Sid "Sonogram" Miller, Ted Cruz, and Louie Gohmert

The updates are flying in over the transom as we close in on Monday's candidate filing deadline for 2014.  Let's focus on the news of the weird... and that -- generally speaking, at least -- involves the TXGOP.

The former state legislator responsible for the Texas sonogram law -- in which women must have a wand inserted in their uterus, and must look at the generated image of the fetus before the clinic can perform an abortion -- is, naturally, running for Texas agriculture commissioner.  And it seems he thinks as highly of his prized quarter horses as he does the women of Texas.  First, Gator in The Bayou...

Former state representative Sid Miller wants to be the next Agriculture Commissioner of Texas. He was fired by his constituents in a 2012 Republican primary run-off election.

A serious candidate for the Republican primary, Sid hired ‘Nuge’ as his campaign manager. Yes, Ted Nugent.

Now the hopeful and self-described ‘arthur’ of the Texas sonogram law has been accused of mistreating his high-dollar, prize-winning quarter horses.

It happened at the Alamo Quarter Horse Breeder Association show in San Antonio back in May of this year.  He tied three of his horses to a trailer and pulled it with a truck.

And from that DMN article...

 “If anybody thinks that I would tie three half-million-dollar horses to a trailer and they had a chance of getting a scratch on them or injuring themselves, I would have to be an idiot,” (my emphasis) said Miller, who raises and sells the animals. “My horses get the very best of care that they can get, and not just because they are worth a lot of money, but because I think a lot of them. I love my horses.”

Sid, you took the words right out of our mouths. Sid also seemed to eventually come to an agreement with himself that he indeed is an idiot.

“I shouldn’t have done it. I just wasn’t thinking. It’s just such a common practice for me that I really didn’t think nothing of it,” Miller said. “I just should have known better because not everybody understands it.”

There's some excuse-making in there -- he's probably not going to trot his quarter horses behind a truck when anybody else can see him doing it -- but since this is Sid Miller, half-baked contrition still qualifies as progress.

I ran this cartoon by Ben Sargent last month that explains exactly why Sonogram Sid is going to be the Republican nominee, and it has nothing to do with Ted Nugent or quarter horses.

All Sid needs to do now is go on an Obamacare rant and he'll have the nomination locked up.

-- Speaking of rants, Ted Cruz seriously misjudged the depth of the bigotry among his base.  He posted a respectful acknowledgement of the passing of Nelson Mandela to his Facebook wall, and what he got back from his followers almost defies belief.  For that development we go to Burnt Orange.

... (O)ur Senator Ted Cruz shared kind words and condolences to Mandela's family and the people of South Africa. Unfortunately, the response to his statement on his Facebook page did not reflect this sentiment. And while Ted Cruz's Facebook page has never been ground zero to discover human intellect and compassion, the outpouring of racism, bigotry, and ignorance was absolutely unprecedented to see for a man who had just recently passed and did so much for the country he led. Instead, the majority of comments referred to Mandela as a communist and a terrorist.

BOR has posted some screenshots of the filth, just in case the original should disappear.

Apparently the people who comprise Ted Cruz's supporters think it's better to be a racist than it is to be a communist.  This really shouldn't surprise anybody.  More on this from TFN Insider.

-- Finally, ahead of John Cornyn's hilariously ridiculous Tweets, ahead of Joe Barton declaring he would vote to repeal the minimum wage, and even ahead of Pete Olson and Steve Stockman circulating proposed articles of impeachment (of the attorney general and the president, respectively)... we have the undisputed king of the dipshits, Louie Gohmert.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) seemingly tied Christianity to U.S. national security during a bizarre speech on the House floor on Thursday, the Huffington Post reported.

“If you were completely areligious, completely atheistic, but you wanted to have a free country, and you wanted to have it safe and protected, then it would sound like, from historical purposes, that it might be a good thing to encourage those who believe in God to keep doing so,” Gohmert said. “Because when a nation’s leaders honor that God, that nation is protected. It’s only when it turns away that it falls.”

The remarks came during a speech about what Gohmert described as the continued persecution of Christians worldwide. The Tea Party congressman also referred to Israel during his remarks, which came less than a month after he criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for not using Biblical prophecy as the basis for U.S. policy in dealing with the country.

“If the God who protected Israel since its inception through many generations until they stopped honoring the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — which, by the way, no country has ever fallen while it was truly honoring the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” Gohmert argued.

The Post also noted that Gohmert has blamed atheists for the June 2012 mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater and for the increase in suicide among military service members.

This half agnostic/half atheist is going to take a pass on the encouragement to anyone of speaking to an invisible Duck-Dynasty-bearded senior citizen living in the clouds for any purpose whatsoever.  But you go ahead and pray your ass off, Louie.  Hell, you can even pray for me if it makes you feel better.

The rest of you Republican elected pikers can quit now; there's no topping that.  This week, anyway.