make me want to vomit blood.

I was just looking at the ACLU of Arkansas’ facebook page. It turns out the 10 commandments bill wasn’t the only piece of theocratic legislation to make it through yesterday:

Bad day at the Arkansas State Capitol today. Three bad bills passed out of committees today–two of them in a stunning turnaround on a previous vote. They will probably become law: one authorized construction of a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds, SB 939, and the other, RFRA, HB1228, allows people to discriminate in the name of religion. Both paint Arkansans as narrow-minded bullies who don’t care about religious liberty or equal rights for anyone but the majority. They make Arkansans appear to be intolerant of LGBT people and people of minority faiths and other minorities. Black folks remember when racist terrorism was perpetrated in the name of religion. Such heinous actions can and will happen again when RFRA becomes law and people think they have a license to discriminate. A third bill passed committee to allow the police to rifle through our medicine cabinets in the state Prescription Database without a warrant. We fought hard for that warrant provision and won it a few years ago. SB698 undoes that work and erodes privacy in the name of expediency for cops. People wondered whether those in the majority would lead, now that they are in power. They are leading–leading Arkansas back in time to darker days.

And just for the ladies:

Oh, and HB 1578 passed out of a House Committee–it requires women to get state written propaganda about abortions, including inaccurate information, 48 hours in advance of the procedure–in person. Till now, the law required she get this biased info 24 hours in advance over the phone. Not any more. Two trips or two hotel stays. Two days off work, away from family, kids….

I never thought I’d say it, but I’m glad to be anywhere else – and that includes Kansas.

As for Arkansas Republicans, they’ll get around to all that jobs bullshit they campaigned on as soon as this important stuff is out of the way. Count on it.