Confession Time For Santorum

When I was growing up, I was told lying was a sin and since you have to confess your sins in the Catholic faith, I'm waiting for Rick Santorum to head for the nearest confessional.

A few days ago, GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum put his foot in his mouth by saying “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”

Santorum allegedly made the controversial comments when discussing welfare in an interview Wednesday night with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, but he maintained that people misheard the word "black" when he stumbled on a word.

“I looked at that, and I didn't say that. If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of - blah - came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn't," Santorum said while smiling away.

He said, "blah?"



Sounds like Newt Gingrich a few months ago: "Any ad which quotes what I said Sunday is a falsehood."

Oh, Rick. You can't have it both ways. Either you meant "black" to demonize the have-nots and push the the welfare queen meme (as if there aren't poor white people in this country) or you meant "poor." Either way, you're frothing up the base in an "us again them" class warfare mentality. But for a "blah" candidate, maybe he did say "blah."

Lindsey Graham Is A Dick - UPDATED

The highlight of my day while watching the Sotomayor hearings was Senator Lindsey Graham (R-Doucheland) being Mr. Tough Guy and after about 6 hours of answering questions, incredulously asked Judge Sotomayor to repeat her "wise latina" quote because he couldn't find it in his notes to beat her about the head with it. Seriously.

You've had all day, Lindsey. If you want to drag Sotomayor through the mud, that's your prerogative. But don't ask her to help you do it because you're unorganized and misplaced your right wing talking points fax. Dick.

UPDATE (10:35pm): Via Third Branch:

Via Atrios, Craig Crawford describes the political disaster that the GOP has decided to perpetrate upon itself:

Watching Lindsey Graham's gotcha grin as he needled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with disingenuous and rhetorical questions you had to wonder what was so funny. Does the Republican senator think it is amusing that he and his party's condescending tone toward the Hispanic woman was costing them ethnic votes with each passing hour of Tuesday's Judiciary Committee hearing?

. . . Even if they vote for her, the fallout for Republicans could reach well beyond Hispanic voters. They are coming across as a bunch of snarky and bitter old white men who cannot bear the thought of their kind losing power.

The only thing that can make it worse for the GOP will be, as I noted earlier, if no Republicans vote for Sotomayor's confirmation. Here's hoping.

Glenn Beck Needs a Medication Adjustment

What. The. Fuck?

The new Glenn Beck show has got to be the freakiest thing I've seen in a long, long time. And that's just from watching clips because Jebus knows, I don't tune in to this crap. Sure, Bill O'Reilly is an idiot, but at least with him you sort of know what you're getting. With Beck, you have no idea where he is headed from minute to minute. I'm waiting for him to start drooling in the middle of his show or banging pots over his heads and screaming "Oklahoma!"

Watch the clip provided by C & L to see what I mean. The inclusion of Jonah Goldberg as a guest only intensifies this train wreck.

When Is A Town Hall Debate Not A Town Hall Debate?

When the Republican spin operatives say is isn't.

As Logan Murphy at C&L makes clear, a half hour before the debate was even over, the GOP spin doctors were already sending out e-mails disparaging the debate as not really a town hall format and therefore a disadvantage to McCain.

Yeah, that's right. They saw the writing on the wall with McCain before the gig was over and didn't blame the debater, they blamed the style of the debate. The "town hall" debate that BOTH candidates agreed to - signing off on the rules of the debate in advance - the "town hall" setting that John McCain asked Obama to weekly. The "town hall" style that would've shown the country who connects with the average American - "Joe Six-pack," if you will.

How pathetic. But in a strange way, they spin machine is right. A real town hall would've had a back and forth between the audience member who asked the question and the debater. The rules gave the debater a chance to avoid answering the question or changing the subject. Perhaps if Obama had agreed to do the town halls in the first place, he would have had this thing wrapped up a month ago.

Palin's Speech - Some Thoughts

[Updated below...]

I was holding off in judgment of someone I'd never heard speak publicly, except for the video bits here and there about Hillary Clinton whining or asking what a vice president does. Here's my analysis: Same shit, different mouth.

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska pulled no punches, was sarcastic, snarky and spewed the usual lies and smears regarding Barack Obama. But if you think about it, that was her job, to deliver a speech written by the McCain flunkies and solidify the base. Job well done.

I was hoping to hear some substance, some policy ideas or initiatives that this campaign plans to instill (if they happen to win the White House) on Day One, but got nothing. And maybe that's the job of John McCain tomorrow night, although I think I've heard his ideas of "drill here - drill now" and "I'm going to win this war by winning it," so I'm not expecting too much tomorrow night.

The "blame the media" card was pathetic as well. It seems that it's sexist for the media to try and find out what Sarah Palin's qualifications are for the vice presidency and actually vet the candidate in a proper fashion, something the McCain campaign didn't do. At least, the McCain campaign is calling it sexist... I guess I missed McCain coming to Hillary Clinton's defense when the media was scrutinizing her.

Hopefully, the media will remain the media and not revert to the McCainstream Media that we've seen this long campaign season. I'm optimistic because it looks like they're not too happy about McCain crying about the media. Joe Klein isn't having any of it:

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

We'll see what transpires over the next couple of weeks. Biden had better unload and pull no punches because Sarah Palin won't.

More later...

UPDATE (9:40am):

Will Bunch - Attytood: Palin's Speech To Nowhere

HuffPo - AP: Attacks, Praise Stretch Truth At GOP Convention

Crooks & Liars - Attn: Media: Earmark-loving Sarah Palin is not a reformer

Top GOP Pundits Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy Caught On Tape Disparaging Palin Choice: "Political Bullshit," "Gimmicky"


UPDATE II (2:25pm):

Richard Dreyfuss Rips GOP

The day I decided to start this blog was because of Richard Dreyfuss' appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher almost two years ago. He was speaking of civics and our duty as citizens to question the government when we thought necessary.

He was interviewed by Nora O'Donnell on MSNBC and ripped into the Bush administration and the "corrupt" Republican party as a whole when asked if a President McCain would better handle a disaster like Katrina that the Bushies did.

Dreyfuss: I don’t think the Europeans have any confidence in our government. I think that the last eight years has destroyed two hundred years of respect and dedication. And I think we have been the point of meaning and admiration in the world for very specific reasons, and George Bush trashed it.

O’Donnell: So, you don’t think that John McCain would be able to manage this government well, would have a different response than George Bush to a Hurricane Katrina?

Dreyfuss: I think the Republican party is corrupt through and through. And even the republicans like Buckley before he died said ‘we should lose this election, go into the wilderness, and get cleansed’, and I believe that’s true. I think that they have been in office too long. I think that they are too adept at thievery, at moving the Constitution into places it never meant to go. I think that they have an extraordinary ability to divide rather than unite. And I think that I’m tired of being called a traitor, because I like my flag and I support the troops.

Watch the video on Crooks & Liars.

The McCain-Obama Faith Faceoff

[Updated below.]

Barack Obama and John McCain met in Saddleback last Saturday evening at the behest of Dr. Rick Warren, an evangelical pastor of Saddleback Church in California to discuss faith. I really didn't give this forum too much thought. Why should I? Separation of church and state and all that. Besides the fact that Obama was sitting in front of a religious, conservative crowd (not his base, shall we say) and McCain was the odds on favorite to do well (or at least it would be perceived that way regardless) I wasn't really interested in this forum. In my mind, religion is religion and politics are politics and never the twain shall meet.

But now that the "reviews" are out and giving McCain the "victory" in the forum, many have reported that there were anomalies in the situation. For example, the McCain campaign is up in arms over the allegation that they had overheard the questions being asked of Obama which would put McCain at an advantage. That allegation was brought up by Andrea Mitchell, who accurately reported that McCain "may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama." And as the McCain campaign itself admits, McCain wasn't even in the holding location for the first segment of the forum while Obama was answering questions.

Whether that crap is true or not is completely irrelevant, in my opinion. What was important however, were the questions that were asked and how they were framed. As John Perr reports:

...there is no dispute. Despite CNN’s assurances to the contrary, Rick Warren simply asked Barack Obama and John McCain different questions.
From the very first question, Warren treated McCain with biblical kid gloves, editing out scriptural references that might have proven uncomfortable for the religiously reticent Republican:

QUESTION TO OBAMA: These first set of questions deal with your personal life as a leader and I’m not going to do this with any other segment, but as pastor I’ve got some verses that have to do with leadership. The first issue is the area of listening. There is a verse in Proverbs that says fools think they need no advice but the wise listen to other people. Who are the wisest three people you know in your life and who are you going to rely on heavily in your administration?

QUESTION TO MCCAIN: This first question deals with leadership and the personal life of leadership. First question, who were the three wisest people that you know that you would rely on heavily in an administration?

...Given the very different framing of the question Warren posed, it’s no surprise that Barack Obama and John McCain produced strikingly different responses in both substance and style. Obama took Warren’s personal question personally, and cited his wife and grandmother as both “wise and honest” before moving on to a litany of political figures on both sides of the aisle... For his part, McCain responded to Warren’s political question and pointed to General David Petraeus, Obama supporter Congressman John Lewis and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

...And so it went all night. Thanks in no small part to Pastor Warren’s biblical guidance, Barack Obama spoke in a personal, conversational style, making a point throughout to refer to the principles of his Christian faith in the misguided attempt to please an audience indifferent to him at best, downright hostile at worst. So while Barack Obama talked of “trying to do God’s work,” John McCain did the work of his campaign advisers. Despite Warren’s feeble requests not to do so, McCain just repackaged his stump speech and made purely political appeals. In so doing, John McCain probably had the best night of the campaign.

UPDATE (9:55pm): The Rude Pundit has more on the subject - Riding Rick Warren's Saddleback

And an e-mailer sent this to Bob Cesca regarding McCain's answer to the "greatest moral failing" question:

How is it that McCain gets to answer the good pastor Warren as to his greatest moral failing with "the failure of his first marriage"? Marriages sometimes fail, and for a variety of reasons, but the failure of a marriage is, in and of itself, NOT a moral failing, let alone a personal one inasmuch as there were two people in the marriage.

This answer is just a shuck and jive of his real moral failure, which was his disloyalty and infidelity WITHIN that marriage, purportedly while his first wife was particularly vulnerable and in need of support of various stripes, none of which included perfidy or ostensible turpitude, nor by implication including her in the moral failure because she was his wife and that marriage failed!

He obviously is incapable of taking ANY responsibility with this answer. ...This guy McCain is a mess, war hero or not.

Maverick Or True Conservative?

You can't have it both ways, Johnny. Either you're a "Maverick" (it is to laugh) or you're a "true conservative." Which is it?

Here's McCain's new attack ad on Obama, cleverly using comments made by Democrats praising the Maverick. Unfortunately for McCain, all but one of the comments were made at least two or more years ago.



Of course, we all knew the Hillary comment made during the primaries would be used as an attack against Obama the second it came out of her mouth.

Here's the DNC's response just hours after the McCain ad surfaced.



Well I suppose McMaverick is going to go with all that is mavericky because it looks like the McCain campaign is pulling all his "true conservative" spots from his website.

Crooks & Liars: Just one day after the McCain campaign proclaimed its man the “Original Maverick,” Barack Obama blasted that assertion both on the stump and in a new ad of his own. “You can’t be a maverick when politically it’s working for you,” Obama said, “and not a maverick when it doesn’t work for you.” Which may explain why the McCain campaign has apparently tried to purge any traces of its “True Conservative” ad, a February 2008 spot designed to win over hard right GOP primary voters.

As it turns out, McCain’s latest ads (”Broken” and “Praising McCain”) tout the Arizona Senator as the populist “Original Maverick.” But that resurrection of McCain’s tattered maverick image is contradicted by the “True Conservative” TV spot he used during the Republican primaries. In February, McCain to be sure wasn’t the maverick battling special interests in his own party...

...McCain’s claim to be a “true conservative” didn’t just disappear once he sewed up the Republican nomination. For the most part, so did the ad itself.

Here is the "True Conservative" ad -



So which is it? John McCain: Original Maverick? Or John McCain: True Conservative?

How about - John McCain: Just Another Republican Liar.

Lame Dick pResident

Bush had a pretend press conference on the economy today... and tried to blame the Democratically led Congress for the administration's problems. Watch and be appalled.



And that's not all. According to Crooks and Liars, Raisinbrain got testy with Martha Raddatz for asking him a question relating to Afghanistan, not the economy. I guess he didn't have his propaganda notes for such questions.

Q: Can I just add to that, a couple weeks ago —

THE PRESIDENT: No, you can’t. This is the second follow-up. You usually get one follow-up, and I was nice enough to give you one. I didn’t give anybody on this side a follow-up, and now you are trying to take a second follow-up.

Q: Can I just say —

THE PRESIDENT: They just cut off your mic. You can’t, no.

What a dick.

Worst. President. Ever.

Andrew McCarthy on FISA Bill

This is just a laugh.

Steve Benen at C & L notes National Review's Andrew McCarthy and his latest editorial calling House Democrats out for playing partisan politics by not passing the horrible FISA bill with retroactive telecom immunity, which he admits is a bad bill, but what other choice do we have?

Here's another choice. No immunity. As Kevin Drum points out: , "...if it’s that important, there’s a simple answer: pass the bill without telecom immunity. Then come back and introduce immunity in a separate bill. If you’ve got the votes for it, fine. If not, too bad. I’m against immunity myself — though hardly hellbent on the subject — but whichever way the vote went, in the meantime we’d have the FISA extension and surveillance could continue normally."

Drum also notes that the "FISA extension" is shorthand for the Protect America Act, which passed last November and extended (i.e., changed) the then-current FISA legislation in various ways. PAA sunsets on Saturday if a new bill isn't passed, but the original FISA legislation will stay in place. It just doesn't magically disappear thereby materializing nasty Muslims on the streets who want to kill us for our freedoms.

As I said before, if it were truly a matter of life and death, why would the president effectively veto the bill by threatening to do as much without the immunity provision? Answer: Because there's no "there" there. The only reasons the administration wants immunity passed is so they can get away with the further erosion of the Constitution, protect corporations yet again while screwing its citizens and hide the crimes they have committed. Immunity equals no investigation.

So who's playing political football with national security? The Democrats who are trying to preserve Fourth Amendment rights for US citizens, or the Republicans who walk out of Congress, holding their breath til they get their way, crying "it's my ball and I'm going home"?

This false argument that we need to protect the telecoms from lawsuits or else they won't help us is complete bullshit. Case in point were the telecoms who stopped providing the information because the FBI failed to pay their phone bills! If they were really doing it "in good faith", then the information would have kept on flowing. So there goes that argument.

If the US government has a warrant, then the telecoms HAVE TO comply and no lawsuit would stand up in court. But the fact of the matter is that the US government doesn't want to pick and choose who they need to surveil on real facts and real leads. They just want to look like they're doing something so they record and read EVERYTHING from EVERYONE... how in hell can they effectively sort through all that data? It's the equivalent of the "no-fly"watch list being 800,000 people long (and including Senator Ted Kennedy). If everyone's on it, then it's absolutely useless.

I'll have more on this later because in skimming through McCarthy's editorial, it reads like your basic GOP talking points memo through and through, so I feel the need to stab a few holes in it when I have more time... much more time.

Conservative Blowback Against McCain

This is what I'm talking about. No need to fear about the Democratic party still undecided about their nominee when the GOP are eating each other.

From Crooks & Liars:

"Obama won significantly more votes than GOP candidate John McCain — in many cases, winning more votes than the top two Republican candidates combined."

"The media is showering John McCain with praise, but never mention the fact that he got far fewer votes than Democratic candidates in most states — Clinton took in over one million more votes than he did in California alone."

Limbaugh and Ingraham, the galvanizers of the right wing, are now leading the sheeple right off the cliff. And that's fine with me.

And now James Dobson has come out and said if McCain is the nominee, he will not, in good conscience, cast a vote for President for the first time in his life. The evangelical right is staying home. And that's fine with me too.

Here is Dobson's statement as read by Laura Ingraham:

(h/t Crooks & Liars)

Is Frederick of Hollywood Packing It In?

Leave it to Saturday Night Live to capture Fred Thompson in all his lackluster glory. On October 6th, 2007, SNL's Darrell Hammond impersonated Thompson sending a message to the public assuring them that he badly wants to be President ("On a scale of 1 to 10... about a 6.") Who knew they would be so spot on?
It looks as if the Thompson Train might be going back to the yard if he finishes poorly in Iowa - as if that isn't a sure bet.

According to Crooks & Liars, "Without a solid third-place finish, there’s no point in going on,” a Thompson adviser said Wednesday. “It was an honorable race, and he turned out to be a good candidate. The moment had just passed.”

This coupled with the fact that he recently stated he wasn't all that interested in the Oval Office job makes it pretty likely that we won't have ol' Fred to kick around anymore.

I'm not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator told voters at a campaign event in Burlington, Iowa when challenged by a an audience member over his desire to be commander-in-chief.
...the former actor has criticized his rivals for launching their presidential bids months ahead of his [this past September], and continually touts the fact he hasn't harbored presidential ambitions his whole career.
"I am not consumed by personal ambition," Thompson also said Saturday. "I'm offering myself up."
"I'm only consumed by a few things and politics is not one of them."

If you're not into politics then what the fuck are you doing running for President of the United Fucking States, moron?!

The picture on the right will show you one of the few things I'm guessing Fred is "consumed with."

So much for the possibility of the hottest first lady EVER. It's time she left ol' Fred at the dog track.

UPDATE: Thompson says he's not going anywhere.

According to TPM, Thompson himself says it isn't happening. Here's what he had to say in an interview this morning with KCCI-TV in Des Moines: "That is absolutely made up out of whole cloth," said the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee.
Thompson said a rival campaign was likely the source of that rumor. "Can you imagine such a thing in politics?" he asked.

Well now that that's settled, who's taking bets on Fabulous Fred quitting after Iowa?