What we’ve been referring to of late as the Politics of Stupid regime that we are all forced to live under since the GOP takeover of both the U.S. House and Senate, is living up to its name once again today.
The Republicans who now control the once-honorable and formerly-esteemed U.S. House Judiciary Committee go full “BuzzFeed” (Plus sexism! Minus amusing!) with this incredibly embarrassing page posted on Wednesday as a “Press Release” in opposition to the President’s Executive Actions on immigration.
Here’s a partial screenshot…
You’ll have to click on it to get the full idea (cuz, ya know, all those are animated “ditzy girl” GIFs are just so delightfully hysterical.)
By way of reminder, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, now led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), is the esteemed body where such things as impeachment of U.S. Presidents and federal judges, etc., are carried out.
So embarrassing. And, frankly, so very dispiriting. Maybe that’s the point.
UPDATE 3/20/2015: Since we published the above yesterday, a few other websites have also begun to notice (and deride) this shameful “press release”. Moreover, they’ve also raised one or two points that we didn’t mention here.
TPM, which is covering this as its top story for the moment, notes the irony of a “press release” regarding immigration reform in which “all 10 GIFs included in the press release depicted white characters or celebrities.”
And ZDNet, who describes the “press release” as a “new low” even for Congress, also notes that the GIFs in question, all taken from popular films or TV shows, may well be in violation of copyright laws and “anti-piracy laws” that members of this same House Judiciary Committee have been attempting to pass since 2011. Oops.
If some attorneys were not scared to get their licenses stolen, this would result in some lawsuits for use of these people’s likenesses without permission and placing them in a false light, a form of defamation.
WOW!!! That is so laughably stupid I had to check the link to make sure that it was actually posted by the House and wasn’t just someone posting a spoof.
As of today, Sun 3/22, I see that the stupid thing has apparently disappeared from the judiciary.gov website. Good Riddance! For me this posting on a .gov website crossed a line from partisanship to propaganda. Which made me look at the other “press releases” coming from the majority Republican committees, and even when they are not so flippantly offensive and in violation of copyright, they are still potentially propagandistic. Apparently “buyer beware” now includes government sources as well as cable “news.”
Laura Staneff @ 3:
Nope. It still appears to be posted there, Laura.
Though I’d have expected them to take it down days ago. They’re not that smart, I guess.
Another embarassing day inside the Empire