Category: Politics

While We Are On the Subject of Jabba the Governor

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It appears that Republican “It-Girl” Chris Christie lied through his teeth about the reasons that he canceled the new tunnel to New York City:

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey exaggerated when he declared that unforeseen costs to the state were forcing him to cancel the new train tunnel planned to relieve congested routes across the Hudson River, according to a long-awaited report by independent Congressional investigators.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, to be released this week, found that while Mr. Christie said that state transportation officials had revised cost estimates for the tunnel to at least $11 billion and potentially more than $14 billion, the range of estimates had in fact remained unchanged in the two years before he announced in 2010 that he was shutting down the project. And state transportation officials, the report says, had said the cost would be no more than $10 billion.

Mr. Christie also misstated New Jersey’s share of the costs: he said the state would pay 70 percent of the project; the report found that New Jersey was paying 14.4 percent. And while the governor said that an agreement with the federal government would require the state to pay all cost overruns, the report found that there was no final agreement, and that the federal government had made several offers to share those costs.

Canceling the tunnel, then the largest public works project in the nation, helped shape Mr. Christie’s profile as a rising Republican star, an enforcer of fiscal discipline in a country drunk on debt. But the report is likely to revive criticism that his decision, which he said was about “hard choices” in tough economic times, was more about avoiding the need to raise the state’s gasoline tax, which would have violated a campaign promise. The governor subsequently steered $4 billion earmarked for the tunnel to the state’s near-bankrupt transportation trust fund, traditionally financed by the gasoline tax.

On Tuesday, in a speech at a conference on taxes and the economy in Manhattan, Mr. Christie did not mention the report, but defended his decision to cancel the project, saying, “I refuse to compromise my principles.”

………

Martin E. Robins, the founding director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University and an early director of the ARC project, criticized the governor. “In hindsight, it’s apparent that he had a highly important political objective: to cannibalize the project so he could find an alternate way of keeping the transportation trust fund program moving, and he went ahead and did it,” he said.

(emphasis mine)

His principles in this case are pandering to “No New Taxes” promises that he made.

What a surprise.

H/T the Shrill One, Paul Krugman.

Christie the Hutt Complains About Americans Being Couch Potatoes

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Normally I wouldn’t make fun of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for being a lazy fat slob. (Well, except for the bit where he takes a helicopter to his kid’s high school baseball game, and is met by an SUV that takes him the final 100 yards to the bleachers. Ignoring that would be superhuman)

That being said, when he blames the American public for being couch potatoes, all bets are off: (and there is so much WTF in this)

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says that American are turning into couch potatoes,(first WTF) just sitting around waiting on their next check from the government.

Speaking to the Bush Institute Conference on Taxes and Economic Growth (WTF? The F%$#ing Bush Institute Conference on F%$#ing taxes and F%$#ing Economic F%$#ing Growth) in New York City on Tuesday, the first-term governor said that he had “never seen a less optimistic time in my lifetime.”

What major political figure resembles a fat slob sitting on his couch waiting for his check from the Koch Brothers Government?

Seriously, the Koch suckers out there have no sense of irony at all.

H/t Cthulhu at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

My Conclusion is that Obama is Homophobic

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I don’t mean that he is personally homophobic, there is no evidence that I know of about that, but that he is is politically homophobic, and so is unwilling to do anything for gay rights unless absolutely forced to.

Writing an executive order mandating that federal contractors don’t discriminate is literally the least that he could do, but for Mr. Hopey Changey, it’s a bridge too far:

A surprising new rift opened between the White House and the gay rights movement after White House officials revealed Wednesday that President Obama would not sign an executive order sought by activists to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Community advocates learned of the news during a closed-door meeting with two top Obama aides, Valerie Jarrett and Cecilia Munoz, who told the group that the White House would instead lead a multi-pronged effort to urge companies, federal agencies and others to oppose discrimination.

The Center for American Progress, which is Obama’s bitch among the think tanks called this “Disappointing”, and the HRC, another member of the Obama knee pad set was similarly pissed off.

It appears that Obama does not remember the, “Don’t ask, Don’t Give,” efforts, but my guess is that he will:

And, just to confirm that it’s not going to go away, we got this via press release;

Within hours of the White House announcement, the “We Can’t Wait!” campaign received a $100,000 cash infusion from liberal donor Jonathan Lewis, the son of major Democratic philanthropist Peter Lewis.

Quotes from Jonathan Lewis:

“This isn’t a broken promise President Obama can blame on Congress. He has not been able to provide a single valid reason for why he is now refusing to sign the executive order protecting LGBT workers. It has become increasingly clear that this decision is based on cowardice rather than principled leadership.”

“Over the past several years the LGBT advocacy groups have jumped through hoops for this administration, conducting extensive research and polling — more than has been done for any similar executive order — and now the only impediment is President Obama.”

“This is nothing short of craven election-year politics, a game Obama told us he would not play.”

Jonathan Lewis and his father, Peter, are major contributors to progressive causes. And, by major, I mean they give millions.

Another reason to give to specific candidates, particularly in the primary, as opposed to OFA, the DNC, the DCCC, or the DSCC.

But hey, a wing of the Talibaptists at the Focus on the Family liked that he dissed the LBGT community.

Below, you can see Jay Carney saying that “more study is needed”.  I guess that the unspoken assumption here is that gays are just too icky to have equal rights unless we can make bigots feel better about themselves.

Seriously, Andrew Breitbart was better on gay inclusion that Barack Obama is:

Seriously, how about not being a coward on this issue. Not being a coward gets you votes.

Could They Both Lose?

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Well, it looks like the Republican primary is well and truly over, and we are into the general election silly season, case in point, he Ann Romney – Hillary Rosen contretemps:

Now, it’s Republicans pretending there’s a big national fight over a subject that most women basically agree on – the decision to work or stay home. Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen unintentionally set off this fake firestorm when she commented on CNN Wednesday night that Ann Romney – whom Mitt Romney has been referring to as his top adviser on women’s issues – has “never worked a day in her life.” Here’s the full quote:

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.’ Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.”

The Romney campaign pounced, with Ann Romney putting out her first-ever tweet: “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

So, we have Mitt Romney saying that his wife, who’s never had to worry about providing the necessities to her kids, would be his source for insight into women who have to work in this country, versus Hillary Rosen, who used to be chief counsel for the RIAA, where she viciously opposed fair use, and has spent her life selling her skills to the various corporate faces evil as a lobbyist.

To quote Henry Kissinger, “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.”

Please, just make it stop.

History Repeats Itself, First as Tragedy, Second as Farce

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So said Karl Marx, who must have had Allen “The Craziest Mother F%$#er in Congress” West in mind:

Voice Inside Allen West’s Head Told Him That 80 House Democrats Belong to the Communist Party [Updated]

One of the most ridiculous names — and there will be a lot of them — in the ongoing GOP veepstakes is Florida congressman, tea partier, and crazy person Allen West. Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, and fellow veepstakes participant Nikki Haley have all endorsed West as Romney’s running mate recently. We suspect, though, that none of them sincerely believe West is a viable option, and are simply currying favor with the tea-party wing of the GOP by flattering one of its champions. Because West is, actually, the exact type of person you don’t want as a running mate: A wildly outspoken, unpredictable loose cannon. His appearance at a town hall last night is just the latest example:

The conservative tea party icon also got in shots at Democrats and President Obama, who spoke Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. West said Obama was “scared” to have a discussion with him. He later said “he’s heard” up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn’t name names.

You know, this is so Joe McCarthy in Wheeling West Virginia on February 9, 1950, and it’s farce, and I’d call Allen West is a f%$#ing clown, but this would be unfair to people who make clown pr0n.

BTW, don’t Google the term “Clown Porn”.  Or if you do, don’t let me know.  I have way too much that I need to un-know already.

Bummer of a Birthmark, Scott

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Bummer of a birth mark, Scotty

The recall elections for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, his Lt. Governor, and 4 state Senators is now officially on:

The recall election ordered Friday for embattled first-term Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker quickly turned into a possible rematch when the Democrat he narrowly defeated in 2010 announced he was jumping into the race.

Walker expressed confidence he would hold on to his seat shortly after the Government Accountability Board ordered the election, after more than 900,000 signatures were collected supporting a recall in the wake of Walker’s push against union bargaining rights. It marks only the third recall of a governor in U.S. history.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced hours later he would challenge Walker, shaking up a Democratic primary race that had been led by union-backed candidate Kathleen Falk. Barrett has publically clashed with unions who were urging him not to get into the race.

In an email to supporters, Barrett said he would begin campaigning immediately to win the primary that looms just 39 days away on May 8. The general election is June 5.

What’s More, a federal court, invalidated significant portions of his union busting bill today as well:

A federal judge in Madison on Friday ruled that portions of Act 10 – which removed most collective bargaining for most public employees – are unconstitutional.

Though critics of the law welcomed the decision as a major victory, backers seemed unconcerned since it preserved a main limit on bargaining, and suggested broader restrictions would pass muster if applied to all state workers.

Seven major public employee unions had challenged the fact that Act 10 dramatically narrowed what could be bargained by general employee unions, an required those unions to recertify every year, by an absolute majority union while denying the same unions voluntary union dues deductions for payrolls.

The court sided with state officials in upholding limitations on what can be bargained, but found the two other provisions violated the union members’ equal protection and First Amendment rights, considering that the same rules did not apply to unions for public safety workers such as police and firefighters.

I’m not sure how the election is going to go, though my guess is that it will flip the state senate, since it’s now a one senator margin.

In a very real way, the recall against Scott Walker may be the most important election of this cycle, because if he loses, it will create a bright line in the political process.

Of course, if he wins, the Republicans will take it as carte blanche, even if they lose the Senate.

Why I am Not Covering the Scotus Arguments Over Obamacare

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Because I think that the law and precedent is clear, and the only questionis whether there are 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 justices who are corrupt enough, and partisan enough, to vote to strike down the act.

If Kennedy votes not to strike down, I think that he takes Roberts with him, giving a 6-3 decision, but if he swings the other way, so does Roberts.

The Chief Justice will not be on the dissenting side of this vote, because of the optics, not because of the law.

Roberts may be a corrupt partisan hack, but he only uses the secret sauce when it makes a difference in the final decision.

My guess is that it will be 4-5 to strike down much of the law, but if not, it will be 6-3 supporting it.

What must be noted though is that this is not a matter of law. The law has been settled for at least 60 years.

The only question is how corrupt the 5 right wing justices are.

Mixed Emotions

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In the Illinois primary, we had a closely watched Democratic Primary in Illinois 10thIlya Sheyman.

Sheyman is younger (25) and more liberal than Brad Schneider, Steny Hoyer supporter Schneider, and the district currently is served by a Teabagger republican who was elected in the 2010 blow-out, but definitely trending blue, even with redistricting.

Sherman won , and I have mixed emotions about this.

I’m uncomfortable with his attempting to appropriate the occupy movement for his campaign, and I think that the real source of his support is that he is a FOB (Friend of Barack).  He worked on his initial Senate campaign and was later one of his staffers.

We had another FOB running in 2010, Alexi Giannoulias, who also ran a failed bank, in the Illinois
Senate race, so I’m dubious of his ability to run a good race.

A bigger issue is a matter of policy, specifically Social Security.

I have concerns that Sheyman would salute anything that Obama would send up the flag pole, including cuts to Social Security and Medicare, while I think that with Schneider is LESS likely to support Obama if he were to propose such a policy out of a sense of political self preservation.

We’ve already had a number of near misses with these programs, where Obama has tried to trade them to the Republicans in the name of comity, and so I have included that this is what he really wants, because it’s “transformative”.

It’s ironic that a President Obama is more likely to make major cuts to the jewels of the New Deal and Great Society than a President Romney would.

Payback is Sometimes a Bastard Too

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There was a sex scandal in Minnesota, where the leader of the state Senate (a Republican, hoocoodanode) was found to have slept with an aide.

The aide was fired, and the (married) Senate Leader resigned.

The twist was that the leader who  resigned was one Amy Koch.  It was a woman.

In any case, the staffer who was fired has now filed suit, and he is threatening to out other state lawmakers who are f%$#ing around:

The saga continues over former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch’s (R) “inappropriate relationship” with a subordinate staffer. Michael Brodkorb, who served as Koch’s executive assistant and communications director, claims that he was fired after the relationship was discovered because of his gender. He also says he has proof that other female staffers who had relationships with legislators were allowed to keep their jobs.

Brodkorb is now preparing to sue the Minnesota Senate, alleging wrongful termination and discrimination. Documents outlining the basis of the case confirm the relationship between Brodkorb and Koch. Rumors swirled in December that Koch’s “inappropriate relationship” was with him, but it wasn’t confirmed at the time. It continues:

“Brodkorb has evidence that similarly situated female legislative employees, from both political parties, were not terminated from their employment positions despite intimate relationships with male legislators. It is clear that Mr. Brodkorb was terminated based on his gender. He intends to depose all of the female legislative staff employees who participated in intimate relationships, as well as the legislators who were party to those intimate relationships, in support of his claims of gender discrimination.”

Heh.

Please, call his bluff. I want him to spill the beans.

Full Disclosure, I Served in the UMass SGA Senate With Him

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They are finally getting around to sentencing Tony Rudy, one of the final defendants in the Abramoff matter, 6 years after he pled guilty.

The weird thing is that the prosecution and defense have agreed to have the agreed upon facts sealed for national security reasons:

Nearly six years after he pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal, a former aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will likely be sentenced in the near future. But because of a joint motion granted by the federal judge hearing the case against Tony Rudy, the public wouldn’t see the filing listing agreed upon facts in the case.

The reason? National security.

The feds and Rudy’s defense team wrote that the disclosure of “sensitive information related to national security matters” likely “would compromise and negatively impact ongoing intelligence efforts.” They said the sensitive information had “no relationship to the Department of Justice’s investigation of Jack Abramoff or related persons.”

The folks at TPM got a comment from Abramoff about this, and he was pretty stunned by this.

My guess is that he probably did some work for a Persian Gulf monarchy, and the State Department wants it buried, but we’re likely to find out through a leak in the next few months.

Morons.

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So, Gary Trudeau storyline for this week involves old white men in Texas torturing women who need abortions.

Editors who are not now, and were probably never were, journalists, have pulled the strip for this week.

The Portland Oregonian, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, among others, though the Athens Georgian Banner-Herald takes for their reason:

Given that the Georgia General Assembly is considering an abortion bill — House Bill 954, sponsored by Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, which would prohibit abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy — I made a unilateral decision not to publish the “Doonesbury” strips intended for publication this week. Quite simply, I thought there was a real possibility that readers might confuse the topic of this week’s “Doonesbury” with Georgia’s proposed abortion legislation, and I didn’t want to add any confusion to the ongoing concerns, pro and con, about House Bill 954.

So you are afraid that people looking at the old white guys in Texas going all Handmaiden’s Tale on women might somehow be conflated with old white guys in Georgia going all Handmaiden’s Tale on women.

In any case, as a result of the censorship by these cowards, his strip is getting gallons of ink.

I’ll be following it this week, that’s for sure.

BTW, according to Romenesko, on Thursday, we see the line, “By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.”

It Appears that Hypocrisy is Required for Conservatism

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Hoocoodanode? The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Obamacare that is most likely to make it to the Supreme Court went bankrupt over medical bills, dumping those costs on the rest of us:

Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama’s healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation’s case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.

But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.

………

The business federation, along with other critics of the law, calls the insurance mandate a “threat to individual liberty” that violates the Constitution.

Obama administration lawyers argue that the requirement is justified because everyone, sooner or later, needs healthcare. Those who fail to have insurance are at high risk of running up bills they cannot pay, sticking the rest of society with the cost, they argue. Brown’s situation, they say, is a perfect example of exactly that kind of “uncompensated care that will ultimately be paid by others.”

Seriously.  The hypocrisy is mind boggling.

Please Let This Mean That Marty Peretz is Fired, it is Good

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One of the founders of Facebook, Chris “Not Zuckerberg” Hughes has purchased The New Republic:

The newest owner of The New Republic magazine is Chris Hughes, a new-media guru who co-founded Facebook and helped to run the online organizing machine for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Hughes’s purchase of a majority stake in the magazine will be announced on Friday, once again remaking the masthead of the nearly century-old magazine that helped define modern American liberalism.

Of course, over the past 40 years, the former owner, Marty Peretz, has done his best to betray American liberalism.

TNR has been reduced to a caricature, endorsing just about every bone-headed ‘Phant idea, particularly in the foreign policy area, and giving Republicans the the refrain, “Even the liberal New Republic.”

That, and the fact that TNR is a petri dish for trustifarian Ivy Leaguer plagiarists, like Glass and Shalit.

This is why it’s circulation has fallen, and its publication frequency has been cut in half,and The Nation has 3 times the circulation.

I don’t expect “Not Zuckerberg” to turn this around though. His brave new idea is to sprinkle Web 2.0 pixie dust to make everything work:

His focus, he said in an interview in advance of the announcement, will be on distributing the magazine’s long-form journalism through tablet computers like the iPad. Though he does not intend to end the printed publication, “five to 10 years from now, if not sooner, the vast majority of The New Republic readers are likely to be reading it on a tablet,” he said.

The problem is that the magazine sucks.  The only thing that tablet, or web based, features can do is lower the cost of distribution, and allow for some multimedia content.

Its employment policy is best described as affirmative action for overpriviliged youth, and its schtick, hippie punching, was old in 1982.

Pat Robertson Wants Marijuana Decriminalized?

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No, seriously, I am not joking:

Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader — including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing — his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate.

“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,” Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. “I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”

Mr. Robertson’s remarks echoed statements he made last week on “The 700 Club” the signature program of his Christian Broadcasting Network, and other comments he made in 2010. While those earlier remarks were largely dismissed by his followers, Mr. Robertson has now apparently fully embraced the idea of legalizing marijuana, arguing that it is a way to bring down soaring rates of incarceration and reduce the social and financial costs.

“I believe in working with the hearts of people, and not locking them up,” he said.

Mr. Robertson’s remarks were hailed by pro-legalization groups, who called them a potentially important endorsement in their efforts to roll back marijuana penalties and prohibitions, which residents of Colorado and Washington will vote on this fall.

All this while the Obama administration doubles down on the war on drugs.

Rev. Robinson isn’t any smarter than the Obama administration, but he also hasn’t been captured by government bureaucracies , and he doesn’t feel the need to outflank his political opposition by running to the right, so he actually can consider what is optimal policy.

If Pat Roberson can get this right, anyone can.

Someone Remembers the Old Lesson: Do Not Let German Chancellors Run Europe

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To the accolades of his countrymen, Spanish Premier Mariano Rajoy has told Sarkosy and Merkel to go Cheney themselves:

The Spanish rebellion has begun, sooner and more dramatically than I expected.

As many readers will already have seen, Premier Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to comply with the austerity demands of the European Commission and the European Council (hijacked by Merkozy).

Taking what he called a “sovereign decision”, he simply announced that he intends to ignore the EU deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP for this year, setting his own target of 5.8pc instead (down from 8.5pc in 2011).

In the twenty years or so that I have been following EU affairs closely, I cannot remember such a bold and open act of defiance by any state. Usually such matters are fudged. Countries stretch the line, but do not actually cross it.

…………

What is striking is the wave of support for Mr Rajoy from the Spanish commentariat.

This one from Pablo Sebastián left me speechless.

My loose translation:

“Spain isn’t any old country that will allow itself to be humiliated by the German Chancellor.”

“The behaviour of the European Commission towards Spain over recent days has been infamous and exceeds their treaty powers… these Eurocrats think they are the owners and masters of Spain.”

“Spain and other nations in the EU are sick and tired of Chancellor Merkel’s meddling and Germany’s usurpation – with the help of Sarkozy’s France and their pretended “executive presidency” that does not in fact exist in EU treaties.”

…………

The Latin Bloc is awakening.

The Germans don’t realize just how deeply disliked they are, and this has nothing to do with the unpleasantness from 70 years ago.

Politicians prime directive is to be reelected, and once they realize that calling Angela Merkel a c%$# sucker ensures electoral success, the pretty much everyone in Europe (except for Nicolas Sarkosy, who is desperately clinging to in what appears to be a vain attempt for politic survival) is going to start telling her to pound sand.

Yes, Mr. Frothy Mixture is Nuts

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Charles Blow looks at Rick Santorum’s public statements and discovers that what drives him is his revulsion directed towards the sexual revolution of the 1960s:

Rick Santorum wants to bring sexy back … to the 1950s, when he was born.

That is because Santorum seems to have an unhealthy fixation with, and passionate disdain for, the 1960s and the sexual freedoms that followed.

To fully understand Santorum’s strident rejection of the 1960s, it’s instructive to recall a speech and question-and-answer session he gave in 2008 to a course on religion and politics at the Oxford Center for Religion and Public Life in Washington.

The speech was interesting, but the answers he gave to the questions that followed were truly illuminating.

In response to a question about the kinds of words he had heard “attached to religion and politics” during his years in the Senate, Santorum ventured off onto sex:

“It comes down to sex. That’s what it’s all about. It comes down to freedom, and it comes down to sex. If you have anything to do with any of the sexual issues, and if you are on the wrong side of being able to do all of the sexual freedoms you want, you are a bad guy. And you’re dangerous because you are going to limit my freedom in an area that’s the most central to me. And that’s the way it’s looked at.”

………

But let’s not let facts slow us down. Santorum, predictably, deflected back to sex:

“Woodstock is the great American orgy. This is who the Democratic Party has become. They have become the party of Woodstock. They prey upon our most basic primal lusts, and that’s sex. And the whole abortion culture, it’s not about life. It’s about sexual freedom. That’s what it’s about. Homosexuality. It’s about sexual freedom. All of the things are about sexual freedom, and they hate to be called on them. They try to somehow or other tie this to the founding fathers’ vision of liberty, which is bizarre. It’s ridiculous. That’s at the core of why you are attacked.”

The next question was: “Do you see any possibility for a party of Christian reform, or an influx of Christian ideas into this [Democratic] party?”

Santorum’s answer included what? That’s right: Sex!

Blow (heh) is implying that Santorum has an unhealthy fixation about sex.

I’ll be more specific. I think that Santorum is indicative of a strain of Republican thought that I saw a lot of when I was in the SGA Senate working alongside future Abramhoff : basically, they are really pissed, because they weren’t getting any during the sexual revolution.

I understand how it feels.  Not only was I a war-gaming/Dungeons & Dragons geek in high school, I founded the Woodrow Wilson High School war gaming club.

I was as likely to get laid in high school as I was to fly to the moon.

The thing is, I got over it, and not end up with a sociopathic need to tell women what to do with their bodies.

Mr Santorum, not so much.

Poenitentiam agite*

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In South Carolina, the Laurens County Republican Party is demanding that all of its candidates sign a pledge that they have not had premarital sex. This is kind of a surprise to me, since the way that Republicans propose marriage is to say, “You’re what?”:

Before you can join the Laurens County Republican Party in South Carolina and get on the primary ballot, they ask that you pledge that you’ve never ever had pre-marital sex — and that you will never ever look at porn again.

Last Tuesday, the LCGOP unanimously adopted a resolution that would ask all candidates who want to get on the primary ballot to sign a pledge with 28 principles, because the party “does not want to associate with candidates who do not act and speak in a manner that is consistent with the SC Republican Party Platform.”

Among the principles, according to Vic MacDonald & Larry Franklin of the Clinton Chronicle, is standard fare like opposition to abortion and upholding gun rights, as well as “a compassionate and moral approach to Teen Pregnancy” and “a high regard for United States Sovereignty.

I’m done for the night. This is just too f%$#ing weird for me.

*Oh, come on! Aren’t you aware of the Apostolic Brethren, or their successors, the Dulcinian movement, then you’ve read The Name of the Rose, or seen the movie version with Sean Connery? Seriously†

†OK, I admit it, I’ve just seen the movie, and this is the most obscure title I’ve ever put on a blog post, and I’m just f%$#ing with my reader(s). My bad.

Makes Matt Taibbi Look Like a Wimp

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“If you sit quietly at the edge of a river, eventually you will see the bodies of your enemies float by.”

—Mark “Chopper” Read

Matt Taibbi called Breitbart a Douche, but his former partner at the Russian newspaper The Exile, Mark Ames has a truly evocative take-down of said douche:

Last autumn, Andrew Breitbart picked a fight with me. Breitbart bragged to the world about how he was going to destroy me. Breitbart went after me on behalf of the Koch oligarchy, who’d launched a multimillion-dollar PR counter-offensive to smear journalists who investigated them, including Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. Breitbart got the contract on me, and he had no doubt in his little pea brained mind he was going to destroy me. Breitbart was so sure he was going to ruin me, he bragged about it to everyone. He even told a journalist to tell Taibbi, “Breitbart is about to destroy your former eXile partner Mark Ames.” He was gloating in-advance. Then the very morning he attacked me, I hit back. And he tucked tail and fled like a bitch.

Now Andrew Breitbart is dead. Gee, whod’ya think won that little war?

Tough question: Maybe we should ask Breitbart what he thinks. Oh shit, dang, turns out I can’t ask Breitbart. He’s, well—he’s not doing well, dealing with those “natural causes” and all.

And that’s just the first 3 ‘graphs.