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New conservative value: Beating up on the handicapped Submitted by Robert Jung on Tue, 10/24/2006 - 9:12am. One of the unintended side effects of Democrats finally making a concerted push against Republican excesses is that conservatives are now looking for new folks to bully around -- and it looks like this week's candidates for right-wing retribution are the physically challenged: Example one: Actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's Disease, recently appeared in an ad for Clair McHaskill's (D-MO) Senate campaign, where he endorsed McHaskill for backing stem cell research. In response, bioviating windbag Rush Limbaugh proposed that Fox stopped taking his medication in order to exaggerate his Parkinson's symptoms for dramatic effect. I stated when I saw the ad, I was commenting to you about it, that he was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all. Yeah, sure, Rush. And (stealing from Melissa McEwan here) Christopher Reeve is just faking his death to drum up support for stem cell research, too. Example two: Last Sunday, three candidates for Wyoming's House seat had a televised debate on who should represent the Equality State -- incumbent Barbara Cubin, Democrat Gary Trauner, or Libertarian Thomas Rankin. During the debate, Rankin -- who is disabled with multiple sclerosis and uses an electric wheelchair -- pointed out that Cubin received $22,520 from scandal-tainted conservatives (he originally misattributed her donations as being from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but later corrected himself by identifying the source as disgraced House Majority Leader Tom DeLay). That was apparently enough to chaff her hide, because after the television cameras were turned off, Cubin approached Rankin and said, "If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face." It's rather a pity that Mr. Rankin couldn't have simply rose out of his wheelchair and slapped her across the face for that, because I strongly suspect that the only reason she made that threat was because she knew he couldn't rise out of his chair and slap her across the face for that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn