Warning: this may make you feel ill. In fact, it ought to.
From The American Chronicle, back in May when the House was debating legislation to expand the 1969 federal hate-crime law. The proposed "Matthew Shepard Act" would expand the law to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
Now, there are some legitimate concerns about some hate-crime laws, "thought crime" and all that; I haven't read the details of this bill and don't know if I'd support all of it's provisions. But that's irrelevant to this:
While Matthew's mother, Judy Shepard looked on from above in the House gallery, [Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)], who managed the floor for those opposed to the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, spoke saying, "The hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard Bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that the young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him … but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."
Matthew Shepard, of course, was a young man who was tortured and murdered by two homophobic lunatics, and whose death brought national attention to gay-bashing and to hate crimes in general. The "it was a robbery gone bad" defense that the defense attempted at one point, was contradicted by the thug's own testimony. That someone can claim that this is some sort of a hoax, and not be instantly run out of town on a rail, is the most stomach-churning thing I've read this week -- and I've been reading a lot of politics this week, my friends.
I am not surprised that this insane bitch's position on health care reform is that "There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare", and that she's one of the GOP politicos spreading the "death panel" Big Lie.