When Rep. Paul Broun voted last month against banning crush videos, which are basically porn for people who get off on women in heels stomping on small animals, opponent Russell Edwards accused him of “siding with sexual deviants.”

The fact-checking website Politfact rated Edwards’ statement false today.

Rep. Paul Broun voted against $33 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Tuesday, but he says he still supports the troops. The bill contained additional funding for projects like the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Fund, and improvements to the Port of Guam.

“As a Marine, I understand the importance of ensuring our men and women in uniform have the resources necessary to successfully complete their mission,” Broun said in a news release. “In fact, I firmly believe that one of the primary responsibilities of the federal government is to ensure a strong national defense. However, I am disappointed that Congress waited until the last minute to pass this bill and used vital funding for our troops to pass over $25 billion of unrelated projects.”

OK, not really. He has children of his own, and probably some dogs, too. But he was one of just three congressmen who voted Wednesday against a bill banning “crush videos,” porn for people who get off on killing animals.

According to the AP:

The 416-3 vote in the House Wednesday to again make crush videos illegal came three months after the Supreme Court struck down the federal law on the grounds that it was too broadly written and violated free speech protections.

The new legislation is more narrowly crafted to meet constitutional standards. It makes it a crime to sell or distribute videos that violate bans on animal cruelty by showing animals being burned, drowned, suffocated or impaled. Exceptions are made for normal animal husbandry films or films depicting hunting, trapping and fishing.

The AJC has more details about the bank part-owned by Rep. Paul Broun going under.

Not long before it lost its multi-year fight for survival, McIntosh Commercial Bank had lost so much money on such loans that, by one measure, it was financially the weakest of Georgia’s roughly 300 banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates the closure will cost its deposit insurance fund more than $123 million.

McIntosh had a problem-loan-to-cash-reserve ration of 884 percent, the highest of any bank in the state, and unwinding it will cost taxpayers $123 million. Broun blames the closure on an overzealous Obama Administration. Federal investigators are conducting an audit to determine whether the bank should have been shut down, the AJC reported.

Democratic candidate Russell Edwards is turning the business failure into a campaign issue:

Rep. Paul Broun’s town hall meeting Thursday night was a bit of a snoozer, but Georgia Liberal caught him making some interesting comments to a constituent afterward.

Broun said that he wanted to repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments.

His opposition to the 16th Amendment – which created the income tax – is no shocker, given that he is a proponent of a national sales tax. The 17th Amendment allows for the direct election of U.S. senators, rather than state legislatures appointing them. It’s become an inexplicable cause célèbre for the tea party crowd.

Taking a page out of the Glenn Beck playbook, Broun said those amendments were the key in the ignition of the steamroller of socialism.

“Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson started this process of socializing America,” he said.

Democratic congressional candidate Russell Edwards hit his goal by raising $102,000 in April, May and June for his campaign against Rep. Paul Broun.

Edwards’ haul is nearly as much as the 2008 Democratic candidate, Bobby Saxon, raised in 15 months. His campaign had this to say today:

“I’m so grateful to have such wide-spread and strong support from throughout the District and across the country. This report shows voters are responding to my campaign to send responsible leadership to Congress,” said Edwards. “Frankly, many in our District are suffering, and our incumbent refuses to help. Together we will send responsible leadership to Congress that supports our community. Together we will win this race.” …

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun will hold a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the downtown Athens Holiday Inn.

Democratic challenger Russell Edwards is urging his supporters to ignore it. Edwards posted this to Facebook today:

I urge everyone to avoid Paul Broun, Jr.'s grandstanding and instead attend an event to send responsible leadership to Congress.

He hopes for people in our community to attend his events and drive up attendance. He also wants people to disagree with him in public because that galvanizes his base supporters to defend him.

Spread the word, let's get together and deny him these opportunities. The lower his turnout, the more illegitimate he appears.

State and federal regulators have shut down a failing bank partially owned by Rep. Paul Broun, and Broun blames – you guessed it – President Obama.

McIntosh Commercial Bank, co-founded in 2002 and run by Broun’s brother Conway, was shut down March 26 because it lost $28 million over the past two years and had $88 million in bad loans on its books. Broun’s investment was worth between $250,000 and $500,000, according to congressional financial disclosures.

From the AJC:

While saying he knew little about McIntosh's operation, Broun in an interview went into deep detail about federal requirements on how banks must value bad real estate loans, and insinuated that overzealous regulators are causing a national economic crisis.

Setting aside the fact that old people are always cold, Rep. Paul Broun went to the House well recently to say that clean energy legislation is going to force the elderly to turn up the thermostat, thus sealing their own doom.

Flagpole magazine carries a short piece implying that, like Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, Rep. Paul Broun doesn’t support the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act that banned segregated businesses.

Paul’s views – since retracted – “are shared by our own congressman,” author Matthew Pulver quoted Broun’s Democratic opponent, Russell Edwards, as saying. Pulver goes on to speculate that Broun believes businesses can “run roughshod over civil rights and the environment.”

At least on civil rights, he’s wrong. I asked Broun – who cites the British abolitionist William Wilberforce as his hero – today about his views on the law. He supports it.

“Anyone who knows me knows I am totally against discrimination,” Broun said. “Every American ought to have equal rights.”

People in Athens can and do say a lot of things about Broun, but don't call him a racist.