A Spork in the Drawer

The Real Fault

Atrios has a terrific post up that concludes thusly:

I'm not sure why so many online Clinton supporters seem to be lashing out angrily at Obama supporters, instead of at the people who ran Clinton's campaign. If they'd just done things a little bit differently in February they'd have won this.

And therein lies the lesson. Whether because of arrogance or stupidity Hillary's people - Wolfson, Ickes, and especially Penn among others - thought winning a few big states would lead to Ultimate Victory on Super Tuesday. By all accounts when that didn't happen there was no Plan B so they were forced to improvise by largely "going negative" - the kitchen sink strategy.

One thing that I would add to what Atrios wrote is what does this tell us about Hillary? Specifically, could we have expected these same people to have held powerful positions in her administration? And does that give us a clue as to what sort of an administration Clinton's would have been?

While it's now all but moot, the answer, I'm afraid, is "yes."

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Things You Can't Make Up

House Republicans vote against Mother's Day.

No new word yet on the GOP's plan to criminalize baseball & apple pie.

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In A Nutshell

While I don't think that Barack Obama is an elitist, America-hating negro the fact remains that Barack Obama is an elitist, America-hating negro.

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More McSame

Gosh, it's a good thing that St. John hates lobbyists:

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

[...]

Betts is among a string of donors who have benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps. In 1994, the senator helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas area, according to the Center for Public Integrity. McCain sponsored two bills, in 1991 and 1994, sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer thousands of acres in trade for national parkland.

[...]

As McCain positions himself as a champion of environmental causes, observers of the Yavapai Ranch swap say it shows a paradox in the senator's positions.

"Paradox"? Wouldn't it bee more accurate to just call McCain a fraud?

McCain also has been critical of government's "revolving door," which allows former government officials to position themselves as influential lobbyists. Rogers said that McCain does not recall being lobbied by his former staff members on the land swap and that "no lobbyist influenced Senator McCain on this issue."

Somebody should tell St. John about his top advisor Charlie Black.

Is the Senator involved in fleecing the American taxpayer?

A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre.

Heavens! That's an awful lot of Straight Talk!

Perhaps the corporate media will take notice of this hypocrisy.

When pigs fly.

As a side note, one of the people involved in this ripoff is Carl H. Lindner Jr of Chiquita Banana infamy.

St. John has some nice friends, no?

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St. John Roundup

Because, y'know, he's the bad guy we should be focusing on.

first up, via The Shrill One, one reason why I hate economists:

Almost half of the economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey decided against answering a question on which presidential candidate offers the most responsible fiscal policies. However, Sen. John McCain was the clear favorite of those who answered the question. Twenty-one economists of 75% of the respondents chose the Republican contender.

So much for higher education. Still, McSame shouldn't be too proud:

“His [policies] are the least horrible,” said James F. Smith of Western Carolina University and Parsec Financial Management.

All deride the McCain-Clinton gas tax "holiday." (The junior Senator from New York the least favorable to these financial dingbats.)

Next up, St. John's wealthy but addled wife Cindy says that she will never, ever, ever release her tax returns no matter what. Never, do you hear, NEVER! This despite the fact that the Man from Panama unethically uses her corporate jet and appears to be hiding his assets in the Beer Queen's name. How mavericky!

Finally, the senior Senator from Panama Arizona denies being old.

OK.

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A Fool And His Money

From e-mail:

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The Liberal Media Strikes Again!

Ten of the 15 questions in today’s press gaggle focused on Jenna’s wedding

They know what's important.

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Republican Family Values

Rep. Vito Fossella

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Why Mark Penn Should Be Driven Out Of The Party

Unbelievable:

As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified — and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories.

If this is true, that Penn doesn't understand how his own party's primary process works, then he has no business being in the business. (Well, I'd be OK with it if he jumped to the Republicans.) And if Bill and Hillary went along with him then they deserve to lose. This alone calls into question their grasp of facts and judgment.

Tumulty's article is worth a read - though, to be clear, I'm not vouching for her accuracy.

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UPDATE: Penn denies he's a rank idiot.

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Solution: Stop The Voting!

Oliver Willis brings da snark:

I’ve crunched the numbers, looked them over again and again, then again with a sprinkling of eye of newt and found the weakness in Barack Obama’s candidacy:

He’s getting too many votes.

Read the whole thing.

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It's Called "Bribery"

The FAA at work:

The manager of the federal office that oversees Southwest Airlines accepted thousands of dollars in free pilot training from the carrier under an arrangement that violates rules of conduct, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.

[...]

The training Hedlund received would cost a private citizen $15,000 or more, according to the officials and flight schools. It also would enhance a résumé, opening doors for employment at airlines or other private aviation firms. The FAA officials who testified at the hearing called the arrangement a conflict of interest.

Southwest claims that this was all "part of his routine duties" and denies that there are any ethical questions here.

Yah, right.

The FAA says that the matter is "under investigation."

Yah, right.

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Revenge Of The Nuns

Remember those nuns who were prohibited from voting in Indiana on Tuesday? Well, their Sisters in Missouri are fighting back:

Nun of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary comments on Voter ID disenfranchisement

WHO: Missourians for Fair Elections

WHAT: Press Conference on the impact of legislation to
require government-issued photo ID to vote

WHEN: 1:00 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2008

WHERE: League of Women Voters, 8706 Manchester, Jefferson City, MO 63144

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – On Thursday, May 8, three Missouri voters who
lack government-issued photo IDs as well as Secretary of State Robin
Carnahan and community leaders will discuss the potential impacts of
legislation currently being pushed through the Missouri General
Assembly. The proposed legislation would make Missouri one of the
toughest states in the country for eligible citizens who want to vote
by requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the
polls. If passed, these changes could be in place by the November
general election and could put the voting rights at risk for up to
240,000 registered Missouri voters.

"This may sound like a good idea at first," stated Sister Sandy
Schwartz of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary regarding voter ID
requirements, "but once you stop to think about who would really be
affected, this is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being
able to vote." Yesterday in Indiana twelve nuns in their 80s and 90s
were turned away from the polls because they lacked the needed IDs to
vote. Sister Schwartz and others are concerned about the difficulties
the policy change would create for elderly Missouri nuns, as well as
other senior citizens, the poor, and minorities.

Sing it, Sisters!

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Mittens!

Willard:

Former presidential contender Mitt Romney increased his criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Wednesday taking direct aim at Obama’s experience, telling CNN’s John Roberts that “the presidency of the United States is not an internship.”

“He can read a prompter very well and energize a crowd,” said Romney. “But he has not accomplished anything during his life in terms of legislation, or leading an enterprise, or making a business work, or a city work, or a state work. He really has very little experience.”

And Willard's qualifications for being president are...? [crickets]

(And no, running a corporation isn't the same as running a government. As Republicans have proven time and time again.)

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Dreams Die

Indiana Republican/Nazi candidate (and possible friend of this blog) Tony Zirkle lost his bid to join Congress.

So it appears that there will be no Nazis in Congress come January.

We'll just have to settle for Republicans.

[Via Think Progress.]




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Not Dead Yet

On to West Virginia! But some doubt remains.

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UPDATE: And she's loaned her campaign $6,400,000.

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Unable To Distinguish

Former BushCo™ speechwriter Michael Gerson:

For the most part, these accusations are a political ploy -- actually an attempt to shut down political debate. Any practical concern about the content of government sex-education curricula is labeled "anti-science." Any ethical question about the destruction of human embryos to harvest their cells is dismissed as "theological" and thus illegitimate.

From there Gerson goes on to demonstrate that he doesn't know the difference between "science" and "theology" or, for that matter, what "facts" and "evidence" are.

And, yes, Gerson brings Nazis into the mix.

Are there any honest, intelligent Conservatives left?

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ADDED: Kevin: "The disingenuousness here is breathtaking."

Chris Mooney (who literally wrote the book on this subject): "In short, Gerson's oped is a joke. No need for debunking, just laughing."

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Good News From Pennsylvania!

For a change:

A bill that would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage is in a deep coma and is probably dead, at least for the rest of this session.

Faced with staunch opposition to the measure in the Democrat-controlled House, the main sponsor, Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, asked the Senate last evening to table the bill indefinitely, and it agreed.

[...]

Mr. Brubaker denied those claims and said his bill was not a biased attack on gays and lesbians. He said that all the bill did was to make it clear that Pennsylvania believed that the only type of marriage that would be publicly and legally recognized was the joining of one man and one woman.

[...]

"I have a healthy respect for the homosexual community. I have a healthy respect for heterosexuals. I have a deep respect for the institution of marriage. I am standing for marriage. I am not standing against any individual sector of our society."

Methinks Sen. Brubaker doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word "respect," healthy or otherwise. Anyway, the more such bills are pushed off into the future the less likely they'll ever be passed.

People are wising up.

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Stay White, CNN

Time-Warner's "news" network thinks this guy is great:

In the segment, Beck brought on a fictional caller by the name of “Honky Whitesville,” who alleged that he was “working with the Obama campaign.” Beck billed the apparently humorous skit as a way to “make the Obama’s seem a little more relatable to the average person”:

WHITESVILLE: I’m working with the Obama campaign and I’m very white. And I’m white. Ever see toothpaste? You know the tube with toothpaste out? That’s sort of my color. … I was looking in the mirror yesterday after I looked up and I was like, oh, no, I have toothpaste all over my face but actually I just had face all over my face because my face is white, and just so everyone knows, I work at the Obama campaign and I’m white but my first name’s Honky.

It gets worse from there.

"The most trusted name in news," indeed.

Audio at link.

(Just to be clear: This occurred on Beck's radio show but CNN/Time-Warner thinks it's all good.)

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Over?

Hillary has cancelled all her teevee appearances and won't be having any public appearances tomorrow.

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Those Wacky Brits

In the event of a nuclear war:

So much is the beverage bound up with the national character that recently declassified documents showed yesterday that British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

[...]

"The tea position would be very serious with a loss of 75 per cent of stocks and substantial delays in imports and, with no system of rationing, it would be wrong to consider that even one ounce [28 grams] per head per week could be ensured," it said.

"No satisfactory solution has yet been found" said the memo, from the now defunct Ministry of Food.

Now, I don't know about you but if the Big One is dropped I'm going to be more worried about my hair falling out in clumps and fighting off the mutant zombies rather than asking, "Anybody for a cuppa?"

Assuming the 2km-wide fireball didn't vaporize me, natch.

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And So It Goes

No one could have predicted:

At least 10 retired nuns in South Bend, Ind., were barred from casting regular ballots in Tuesday's Indiana Democratic primary election because they lacked photo IDs required under a state law upheld last week by the U.S. Supreme Court.

[...]

Borkowski said that two of the nuns with whom he spoke ``were very frustrated'' and so upset that they refused to exercise their rights to cast provisional ballots. He said one of the nuns told him that many other elderly nuns living on four floors of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross decided not to vote upon learning that their sisters had been turned away at the poll in their building.

Lauren McCallick, an 18-year-old freshman at St. Mary's College, also in South Bend, said she was forced to cast a provisional ballot because she could produce only a California driver's license and a college identification card.

Voter disenfranchisement: It's the law!

Thanks, Supremes.

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Noted Without Comment

Grim:

The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

[...]

The Pentagon didn't dispute Insel's remark.

[Via C&L]

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Annals Of Idiocy - Florida Edition

Just...I mean, just...

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue, you can't take any more assignments you need to come in right away,'" he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell and went much farther than he'd hoped.

"I said, 'Well Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,' [he said]. Wizardry?" he asked.

First they came for David Blaine and I did nothing...

[Via PZ]

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What's At Stake In November

St. John makes a promise:

Republican John McCain castigated Democrat Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as Supreme Court chief justice in a speech about the kind of judges McCain would nominate.

McCain offered an olive branch to the Christian right in a speech planned for Tuesday at Wake Forest University. The far right has been deeply suspicious of McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee, because he has clashed with its leaders and worked against them on issues like campaign finance reform.

McCain promised to appoint judges who, in the mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Let's remember that the Roberts Court ruled that gender discrimination in pay is A-OK, that allowed non-scientific anti-choice boilerplate to determine a reproductive rights case, decided that certain classes of voters can be disenfranchised, and much, much more.

The next president will likely have the opportunity to appoint at least two justices. The country can't afford to have more Robertses, more Alitos, more Scalias, more Thomases.

Neither Hillary nor Obama may be liberals in any real sense but either is a damn sight better than McCain.

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North Carolina And Indiana...

...will finally end our long national nightmare, right?

RIGHT?!

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Monday Poll

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A Bit Of Philip Guston

Head and Bottle, 1975

Wikipedia

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Going To The Dogs

Even canines have an opinion about our corporate "news" media. Karen Tumulty:

During this morning's security sweep of press corps gear before we boarded the Obama campaign plane, the bomb-sniffing dog urinated on my laptop bag, purse and raincoat.

Smart dog.

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Aaand...Still Not Liberal

On the heels of the liberal CNN's hiring of professional propagandist/BushCheney flak Tony Snow the liberal CNN has made up for it by hiring BushCheney Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend.

Stay fair and balanced, CNN!

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Facts Are Stupid Things

'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'

'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the sentence first!'

'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

'I won't!' said Alice.

'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Alaska:

Alaska's state legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon — researchers just have to fill in the science part.

A $2 million program funded with little debate by the legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an "academic based" conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears' survival.

We've gone down the rabbit hole.

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Saturday Palate Cleanser

Bruuuuuuce!

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Maybe This Will Settle It

Guam.

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Explaining The Trinity To Aztecs

Pierce:

Part The Second -- Anyone who missed Hardball on Monday night missed one of the great moments in political television. Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker tried to make the arguable case that the whole Obama-Wright affair was eight pounds of guilt-by-association bulls**t in a five-pound bag, and that the "journalism" being spouted about it was less than savory. You had to have seen the reaction of his co-panelists to believe them. Jill Zuckman of the ChiTrib got all fluttery and accused Lizza of being "high-minded." (Oh, yes, she did. I'm not making this up.) And Matthews? Well, he'd been drowning himself in sweaty honky outrage for the previous 40 minutes and he was not going to stop now. Lizza had sailed in from the Land Beyond Punditry. I swear to god, he looked like a missionary trying to explain the Trinity to a couple of freaking Aztecs. He's lucky they didn't rip out his heart and wave it at the sun.

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The State Of Things

To once again quote digby:

This election is worse than being stuck in seventh grade for the rest of your life. Jesus H Christ.

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