Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
What do you do if you're a right winger and you have to top your previous rhetoric comparing your opponents to Hitler, Stalin and Mao? There's only one way to go - they're demon-possessed:
GOHMERT: I brought the bill that's being talking about. Now I don't want to offend anybody, I'm sure that there are people here who think abortion is okay, and I don't want to make you sick, but I brought an abortion to show you today. [...]There's a whole lot of demons going on. There's a lot of demons around here apparently.
That's Rep. Louis Gohmert of -- I'm sure this will shock you -- Texas. The same Louis Gohmert who said he was against the hate crimes bill because it would punish a mother who slapped her child's rapist. Seriously.
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Comments
Here's the Youtube video of him saying it. It was at a tea party rally, apparently.
Posted by: Gretchen | March 21, 2010 12:11 PM
Someone said something crazy at a Tea Bagger rally?! Now I really have seen everything.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 21, 2010 12:31 PM
It was a bad pun. "Deeming" "Demons".
A very bad and lame pun.
Posted by: e-sabbath | March 21, 2010 1:09 PM
Ah yes. It's a play on "deem and pass.":
Posted by: Gretchen | March 21, 2010 2:27 PM
Its ironic that they have literally hit a new, all time low with that one.
And out of all the personal, unverifiable paranormal experiences, this one by far is the "best". How do we know, that they are not the ones demon possessed, and just trying to divert attention from the reality of their immoral, fallen, graceless state? All things being ridiculously equal and all?
Yep, you nailed it. This is the dumbest Dumbass quote of the day so far.
I cannot believe that any sane human beings put these jackasses in control of anything important. That just baffles the mind. These dipwads have taken religious belief into an unredeemable, pathological state.
Posted by: Seeing Eye Chick | March 21, 2010 3:25 PM
Deem and Pass, Demon Pass. What you have to understand is that in the cultic milieu these people exist within, they believe *signs are everywhere. And so even something that has a phonetic similarity to an object or modality of importance would get their attention, and become something either of veneration, or perhaps something in need of an exorcism.
Even Christians subject themselves to the Occult Axiom, As Above, So Below. This idea that the Microcosm reflects the Macrocosm. So to them, this Deem-N-Pass is symbolic of a greater message. That cosmologically the country is at a nexus which will determine the road ahead. Will it be towards the Kingdom of Heaven or toward trials and tribulations? To them, obviously it is the latter. And they truly believe that this will call down the wrath of their god upon America. Completely ignoring their part in creating a self fullfilling prophecy by buying into the ideals of Dominionism and Kingdom Now Theologies which destroys not only the environment as it goes--but also whole communities through the collective desire to be martyrs.
That is why these dipshits go around picking fights with other groups and then running about screaming that these other groups are anti-Christian whenever they stand up for themselves in the face of religious-bullying.
And when the whole country and later the world is in ruins, then they can say that the prophecy has been satisfied, and that armageddon has taken place, and now they can start all over without competition to build their perfect world devoid of gays, feminists, blacks, Jews, Mormons, Pagans, Muslims, Agnostics, Atheists, and other nonConformists.
Not only are these people willing to share the stage with any other group or philosophy {including Scientists} but they will not be satisfied until they have wiped the world clean of all competition. Only then can their savior return, to a pure world of pure Christianity.
These people are nutters.
Watch your backs.
Posted by: Seeing eye chick | March 21, 2010 3:36 PM
Want to see something funny:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4449048638_58f68ed6af.jpg
I have to ask, who is the "We" they refer to in the sign? Kind of stupid to make up signs and not point them to your church.
Posted by: Tony P | March 21, 2010 4:29 PM
Tony P "I have to ask, who is the "We" they refer to in the sign?"
Really? I was more concerned with why those two vaginas have crosses where the clitoris is.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 21, 2010 5:48 PM
A candidate for tomorrow's dumbass quote, from Mike Conaway, our local RepubliRep from here in Texas. This is the entirity of an email he sent - I'm not going to watch the video, so you can't either:
"I would like to take a moment to share a short video with you to keep you updated as to what is going on in Washington
with regards to the Democrat's hazardous health care bill.
Click here to watch, and stay tuned for more updates.
As always, God bless each one of you, God bless Texas, and God bless our great country
as we work to fight against what we believe is right for our citizens here in Washington."
It's good to know which side he's on, yes?
Posted by: Coragyps | March 21, 2010 8:23 PM
I really dig this blog. Pretty much agree with most of the views and lo and behold...I'm from Texas. I really wish you'd lay off the insults about the state.
Yes...There are more than a few things to dislike and rail against. But there is a lot of good people here who also rail against the same things and are just as proud as where we are from or are living.
Trashing the whole state is doing the same thing that any you all would get very angry at if you happened to be the wrong person painted by a brush that is much to large...
Posted by: Strange Magic | March 21, 2010 9:53 PM
Strange Magic, I have lived for my entire life in Georgia (as did both of my parents), a state at least as collectively stupid as Texas. At every opportunity I voice my opinion about how stupid the people here are, and how utterly despicable its elected officials are, particularly Rep. Tom Price and the Republican-controlled state government in Atlanta. If you would ever care to trash my home state, I'll gladly join in with you!
Nobody here thinks that everybody in Texas is a moron - we all know there are lots of decent and intelligent people in your state (and indeed in every dumbass state and county in the country). No need to be defensive, because nobody's talking about you!
I never understand why people get bothered about things like that - if you're not part of the problem, then nobody's referring to you when we say that "Texas is a dumb christian redneck hell-hole". It's just a generalization!
Georgia sucks!
Posted by: peter | March 21, 2010 10:23 PM
Well, at least Gohmert hasn't painted himself into a rhetorical corner. He still has room to go after gay demons, socialist demons, gay communist-fascist demons, gay communist Maoist Islamo-fascist terrorist abortion demons that weren't even born in America...
The possibilities remain endless.
Posted by: ambulocetacean | March 21, 2010 10:59 PM
Strange Magic at #10,
Ed has nothing against the good people of Texas. In his posts he often points out that there are many sensible, intelligent Texans working hard to improve things in their state.
I like Ed's blog too, and his podcast (Declaring Independence). I really appreciate the way he's even-handed in his coverage of hypocrisy and wrongdoing. Perhaps the most enlightening thing for me has been learning about some of the bad stuff Obama has been up to with freedom of information and maintaining/extending surveillance powers and legal obfuscation beyond even what Bush did.
Most American news sources are so lightweight and/or partisan that it's hard to get a clear idea of what's really going on over there (I'm Australian). Ed really seems to cut through the fog.
I hope you stick around and enjoy the blog :)
Posted by: ambulocetacean | March 21, 2010 11:21 PM
@peter
"I never understand why people get bothered about things like that - if you're not part of the problem, then nobody's referring to you when we say that "Texas is a dumb christian redneck hell-hole". It's just a generalization!"
I know I'm opening up a can of worms here... Would you say the same thing to someone who takes offense to derogatory comments made about women, blacks, latin-americans, muslims etc?
Posted by: JohnV | March 22, 2010 9:13 AM
Clearly multiple people are offended by the Texas jokes, so why don't we just stop doing them if for no other reason than to stop these people from continuously derailing threads? Rather than going in around in circles with them explaining why they're offended and other explaining why they're wrong to be offended, let's just end the cycle by stopping the generalizations.
Posted by: catgirl | March 22, 2010 10:41 AM
WTF, is Piers Anthony now working as a right-wing speechwriter?
Posted by: Abby Normal | March 22, 2010 11:16 AM