Our Terrifying New Congress: Meet 5 Tea Party Extremists Taking Office this Month | Alternet

Similar to this list from Right Wing Watch, but there are a few differences. Two names not on RWW list, Mark Walker and Cory Gardner.

Come next week, a few of Congress’ most notorious Tea Partyers will no longer be in office. Rep. Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican who once declared evolution and the Big Bang Theory “lies straight from the pit of hell,” lost a U.S. Senate primary this year and won’t be returning to the House. Neither will Michele Bachmann, who needs no introduction.

But the departure of such inflammatory conservatives hardly means that the 114th Congress will be a more sober one. Indeed, the crop of Republicans taking power next month is even further to the right than the current House GOP conference. The newly Republican Senate, too, will feature more than its fair share of ultraconservative hard-liners. Today, Salon looks at five of the most extreme Republicans taking power in Washington this month.

[,,,]
Mark Walker

The retirement of North Carolina GOP congressman Howard Coble paved the way for the election of Baptist pastor Mark Walker, whose statements on race and immigration range from condescending and cringe-worthy to downright frightening.

Walker once wrote on Facebook that he “had the privilege of spending an hour with an African-American male who grew up in the inner city,” but he lamented that “most of these Americans have no concept of the pride and joy when we, as parents, invest in our children.”

On border security, Walker said at a debate that “we got to go laser or blitz somebody with a couple of fighter jets for a little while to make our point.” When the moderator asked whether he worried that this could lead to a war with Mexico, Walker replied, ”Well, we did it before. If we need to do it again, I don’t have a qualm about it.”

Cory Gardner

As he geared up to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, Rep. Cory Gardner confronted a major problem: on issues like immigration, the 2013 government shutdown, and reproductive rights, he’d taken ultraconservative positions unlikely to play well in a statewide election. So Gardner did what any cynical politician would do; he moderated his rhetoric, pretended he was open to compromise on issues like immigration, and even recanted his support for a state-level personhood amendment. (However, Gardner did continue to support a federal personhood bill, which he disingenuously asserted was nothing more than a statement that he “supports life.”)

Our Terrifying New Congress: Meet 5 Tea Party Extremists Taking Office this Month | Alternet

Five Of The Craziest Conspiracy Theories That The Freshman Republican Class Will Bring To Congress | Right Wing Watch

It turns out that by branding themselves as members of a party that has returned to its mainstream, center-right roots after successfully stamping out a Tea Party rebellion, even “establishment” Republican candidates are able to hold all sorts of extreme views without any consequences.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that a party that regularly endorses candidates who deny climate science and denounce evolution has moved the political center so far to the right that even candidates with radical views can still be treated as moderates. These days, Republicans win kudos simply for stating that they don’t want to ban birth control or destroy the economy by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.

This dynamic has allowed any number of conspiracy theories to flourish in the GOP. Here are five conspiracy theories that newly elected members of the United States Congress will be bringing with them to Washington next year,,,

Five Of The Craziest Conspiracy Theories That The Freshman Republican Class Will Bring To Congress | Right Wing Watch

Glenn Grothman Tried To Remove Woman's Life Exception From Abortion Ban, Make Women Report 'Forcible Rape' Before Obtaining Care | Right Wing Watch

Glenn Grothman, a Republican Wisconsin state senator who is currently running for the US House seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Petri, says he opposes equal pay measures because he thinks “money is more important for men,” believes women’s equality amounts to a “war on men,” and once tried to classify single parenting as child abuse.

It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that Grothman has some Todd-Akin-style anti-choice politics in his past. While serving as a state assemblyman in 1997, Grothman tried – and failed – to remove language from a “partial birth” abortion ban that would have granted an exception for abortions that would save the life of a pregnant woman. That is, Grothman wanted to make it a felony punishable by life in prison for a doctor to save a woman's life by performing a certain kind of abortion.

Grothman sponsored another, successful bill in 1996 that forced women seeking abortions to undergo a 24-hour waiting period, at the time among the longest in the country, and to require doctors to read an anti-choice script to women seeking abortions. When the state senate added a rape and incest exemption to the bill, Grothman arranged to limit the exemption to cases of what he called “forcible rape” and added language that forced the rape survivor to file a police report before being allowed to skip the waiting period.

Glenn Grothman Tried To Remove Woman's Life Exception From Abortion Ban, Make Women Report 'Forcible Rape' Before Obtaining Care | Right Wing Watch

Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin GOP Senator, Fights For A Seven-Day Workweek

I'm not so sure about this, I have worked for a company which "stated," at the beginning of the interview process, that OT (7 day weeks) MAY be necessary; this was before the 2009 meltdown. After enduring a chapter 11 bankruptcy, were 25% of the work force was completely eliminated, the possible OT became almost mandatory. We were encouraged (strongly) to work at least 1 OT day/pay period. Then after 2008-09, another 25% employee reduction occurred, people were getting tired as the same people always volunteered; our expected workloads increased. My job, OT became "required." Eventually because people were no longer eagerly volunteering for OT, the unwritten rule was mandatory OT. At one point I worked 9 weeks without a day off. So yes abuses will happen.

BUT, here is the plus side. Why many people will voluntarily agree (as long as it is not abused). If and when an individual needs to file for unemployment, ALL your wages are factored into your expected benefits. Because of the OT I worked, I made more money (short term) on unemployment than I did working. So in some ways, it was nice to have that quirk as a fall back after working many weeks in a row. I would sometimes volunteer for lay-off as a "break" so to speak, usually after my vacation time ran out, but in all honesty I preferred to work.

This would not be a long term "benefit," as your benefit is calculated on a yearly basis (and the benefit amount is capped at some point) as your total income decreases from lack of work, so does your unemployment. After 12-15 months of unemployment this would no longer feasible as your benefit is based on the highest quarter of wages.

So there is good and bad with this proposal,,,
__________

Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) is attempting to roll back one of the state's progressive labor laws, arguing that workers should be allowed to work without a day off if they so choose.

[,,,]
Wisconsin is one of the few states in the nation where businesses "must provide employees with at least one period consisting of 24 consecutive hours of rest in each calendar week." This doesn't mean that workers get to take off once every seven days; an employee could work for up to 12 consecutive days "if the days of rest fall on the first and last days of the 2 week period."

Grothman said he finds this law "a little goofy," and he argued that rolling it back is a matter of "freedom."

He's proposing legislation that "would allow an employee to voluntarily choose to work without one day of rest in seven," according to an email sent by his office to other state lawmakers on Friday. The email, which was sent to The Huffington Post by the progressive group One Wisconsin Now, was asking lawmakers to cosponsor the bill. State Rep. Mark Born (R) is leading the legislation in the state Assembly.

[,,,]
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, applauded Wisconsin for having such a progressive law on the books in the first place. He said Grothman's proposal is problematic because it may lead to employers forcing their staff to work overtime.

"It's a very hard thing to know whether something is truly voluntary or not," he explained. "If the employer puts pressure on people and lets them know they will be unhappy if workers exercise their right to have a day off, that might be enough so that no worker ever does anything but volunteer to work seven days a week."

Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin GOP Senator, Fights For A Seven-Day Workweek