One Republican state Senator has a message for restaurants and food processors in his state: fetuses are not OK on Oklahoma menus.

Not that they were on the menu to begin with. Indeed, that was the Food and Drug Administration’s reaction to GOP state Sen. Ralph Shortey’s SB 1418: a bill “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.” This clearly isn’t something that’s actually happening, so what would this bill really accomplish?

Some have speculated that Sen. Shortey’s bill is part of a larger statement against embryonic stem cell research – that like a modern-day Jonathan Swift, Shortey’s real argument is that if it’s so obviously outrageous to use fetuses in food-related research, we shouldn’t allow the use of discarded embryos in medical research, either.

Except that argument wouldn’t make any sense, because there are plenty of materials used in medical research that would never be slapped between two hamburger buns. No one would seriously argue that western taste buds are the appropriate bright line for medical ethics.

No – Shortey’s bill was conceived not through high-minded parody, but rather through the Tea Party movement’s most defining characteristic: conspiracy theories. It turns out Shortey really does think fetus-food might be happening, and he sees it as part of a much larger conspiracy of forced organ harvesting:

“But the fact is that there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors. And if that is happening — because it is a possibility — and if it’s happening then I just don’t think it should even be an option for a company.”

Shortey added that if you took this idea to its logical conclusion, you could “force every human being” to be an organ donor, “and that’s kind of what we’re doing with these children. Before they’re born, we’re going to kill them and then we can do anything we want to with your body.”

[emphasis added]

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Really, it shouldn’t – as the primary author of Oklahoma’s version of the “birther bill,” this is not the first time Sen. Shortey has embraced a bizarre conspiracy theory.

What is a surprise, however, is Shortey’s ineptitude as a legislator. His fetus-food bill has an effective date of November 1st, 2012 – which means if there really are restaurants in Oklahoma where, let’s say, you are what you eat, Shortey wants to give them nine more months before they have to stop. Even Mr. Swift would cringe at the irony in that.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, already caught in two lies in recent weeks, is revealed to have been peddling yet another falsehood—on the very day he’ll give the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. 

Throughout the long debate over Right to Work, Governor Mitch Daniels has argued that Indiana can't grow jobs without busting up the unions. He says it's for workers' own good. "The good news is when Indiana gets a chance to compete for new jobs, we're winning -- two thirds of the time. But we get cut out of a third of all deals because we don't provide workers the protection known as Right to Work," he said, in one ad. 

But new data reveal that Indiana is doing pretty well without a so-called “right to work” measure in place. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new figures for employment in the states. How’s Indiana doing? 

After getting slammed senseless during the recession, the federal government says Indiana gained 15,100 jobs last month (much of it from the private sector, in the state's best month for job growth in a decade). 

So contrary to Gov. Daniels’ unsubstantiated insistence that the so-called “right to work” bill his Republican cronies are attempting to ram through the state legislature is necessary to create Indiana jobs, the state is nearly leading the nation in job creation AND protecting workers’ rights and paychecks. 

Now Gov. Daniels is peddling a new story. He alleges that Indiana lost a Volkswagen plant to Tennessee because of their “right to work” status. 

Interestingly, news coverage of the VW plant’s opening mentions specifically that Alabama and Michigan were considered as alternative sites for the plant. Volkswagen Group of America’s own press release specifically lists Tennessee, Michigan, and Alabama as the three states under consideration.  

How do you lose a bid for an auto plant when you were never even in the running? 

So many lies, so little time. Will he slip a few into his GOP response to the State of the Union? Or will he simply attack President Obama for the country’s fiscal woes—woes that Mitch Daniels helped create? 

Daniels comes to such a discussion with baggage, however, having headed the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, when the country’s projected budget surplus of $236 billion ran down a sink hole where it became a $400 billion deficit. 

… When the economy dipped, Bush’s expanding deficit ballooned. Some fiscal conservatives at the time howled, including New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who pointed at Daniels as a major part of the problem, saying that he had “carried water for some of the Bush administration’s more egregious budgets [and...] made dubious public arguments in support of his boss’s agenda.” That agenda included the war in Iraq, which appeared on the books under Daniels as an invasion without longterm estimates accounting for the inevitable occupation. 

Will Gov. Daniels will stick to the facts tonight, for a change?

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels got caught last week breaking a promise he’d made in writing to not pursue so-called “right to work” legislation. 

And now we’ve got him on video. 

"I'm not interested in changing any of it. Not the prevailing wage laws, and certainly not the right to work law. We can succeed in Indiana with the laws we have, respecting the rights of labor, and fair and free competition for everybody." 

Gov. Daniels made this pronouncement before a group of Teamsters at a 2006 dinner. Now he disavows his promise with both words and actions, spearheading a shameless assault on workers’ rights and middle class values with the aid of his GOP cronies in the statehouse. 

Now that we know Gov. Daniels will be delivering the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union Address next week, can we trust a word that comes out of his mouth? 

Democrats in the state legislature continue their fight to give Hoosiers a voice in the debate over the so-called “right to work” measure, but not only are Republicans trying to shut down discussion and ram the bill through the legislature, but they’re also attempting to levy oppressive fines on their political opponents. 

Majority Republicans voted for a third straight day to impose $1,000-a-day fines on the boycotting Democrats, even though a Marion County judge issued an order Thursday blocking those fines from being deducted from the state paychecks of three boycotters who have sued. 

Most of the other members of the Democratic Caucus have joined the suit since the issuing of this temporary restraining order. 

Democratic Leader Bauer has pledged to return to the state House floor at “high noon” on Monday to continue fighting for a statewide referendum on this controversial legislation-- a referendum clearly supported by the vast majority of Hoosiers. 

By an overwhelming margin, Hoosiers want state lawmakers to let voters decide whether Indiana should become a right-to-work state, according to a new poll sponsored by the Indiana AFL-CIO.

The survey of 500 randomly selected registered voters found 71 percent support a statewide referendum on right-to-work, while 23 percent oppose a public vote. 

Support for a referendum was strongest among Democrats (89 percent) and independents (79 percent), but even half (50 percent) of Republicans say they want a referendum.

Will Gov. Daniels and Indiana Republicans allow Hoosiers to have their say? 

And can anything Gov. Daniels says next Tuesday in his State of the Union response be trusted? 

We’ll know soon enough.

It’s a new year, but the story is the same when it comes to Democratic performance in special elections across the country: since March 1st, 2011, our candidates are running an average of 6% ahead of where Democrats finished in the exact same districts in 2010.

The usual exclusions apply: We exclude districts where one major party failed to field a candidate this year or in 2010; districts where Independent candidates won enough votes to skew the comparison; districts which weren’t up in 2010; and districts where deceased candidates remained on the ballot.

That leaves 23 districts we can legitimately describe as offering an apples-to-apples comparison. This is too many to list individually, but they can be grouped in three basic categories: Strongly Democratic, Strongly Republican, and Swing Seats:

Most ominously for the GOP, Democrats are making their biggest gains in swing districts (those where Democrats won at least 40% but no more than 60% of the vote in 2010). Democrats, in fact, are now not only winning the average swing district in blowout fashion, but they swept all eight of the swing seat special elections that were included in the analysis above, picking up four previously Republican-held seats in the process.

Democrats are also showing remarkable progress in strongly Republican areas that gave Democrats less than 40% of the vote in 2010. Democrats actually came within 2.5% of winning two such districts, where the previous Democratic nominees had lost by more than 30 points. If that trend holds, there are a lot of GOP state legislators in supposedly safe seats who could be in for a nasty surprise this November.

But while this apples-to-apples comparison is what we consider the most useful, there’s one more significant data point we became aware of this week: Democrats are now winning the average special election everywhere, a stunning turnaround compared to races prior to March 1st.

The numbers below represent every contested special election, regardless of how useful each individual data point is, relying instead on the Law of Large Numbers to give us a snapshot of Democratic performance. If there was a Democratic and Republican candidate in any one special election since November 2010 (or an Independent who had a respectable showing), the race is included in the analysis below:

These raw numbers reveal a significant gain by Democrats since March 1st but an even more dramatic flight from the GOP. Democrats have pulled marginally ahead, completing almost a 20-point net turnaround from last spring, when the average race resulted in a blowout GOP win.

Most importantly, though, it’s now the Democrats who are gaining seats – we've picked up six since March 1st, and we've only lost two to the Republicans in that same time period. Which means we have every reason to look forward to the elections this fall.

As the battle against the GOP’s odious anti-middle class policies rages on in Indiana, two recent developments merit special note.

First, Gov. Mitch Daniels has been caught in a lie. When he first ran for governor of Indiana in 2004, he promised – in writing – to a union supporting him that he would not pursue so-called “right to work” legislation during his tenure. 

In seeking an endorsement in 2004 from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, Daniels sent a letter to former union President William Dugan that he would not pursue right-to-work legislation. The union sent The Times a copy of the letter dated July 30, 2004; it has "Mitch for Governor Campaign Committee" as its letterhead and Daniels' signature at the bottom. 

The letter said, "As I have indicated to you in person, I understand your membership's support for the current Indiana law providing a common construction (prevailing) wage for many state contracts, as well as your viewpoint that no need exists to enact a 'right to work' statute in our state. I'm in agreement on both counts." 

At best, Gov. Daniels broke a promise he took the trouble to commit to paper. At worst, Gov. Daniels engaged in an opportunistic fiction and had no qualms about lying in writing to win a valuable campaign endorsement. 

Second, and speaking of endorsements, Indiana House Democrats and friends of working families everywhere are getting a bit of a boost from some noteworthy NFL players.

Quarterbacks Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Rex Grossman of the Washington Redskins are among six NFL players urging Indiana lawmakers to oppose right-to-work legislation.

Cutler, from Santa Claus, Ind., and Grossman, from Bloomington, joined New Orleans' Courtney Roby, Pittsburgh's Trai Essex, St. Louis' Mark Clayton and San Diego's Kris Dielman in sending letters to Indiana House members Monday. Days earlier, the NFL Players Association came out against the measure that would ban private contracts that require workers to pay union fees for representation.

Cutler called it a "political ploy'' against workers.

Yesterday, Democratic House Leader Pat Bauer struck a temporary deal with the Republicans: Democrats will be present for quorum until Tuesday, and the GOP will not bring up the so-called “right to work” legislation before then.

Good thing this deal was struck with a House Republican. Clearly Gov. Daniels’ promises can’t be trusted.

Much of the nation’s attention is focused on New Hampshire’s “first in the nation” primary today, but Granite Staters in particular shouldn’t allow themselves to be distracted from goings-on in the state capital. 

Some of the more extreme legislation percolating in the New Hampshire legislature has already garnered national attention—and a healthy dose of ridicule. 

...[S]ome of these citizen legislators are crazier than a Statehouse rat… 

New Hampshire House Bill 1148 would "require evolution to be taught in the public schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists' political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism." [...]

Jerry Bergevin, a Republican who introduced HB 1148, went further, telling the Concord Monitor that atheism was linked to Nazism and the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

"I want the full portrait of evolution and the people who came up with the idea to be presented," Bergevin said. "It's a worldview and it's godless." 

Bonus points for strict adherence to Godwin's law. Plus, the legislation itself is prima facie evidence against evolution. But it gets a few demerits for unoriginality.  You can do better, New Hampshire… 

House Bill 1580…requires legislation to find its origin in an English document crafted in 1215.

"All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived," is the bill's one sentence. 

But some of the other proposals that have surfaced in the New Hampshire statehouse aren’t as hilariously ludicrous. Two in particular are especially troubling, and both are retreads of proposals Democratic Gov. John Lynch vetoed last year. 

One such measure is voter ID legislation. Two separate bills that would require voters to present photo identification before casting ballots are already scheduled for committee hearings. Despite Gov. Lynch’s veto of last year’s attempts at voter suppression, misinformation regarding voting requirements abounds in New Hampshire. In fact, some voting rights groups are concerned about the effect of these ballot-box access falsehoods on today’s elections. 

Though a number of bills were passed in the state legislature last year that would require a photo ID, Gov. John Lynch (D) rejected the bills. There is currently no law in the state that requires a photo ID to get a ballot. But that fact never resonated with folks who for more than a year had heard the constant drumbeat that New Hampshire was soon to join other states that had passed such laws. 

Some major news outlets, including NBC Nightly News, lumped New Hampshire into a list of other states that would be asking for ID at the polls or otherwise implementing new voter laws. Other smaller outlets followed suit. Cities and towns within New Hampshire seemed to be confused about who was eligible to vote and with what, according to voters'-rights groups. 

Another regrettable rehash from last year’s legislative trash heap is Republicans’ so-called “right to work” bill. GOP legislative leaders have promised to re-introduce the measure this month, despite the fact that the Republican-controlled legislature failed to override Gov. Lynch’s veto just a month and a half ago. 

When New Hampshire Republicans regurgitate this “right to work” legislation, they’ll be in the company of at least fifteen other states already slated to consider these middle class-eviscerating bills this year (including Indiana, where Democrats continue to work tirelessly to defeat the so-called “right to work” measure state GOPers are attempting to ram through before the Super Bowl in Indianapolis). 

Republicans just aren’t getting the message. This kind of extreme attack on working families was soundly rejected last year in Ohio, Wisconsin, and special elections all over the country. GOP overreach clearly has consequences at the voting booth—a lesson Republicans may learn the hard way this fall.

As the GOP assault on working families continues in Indianapolis, the NFL Players Association has weighed in. 

To win, we have to work together and look out for one another. Today, even as the city of Indianapolis
is exemplifying that teamwork in preparing to host the Super Bowl, politicians are looking to destroy it trying to ram through so-called “right-to-work” legislation. 

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana. … 

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to ... focus instead on job creation. 

As Indianapolis proudly prepares to host the Super Bowl it should be a time to shine in the national spotlight and highlight the hard-working families that make Indiana run instead of launching political attacks on their basic rights. It is important to keep in mind the plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them get lost in the ceremony and spectacle of such a special event. This Super Bowl should be about celebrating the best of what Indianapolis has to offer, not about legislation that hurts the people of Indiana. 

Indiana Republicans would like nothing better than to ram their so called “right to work” legislation through the statehouse and bring an end to this fight before the Super Bowl draws the eyes of the nation to their capital city. One GOP Representative even admitted publicly that the big game on February 5 factored into their rush. 

"Some people did raise that concern," said Rep. Jerry Torr, the Carmel Republican who is the chief sponsor of the labor legislation. "I expect that has played into folks' thoughts a little bit, trying to move this along." 

Perhaps Gov. Mitch Daniels and his GOP cronies in the legislature fear their war on workers’ rights won’t stand up to national
scrutiny. 

Speaking of national scrutiny, last night MSNBC prime time was filled with coverage of the Democrats’ fight for middle-class values. 

Check out Democratic Leader Pat Bauer on The Ed Show after his second day of preventing a quorum in the state House, halting the
progress of this heinous legislation:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow featured a great segment, as well:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Despite the Republicans’ rush, the Democrats’ fight in Indiana is far from over. Stay tuned!

Yesterday marked the first day of the legislative session in Indiana, home to last year's historic Democratic boycott of the General Assembly (only Texas Democrats' protest of the 1993 DeLay-mander lasted longer). Gov. Mitch Daniels and his Republican cronies in the statehouse are scheming to bring back so-called "right to work" legislation after tabling it last year because of Democrats' and citizens' protests.

GOP Speaker Brian Bosma has already used lies to promote the measure on the airwaves (GOP Lawmaker Uses Lies to Push Union-Busting Agenda). Last Friday, the Daniels administration attempted to drastically limit Hoosiers’ access to their state capitol, which would effectively prevent demonstrations resembling the huge protests against union-busting bills in the Wisconsin and Ohio statehouses last year. Democratic Leader Pat Bauer took the Governor to task. 

"This policy is designed specifically to prevent working Hoosiers from coming to the Indiana Statehouse to register their concerns about implementation of a 'right to work for less' policy that will give them fewer jobs at lower pay in unsafe workplaces," said Indiana House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer in a statement. "It now appears the governor will do anything to silence the thousands of Hoosiers who oppose this plan, including abandoning concepts of free speech and assembly that are the founding principles of government."

After intense pressure from legislative Democrats and tremendous public outcry, Gov. Daniels finally backed down.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) rescinded rules limiting how many people can be inside the statehouse at any one time on Wednesday, a victory for Democrats and labor leaders who protested the restrictions as an attempt to quash the size of protests. …

Daniels said he was swayed by Democrats and labor unions who argued against the new policy, noting they "made good points."

Now the first day of the Indiana General Assembly has come and gone, and Democrats are doing everything in their power to prevent this so-called “right to work” bill from being rammed through the legislature without adequate public input and careful legislative deliberation.

Lawmakers from the state House had last year blocked the bill — which would bar businesses and private unions from mandating that workers pay union fees for representation — through a five-week boycott during which they left the state. That denied Republicans the two-thirds attendance needed to conduct business.

House Democratic Leader Patrick Bauer said Wednesday that Republicans were "railroading" the revived measure through the chamber and more public hearings should be held.

"What's the urgency?" said Bauer, who led last year's walkout. "They are ignoring the public input."

Most Indiana House Democrats were no-shows on the floor Wednesday when House Speaker Brian Bosma tried three times to gavel the House into order. He plans to try again Thursday, and said a Democratic boycott won't lead Republicans to back off on the bill. …

Some Democrats broke ranks throughout the day and joined Republicans in the House. Up to six Democrats could return to their seats and there would still not be enough lawmakers to conduct business.

Instead the vast majority of Democrats holed up inside a conference room just steps from the House chamber and spent more than three hours debating tactics on the first day of the 2012 session.

Only time will tell if the Indiana GOP will decide to place the interests of hardworking, middle-class Hoosiers above corporate welfare.

Meanwhile, the Democrat who led his caucus in a five week boycott of Indiana Republicans’ extreme, right-wing agenda last year remains committed to slowing the process and accommodating public input. Any Republican expecting Rep. Bauer to blink should keep that in mind.

Governing magazine’s Louis Jacobson pays special attention to state legislatures across the country, and he’s out this month with a review of a dozen legislators to watch – six from each party – just in time for the New Year.

Some of the Democratic names may be familiar to you because of the leadership they’ve already shown in 2011 and in recent years:

• Stacey Abrams - Georgia House (D)
  House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, who is the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, earned degrees from Spelman College, Yale Law School and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She’s a tax attorney and a former deputy city attorney for Atlanta. Despite being in the minority in the Legislature, observers credit her with winning concessions from freshman Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on a revamp of the HOPE scholarship program, a merit-based higher education fund for Georgia residents, and for putting up a strong fight against a GOP tax plan….
  

• Reuven Carlyle - Washington House (D)
  …After a career in the cellphone and software industries, Carlyle won an open seat in 2008 representing a trendy area of Seattle. He has made a point of crossing party lines and taking on figures in his own party. “I believe the people of our district elected me in 2008 to vigorously seek intellectual and moral independence from old-fashioned orthodoxies,” he wrote on his campaign website. “We live in a 21st-century global community and stereotypical positions -- liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican -- have little bearing on our children’s future…”
  

• Wendy Davis - Texas Senate (D)
  …Sen. Wendy Davis, who represents Fort Worth, used the limited tools available to her to achieve spectacular results. Hours before last year’s session was to end, Davis filibustered a bill that included $4 billion in school cuts. That forced Republican Gov. Rick Perry -- who was on his way to becoming a presidential candidate -- to call a special session. It also turned Davis into “an icon among Democratic activists in Texas,” says Mark P. Jones, a Rice University political scientist….
  

• Ted Lieu - California Senate (D)
  ...Before election to the Senate in 2011, Lieu chaired the Assembly’s Rules, and Banking and Finance committees, where he was a key mover of legislation on such topics as foreclosure prevention, child sex offenders, domestic violence, cyberbullying, sewage spills and health insurance.
  “Ted Lieu is that rare Democratic political figure who combines it all,” says California-based Democratic strategist Garry South. “He’s smart and well educated, articulate, pleasant and professional to deal with, center-left while also being a former JAG and current reserve officer in the Air Force, has a photogenic young family, and is part of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the largest state....
  

• Vincent Sheheen - South Carolina Senate (D)
  Sen. Vincent Sheheen exceeded all expectations in his 2010 race for governor. Running in a strongly Republican state in a strongly Republican year, he lost to Nikki Haley -- who attracted considerable national media attention -- by just four percentage points. An effective legislator, he had sponsored 18 bills that became state law prior to his gubernatorial campaign….
  

• Darrin Williams - Arkansas House (D)
  Rep. Darrin Williams was adopted and raised in Little Rock. He’s a second-termer in a state with a three-term limit for state representatives, so he’s positioned to become a strong contender for speaker -- which would make him the first African-American to hold the position. He has already chaired the House Judiciary Committee, where he won a measure of bipartisan support for legislation….
  

Please read the full column for longer profiles of each legislator. We expect big things from all six of them, in addition to the many accomplishments they've already racked up.

TruTV certainly didn’t shortchange Tea Party state legislators when they published their list of the “50 Worst Politicians in America.” Their list takes plenty of shots at both parties, but when it comes to America’s 7,000+ sitting state legislators, five prominent Republicans were the only ones judged “worthy” of this dubious honor:

• Arkansas — Loy Mauch
  The newly elected state lawmaker says the Confederate flag is "a symbol of Jesus Christ above all else." He's also in the League of the South, a group that advocates for Southern secession [and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center].

• Idaho — John McGee
  After getting drunk at a golf clubhouse, the state's Majority Caucus Chairman went on a wee-hours barefoot walk when he happened on a Ford Excursion with a travel trailer attached and the keys inside. Police alleged he hopped in and took a joy ride, only to botch a k-turn and jackknife the truck in someone's driveway. The cops were called and the politician was arrested for grand theft and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail for DUI, but the theft charges were dropped. But it wasn't over yet: he was censured in the state legislature for blocking an investigation into his medical claims... and then sending it to die in a committee... which he also chaired.

• Oklahoma — Sally Kern
  Arguing in support of a 2011 bill to end affirmative action, the state representative said women usually don't want to work as hard as men because they want to stay at home and that prisons have a high percentage of blacks because they didn't want to study hard in school. Fortunately, she's used to the flavor of her own foot, as she first gained notoriety in 2008 for saying gay people posed a greater risk to the country than terrorism.

• South Carolina — Jake Knotts
  The state senator said this of then-candidate/now Governor Nikki Haley: "We already got one raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the Governor's Mansion." Haley immigrated to the U.S. from India as a child, while Knotts clearly immigrated up his own butt.

• South Dakota — Hal Wick
  The state representative introduced a bill that would require anyone over 21 to buy a gun. But it was just a stunt masterminded by the rascally Republican to prove the government can't force you to buy health care. (No word on his feelings about car insurance… or about the state being burdened with the costs of treating the uninsured.)

The list, appropriately categorized in the “conspiracy” section of TruTV.com, leaves out at least a few of the biggest names in right-wing craziness. Bill O’Brien is an excellent possibility – in fact, New Hampshire GOP legislators probably could have filled about a dozen spaces all by themselves. And no list like this one is complete without at least one dishonorable mention of Virginia’s Bob Marshall.

But one thing’s for sure: when it comes to cataloging the misdeeds and outrageous antics of politicians over the past year, 2011’s statehouse Republicans are providing an embarrassment of riches for political writers – and an embarrassment, period, for the voters back home.