Category: Hypocrisy

Conservatives Feel Entitled to Their Own Facts

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As evidenced by the recent assault on history by conservatives.

Cases in point, arguing that:

  • Alexander Hamilton, the most vociferous supporter of a strong government and against the powers of the states amongst the Federalists, who themselves supported a strong central government, opposed a strong central government.
  • Texas text books rewriting history.
  • That the deaths at Jamestown in its first years were because it was a socialist endeavor.
    • The truth is that, “The Jamestown settlement was a capitalist venture financed by the Virginia Company of London — a joint stock corporation — to make a profit.
  • Teddy Roosevelt was a socialist.

We could go on and on, but the lesson to be learned is that when talking to conservatives, you need to confirm if they say that milk is white.

Apoligies Do Not Make One a Gentleman

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And while retired Marine Corps General John Sheehan is clearly an officer, notwithstanding his apology for lying about being told that it was “te gay” in the Dutch that resulted in the Srebrenica massacre, he is no gentleman, because it is clear that consciously and deliberately lied before Congress in his testimony:

A retired American general has apologized for a remark to the U.S. Senate suggesting that gay Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for the Srebrenica massacre by Serb soldiers in Bosnia, according to the Defense Ministry.

…………

Sheehan had cited Van den Breemen, the Dutch military’s chief of staff at the time of the massacre, as his source when he told the Senate committee Dutch army chiefs had believed gays were “part of the problem” in the fall of Srebrenica.

“I am sorry that my recent public recollection of those discussions of 15 years ago inaccurately reflected your thinking on some specific social issues in the military,” Sheehan wrote to Van den Breemen.

What happened here is clear: He lied, and he figured that it would not go beyond the committee room.

Well, it did, and I would hope that any entity which wishes to hire him as a military consultant understands this.

My earlier post.

Joe Lieberman with Better Hair*

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OK, so Blanche Lincoln is polling horribly against her Republican opponents, who basically have the name recognition of Cranston Snord†, she is in favor of the banks, and the health insurance companies, and now she is running robocalls accusing her Democratic primary Bill Halter opponent of taking union money:

The Senators phone survey first asks how the constitutient feels about Lt. Gov. Halter. The survey then goes on to ask the constitutient if they are aware that the Lt. Governor has accepted money from unions.

Note that the distinguished lady from Arkansas has taken well over $½ million in labor PAC money in her career, despite the fact that she has been the Senator from Walmart, and now that labor unions are supporting her opponent, they are, of course portrayed as the font of all evil.

Seriously, I understand the desire to support a loyal Democrat who might be a conservative, but given her record on labor issues, healthcare, etc., she’s a disloyal Democrat.

Note that Mr. Halter is on my Act Blue Page, I support Bill Halter for Senate.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, supports Blanche Lincoln: he has formally endorsed her.

*Originally, I was going to say, “With t**s,” but I decided that that is insufficiently sensitive new age guy.
†Who, you ask, is Cranston Snord? And that is, of course, my point.

Why the Religious Right Opposes Abortion

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Because the Talibaptists make good coin selling babies, and so they want to have a good supply of pregnant women, particularly white pregnant women, without options, so that they can cover a few medical bills, and then extracting fees from desperate parents:

American websites currently offer[ ] mouth-watering
incentives to would-be buyers. “Delivery within four months”, “Discounts of up to $19,000”, they proclaim. If it were cars they were selling this would not seem
odd, but it’s babies that are for sale – bright, smiling newborns to tempt the childless into parting with about £20,000.

There is no shame in treating babies like any other purchase in America, where the adoption industry is largely privatized… (“Why adoption is so easy in
America” Telegraph.co.uk 10/31/07)

………

The Brits have also rightly pointed to U.S. restrictions on birth control and abortion as a contributing to “marketable” infants in the U.S. The religious right’s imposed morality is perfectly partnered with those whose livelihoods depend upon the redistribution of children.

In May, 2007 Evangelical Christians organizations such as Focus on the Family and pastors from across the nation held a three-day summit in Colorado. members of to promote adoption via a media blitz.

While there are any number of people who do good work in adoption, there is a lot of money sloshing around, and it’s driving the way that business is done, and the Mega-churches and their ilk are taking their tithes, which keeps the pastors in SUV’s and business jets, I guess.

‘Phant Phamily Values

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The Majority (Republican) leader of the Utah House of Delegates has been forced to reveal that when he was 28, he went nude hot-tubbing with a 15 year old that worked for him in the warehouse that he managed.

What’s more, he paid $150,000 in hush money to her when he tried to run for Congress:

In the midst of his 2002 congressional campaign, Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn paid $150,000 to a woman threatening to go public with a past relationship.

………

Maher’s story is this: In 1985, then 15 years old, Maher worked for then 30-year-old Garn at his business, Pegasus Records and KSG Enterprises.

She said Garn, who was married, struck up a relationship with her and one night took her to a location in Salt Lake City where they hot-tubbed together nude.

It would be sleazy even if she weren’t 15. She was his employee, and this is sexual harassment.

And if that weren’t squicky enough, he is her, “onetime Sunday school teacher.”

One note: as far as I can tell, Kevin Garn is not related to former Utah Senator Jake Garn.

This is a Change………

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Last week, I wrote about California State Senator Roy Ashburn, who was caught driving drunk as he left a gay bar.

Well, in what is a refreshing change for Republicans,* he has admitted that he is gay:

“I’m gay,” State Senator Roy Ashburn told a radio host from his central California district in an interview this morning. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.”

Ashburn, a divorced father of four, said that his many votes against gay rights were efforts to represent the conservative views of his constituents.

This is the most evil bit of nastiness that I’ve heard in a while.

We all harbor our own prejudices, and the best that one can hope for is to recognize them for what they are, understand that they are wrong, and not act on them.

While I understand how people can hate for irrational reasons, it’s worse to hate for a rational reason.

This man did not have an irrational hatred and fear of gays, but he led anti-gay rallies.

He did so for the most prosaic of reasons: He wanted to hold elected office.

*But not outed Democrats, see McGreevy, James.

Republican Family Values

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California State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-18th district) was cited for DUI after leaving a gay bar:

An anti-gay California state senator was placed under arrest for drunk driving after leaving a gay bar. A male passenger was in the vehicle along with the lawmaker was not arrested, reported Sacramento CBS affiliate Channel 13.

State Sen. Roy Ashburn was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol at about 2:00 a.m. on March 3 when his state-issued vehicle was observed being driven erratically. The driver, identified as Ashburn, was taken in and charged for driving under the influence. Channel 13 reported that unidentified sources said the senator had been at Faces, a popular gay nightspot, prior to his arrest.

According to TPM, this guy was big into banning gay marriage.

Karl Rove and Jeff Gannon in DC Gay Marriage Love Tryst?

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Ummm, no, he probably didn’t, but if Karl Rove were to be tagged with this rumor, it would very much be just desserts, since he started false whispering campaigns like:

  • Alleging that John McCain fathered a black daughter.
  • That former Texas Governor Ann Richards was a lesbian.
  • That a judge was a pedophile.

So, by the standards of Karl Rove, this is a fair question.

It’s not true, as Jon Ponder notes in his post, “Did Karl Rove Leave His Wife For Jeff Gannon?“

Still, the story does contain “truthiness,” as Stephen Colbert would say.

Yes, This Pretty Much Nails It

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In discussions of the White House’s complete capitulation on the public option (to say nothing of their taking single payer off the table), a progressive activist, nails the problem:

But the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the group that’s behind a letter being circulated among Senate Democrats to push the plan, isn’t giving up. “The White House obviously has a loser mentality — but America rallies around winners,” co-founder Adam Green e-mailed reporters shortly after Gibbs’s remark. “Polls show that in state after state, voters hate the Senate bill and overwhelmingly want a public option, even if passed with zero Republican votes. More than 50 Senate Democrats and 218 House Democrats were willing to vote for the public option before, and the only way to lose in reconciliation is if losers are leading the fight. That’s why Democrats in Congress should ignore the White House and follow those like Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez, who know that the public option is a political and policy winner.”

(emphasis mine)

I’m not sure why Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ are so eager to play to lose, it could be that they are so risk averse that they are paralyzed with fear, it could be that they are closet Republicans, or it could be that they believe that Republicans can be successfully courted on this.

I hope that it’s not the 3rd option, because if they believe that, it means that the man with his finger on the button to destroy the world is completely delusional.

People Who Don’t Get It

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Click for full size

He’s smiling because he’s taking your money.

About 4 weeks ago, Segway, the folks who make the geeky little scooter, was sold to a British investor, and as a result, the earlier investors will lose their money, to the tune of something over $150 million dollars.

Well, Mercury News Columnist Chris O’Brien looked at what happened, and waxed poetic:

In this case, though, what’s fascinating is not just the money, but who gave it. Jeff Bezos of Amazon chipped in. And closer to home, so did venture capitalist Doerr and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

I’m not gloating over their failure. Their successes have made them legends, and for good reason. It turns out, though, that despite their foresight and immense personal fortunes, they remain human and fallible. Just like the rest of us.

You see, they didn’t just think the Segway would be successful.

They expected it to change the world. In a hype-filled month such as this, during the lull between the Google Nexus One and the Apple iSlate, it’s good to be reminded how rare it is for such lofty expectations to be met.

Why did people believe this? Because Dean Kamen was a “Genius”.

He had at the time designed the AutoSyringe, an automated injection/infusion device, a mobile dialysis machine which was highly commercially successful, along with the iBot, an all-terrain wheel chair.

I remember when the Segway was called “It”, and later it was called “Ginger”, and when people like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos were saying that it was going to change the world.

Then “It” came out, and it was just an electric scooter, and kind of a dorky one at that.

The turn of events with the Segway, where it is largely reduced to punchline (see Paul Blart: Mall Cop) is not surprising.

What is surprising is not that a bunch of people thought that it would be a commercial success, which didn’t happen, or the initial investors would have gotten their money back, but rather that somehow or other people came to believe that it would literally change the world.

If there is a lesson to all this it is that the folks who are giants in Silicon Valley and related industries are not any more likely to see the next big thing than anyone else, and that they are where they are because they got lucky.

Stephen Andrew Wakefield Acted Unethically

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Medical regulators in the UK have now ruled that Stephen Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in the conduct of his study linking vaccinations and autism.

The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism acted unethically, the official medical regulator has found.

Dr Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles – but the findings were later discredited.

The General Medical Council ruled he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in doing his research.

, Dr Wakefield said the claims were “unfounded and unjust”.

The GMC case did not investigate whether Dr Wakefield’s findings were right or wrong, instead it was focused on the methods of research.

During the two-and-a-half years of hearings – one of the longest in the regulator’s history – he was accused of a series of charges.

‘Callous disregard’

The verdict, read out by panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar, criticised Dr Wakefield for the invasive tests, such as spinal taps, that were carried out on children and which were found to be against their best clinical interests.

The panel said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.

The GMC also took exception with the way he gathered blood samples. Dr Wakefield paid children £5 for the samples at his son’s birthday party.

Dr Kumar said he had acted with “callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer”.

(emphasis original)

It’s likely that they will pull his certification to practice medicine, though this might not mean much, as Wakefield left the UK, and now practices in the United States.

His research, which was not merely bad, but corrupt, had sickened thousands of children who were either not vaccinated, or caught disease from their unvaccinated friends. (vaccines are not 100%, and the loss of herd immunity is a serious issue)

Additionally, Lancet has already rescinded the original article.

One hopes that he ends his life in jail, because he wasn’t just wrong, he pushed forward his bogus study in the hopes of making money from an equally bogus therapy that he had patented.

[on edit]
A sharp eyed reader noticed that I got his name wrong. I have corrected, but have left the original strike through to show what a complete prat I am.

Bipartisanship This!

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Richard Shelby is now placing holds on all Obama nominations he doesn’t think that the Obama administration is being friendly enough to Airbus/Northrop-Grumman on the tanker deal, and because they have not started constructed an FBI lab that he cut an earmark for in his district:

According to the report, Shelby is holding Obama’s nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:

– A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.

– An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”

(emphasis mine)

Seriously, you cannot negotiate with these clowns.

Bipartisanship needs a plan B.

I would suggest stress positions, waterboarding, extreme sleep deprivation, and enforced nudity.

In the News of the Unsurprising

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The soon to be ex-wife of South Carolina Governor Mark “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” Sanford says that he refused to promise fidelity in his wedding vows:

South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford recalls how she made the “leap of faith” to marry husband Gov. Mark Sanford even though the groom refused to promise to be faithful, insisting that the clause be removed from their wedding vows.

“It bothered me to some extent, but … we were very young, we were in love,” she said in an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters to air on “20/20” Friday. “I questioned it, but I got past it … along with other doubts that I had.”

Sanford and her marriage were thrust into the national spotlight in June 2009 when her husband admitted that he had been secretly visiting his longtime lover in Argentina instead of hiking the Appalachian Trail, as he had told his staff.

Imagine that.

On the brighter side, I imagine that he learned how to Tango.

OK, Count Me Disappointed

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I’ve generally been supportive of Chris Dodd. I think that he has been good on civil rights, particularly in his pushing back against torture and the PATRIOT act.

Additionally, I think that he was hung out to dry by Obama and Geithner over AIG.

Further, he was remarkably refreshing about why he dropped out of the Senate race.

That being said, his behavior on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) earlier, and now his opposition to the weak “Volker” banking reforms, has gotten me wholeheartedly agreeing with Barry Righoltz’s assesment of his behavior: “

Thus, Dodd proves that the only thing more corrupt than a congressperson whoring for a campaign donations to get re-elected congressperson not seeking re-election, whoring for a job.

See also here and here.

Can We Please Give Texas Back to Mexico?

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There is an author named Bill Martin, who wrote a political treatise called Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation

There is another author named Bill Martin, who wrote a children’s book called, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

They are different authors, but it appears that the the right wing morons who control the State Board of Education did not realize this:

What do the authors of the children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and a 2008 book called Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation have in common?

Both are named Bill Martin and, for now, neither is being added to Texas schoolbooks.

In its haste to sort out the state’s social studies curriculum standards this month, the State Board of Education tossed children’s author Martin, who died in 2004, from a proposal for the third-grade section. Board member Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, who made the motion, cited books he had written for adults that contain “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.”

Trouble is, the Bill Martin Jr. who wrote the Brown Bear series never wrote anything political, unless you count a book that taught kids how to say the Pledge of Allegiance, his friends said. The book on Marxism was written by Bill Martin, a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

You see the phrase, “Brown bear, brown bear, what do I see?” is just so similar to, “that would in effect overturn the imperialist system, and that would depend on creating, as Mao saw, self-reliant economies, not liable to exploitation.“

The stupid, it burns us!!!!!

H/t La Figa

Best, Satan

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A letter to the editor from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher.

The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle.

Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”?

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style.

Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.

You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad.

Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

(line breaks are mine, the LTE had none)

Not Enough Bullets

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It looks like the fat cat Wall Street Bankers are looking at a legal challenge to Obama’s proposed bank tax:

Wall Street’s main lobbying arm has hired a top Supreme Court litigator to study a possible legal battle against a bank tax proposed by the Obama administration, on the theory that it would be unconstitutional, according to three industry officials briefed on the matter.

Ummm ……… Despite the fact that these guys destroy £7 of wealth for each dollar that they are paid, and the fact that this is intended to collect money to replace those spent under the TARP law, which required such a levy, they still believe themselves to be the masters of the universe, and they are outraged at that Obama has unveiled a modest tax on their liabilities and spoken about them with less than glowing terms.

It’s really kind of whiny, since the tax is modest, and largely geared toward forestalling more punitive measures floating around Congress.

The tax is nominally 15 basis points (0.15%) on liabilities over $50 billion, and it appears to weigh more heavily on investment banks than depositor banks, though the legal distinction was erased when the brokers all became bank holding companies. (See the FAQ from the Treasury Department)

What’s more the tax is profoundly weak tea, as the effective tax is halved, yielding a tax of 7½ basis points, which is well under the 78 basis point advantage in cost of funds that the “too big to fail banks” have over their smaller brethren.

Note also that this only covers the $117 billion or so of the TARP, but when other bailouts are considered, we are approaching $30 trillion in money handed to banks, without a thought of clawing that back.

So they are getting a sweetheart deal, and they are screaming like stuck pigs.

They do not realize how angry people are, and they won’t until people literally start burning down their houses with torches.

Nibble on Iris Robinson’s Chocolate Balls

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Seriously, I have to invoke South Park!

Remember a few days back, when I referenced Americablog’s story about how a right-wing Irish anti-gay bigot was herself sleeping with a 19 year old boy?

It’s legal, but real hypocrisy, and it just got worse:

Meanwhile, it emerged this weekend that Iris Robinson also had an affair with 19-year-old Kirk McCambley’s father, a butcher who died from cancer. She had another affair with a fellow DUP member in the 1980s which was witnessed by the security forces.

(emphasis mine)

It appears that the founder of the DUP, and fellow bigot, Rev. Ian Paisley is in full “going postal” mode over this.

Well, the story gets even weirder, because bloggers with way too much free time on their hands have uncovered her recipe for “chocolate balls, and this, in turn has uncovered the coverage of her recipe at the time in the Belfast Telegraph, which is just full of double entendre:

Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls to melt our hearts

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Food lovers across Northern Ireland are being given the chance to nibble on Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls, included in a new charity cookbook.

……………

(emphasis mine)

No, this is not The Onion.

Reality is very odd sometimes.

H/t AMERICAblog News