Threeway teabaggery

Congressman Ron Paul has three primary opponents who think he's too liberal.

Being a public figure is really hard

In the McCain-Palin camp, Schmidt says that when he was told by a campaign staffer prepping Palin for her debate with Biden that the vice presidential candidate was doing very poorly in her preparation, it was a crisis moment. "He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions…she was not focused…not engaged," he tells Cooper. "She was not really participating in the prep."

Schmidt confronted Palin with this and, he says, "She said, 'You know, I think that's right.'"

If that wasn't enough for deep concern, Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as "O'Biden," says Schmidt, something that had to be fixed before the debate. He says others in the campaign came up with a solution. "It was multiple people - and I wasn't one of them - who all said at the same time, 'Just say, Can I call you Joe,' which she did."

Schmidt says he took over the prepping, simplified it, and says she "more than held her own" in the debate. But not without one "O'Biden" slip on national television.

Palin declined to be interviewed for this story, saying she had dealt with many of the allegations in her own book. 

"Do as I say, not as I get caught out doing."

Another conservative proves that while marriage must be denied others, it's not enough for her:

Things are as they always are. God's Gentle Elected People infest the national media to scream about perversion and abomination, all while screwing the taxpayer AND cougaring the fuck out of a young hottie.

Oh, ye of little faith

For people who crow about winning everywhere, all the time, anti-marriage equality folk sure are pussies. They're afraid for anyone to see who contributes to their hate campaigns, and now they are trying to keep themselves from being seen testifying in court over their beliefs. Michelle Malkin has their cowardly pose summarized:

I generally support more sunshine in all government proceedings. But the judge’s unusual method of securing video coverage is extremely troubling. This isn’t a sincere educational effort to provide transparency to the public. It’s a flagrant attempt at making Prop. 8 a show trial — and intimidating Prop. 8 backers who will be called to testify.

Ed Whelan at Bench Memos lays out Walker’s agenda thoroughly. Starthere, then go here, and here. Writes Whelan: “Walker is rushing to override longstanding prohibitions on televised coverage of federal trials so that he can authorize televised coverage of the Proposition 8 trial. Televised coverage would generate much greater publicity for ringmaster Walker’s circus. And, whether Walker desires the effect or is somehow blind to it, televised coverage would surely also heighten the prospect that witnesses and attorneys supporting Proposition 8 would face harassment, intimidation, and abuse."

St. Peter was willing to endure arrest, imprisonment and crucifixion upside down in defense of his faith.  Today his followers are unwilling to defend one of what they maintain is God's most basic instititutions in a public forum.

No 'mo

UK MP and 'mo hater Iris Robinson has revealed 1) she's depressed; 2) she's cheated on her husband; 3) she's sorry about all the harm she's done; well 4) except for the 'mo part.

Having grappled with the depression but for a rather long time, we cut any fellow sufferer a break, but this sounds like a try at mea culpa-ing a wide swathe of other, more volitional life- and political-choices. When she explains how gay-bashing was pathological, rather than political, we'll be all over supporting her in her recovery.

Everyone else in SC can be murdered at will, as usual. And hate crimes are, of course, verboten.

Representative Chip Limehouse has proposed a bill that would use law enforcement to protect servicemen and women in the state, as well as their families. The Charleston Republican wrote the bill after Nidal Hasan killed 13 and injured 30 in Fort Hood. Limehouse says the penalty for such a crime needs to speak measures.

“It makes terrorizing or threatening to terrorize a member of the military or their family a felony in South Carolina, punishable up to 10 years in prison, and up to a $10,000 fine. The threat could be verbally, it could be electronically or written,” says Limehouse.

If Jackass Joe won't answer, ask the man who thought up the idea

h/t Indigo Journal: maybe ask Wesley Donehue.

"it's de-lovely, it's de Minty..."

Conservative blog The Secular Right challenges the DeMintopinion that the because he thinks the President can't do more than one thing at a time, the entire federal government is similarly paralyzed:

Sheer nonsense.  Is Kean implying that employees of the NSA, CIA, and the National Counterterrorism Center were distracted from their signals analysis by the fight over a single payer plan?  What would it have meant in this specific case for the administration to be “focused as it should be on terrorism” in a way that was not already happening in the relevant agencies?  The political operatives who manage the health care and global warming efforts have nothing to do with consular and intelligence matters.  And the Obama White House was criticized for spending too much time on the Afghanistan escalation decision, which was justified exclusively in “war on terror” terms.

Everyone wants some simplistic moral from the story that will allow us to feel that the world is fully controllable if we could just get the details right.  But sometimes things happen randomly without fitting into a satisfying narrative of obvious fault.

Mitt Romney thought great hair would elect him, too

SC lieutenant governor candidate Bill Connor raises masturbation to a political act, while not explaining why his press hack, Harare Grocer, still hasn't explained why he's not got to the bottom of Connor's claim that Islamic terrorists hacked his website, or how Morocco is part of the Middle East and not Africa.

Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better

Senator Jim DeMint's campaign to protect America from terrorists by practicing witchcraft-like incantations has gathered an acolyte:

King: Use word 'terrorism' more

New York Rep. Peter King, a leading Republican critic of the White House on terror policy, offered a piece of advice on "Good Morning America" today: Obama should speak the word "terrorism" more.

"You are saying someone should be held accountable. Name one other specific recommendation the president could implement right now to fix this," host George Stephanopoulos said to King.

"I think one main thing would be to — just himself to use the word terrorism more often," said King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

Gravity is heterosexual. Somewhere, Newton is scratching his head.

As the marriage equality movement loses one argument after another in their opposition, they are becoming increasingly Copernican. Marriage, it seems, it like gravity. It just is.

Dorgan the Day After

Columnist Gail Collins considers the gloom and doom the media has written into the retirement of a North Dakota senator:

I’m beginning to suspect that he doesn’t expect to go back to North Dakota at all. I am basing this mainly on the fact that the “Notable North Dakotans” page on the Byron Dorgan Web site lists 19 people, none of whom seem to actually live there. In fact, seven of them are dead and one of the others is the guy who is married to the pop star Fergie.

It's hard to see what all the fuss is about over the Democrats' potential loss of their filibuster-proof 60 vote majority. It's not like they know how to do anything with it.

DeMint, Graham, Henry Brown, Bob Inglis and Jackass Joe go all soft on gay marriage in their DC plantation. Only J. Gresham Barrett stands, firm. What gives?

A claque of Congresscritters have told a DC court  home rule in the District of Columbia means never offending them. If nothing else, their intervention against a democratically adopted marriage equality ordinance lets you know who the real haters are in the GOP congressional caucus:

Thirty-nine congressional Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), have filed an amicus brief in D.C. Superior Court calling for a voter referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage in the District.

In the filing, U.S. senators James Inhofe (Okla.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) and 37 House Republicans align with Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church, in asking the court to reverse a D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics decision prohibiting the same-sex marriage question to be put before voters.

"Under the United States Constitution, they serve as members of the ultimate legislative authority for the District of Columbia and the very body which delegated to the District its limited legislative power under home rule," the filing states. "As members of the District's ultimate legislative body, amici are concerned about the extent of the District's delegated legislative authority, the preservation of Congress's constitutional authority, and the interpretation of home rule."

The filing comes as Jackson and his attorneys appeared in Superior Court today for a hearing on whether a referendum should be held. In two separate rulings since June, the elections board has stated that a public vote on same-sex marriage would be discriminatory against gay men and lesbians. Jackson is vowing an exhaustive court fight to challenge those decisions.

Last month, the D.C. Council voted 11 to 2 to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) signed the bill shortly before Christmas, but it is undergoing a 30-day legislative review. Under Home Rule, Congress can block any law passed by the council.

But same-sex marriage supporters are optimistic that Congress will not intervene because the Democrats control the House and Senate.

Still, the court brief underscores the challenge same-sex marriage supporters face in trying to protect the new law in both the current and future Congresses, particularly if the GOP retakes control.

In addition to the two senators and Boehner and Cantor, the brief was signed by U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt (Ala.), Todd Akin (Mo.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), J. Gresham Barrett (S.C.), Roscoe Bartlett (Md.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), John Fleming (La.), J. Randy Forbes (Va.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Phil Gingrey (Ga.), Louie Gohmert (Tex.), Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), Wally Herger (Calif.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Steve King (Iowa), Jack Kingston (Ga.), John Kline (Minn.) Doug Lamborn (Colo.), Robert Latta (Ohio), Don Manzullo (Ill.), Michael McCaul (Tex.), Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Jeff Miller (Fla.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Randy Neugebauer (Tex.), Mike Pence (Ind.), Joe Pitts (Pa.), Mark Souder (Ind.) and Todd Tiahrt (Kan.)

Bigots of a feather-

Boy Fogle's all excited that one of his bromances is coming back to the state:

If early trips to the key GOP primary state of South Carolina are any indication of intent to run for president, then former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorium is an odds-on favorite to jump into the 2012 race against President Barack Obama.

Scoop Doggy and "Man on Dog" Santorum (he's not a room, drop the "i") share a simultaneous fascination with, and repulsion by, gay people that, happily, doesn't seem to be shared by the new tourism expert hired at USC. Add another deadbolt to your door, Scoopy....

Sean Massey couldn't find his ass with two hands and a GPS- and he's wondering why the GPS company hasn't reloed to SC

A Republican candidate in SC makes an interesting argument about  SC economic development:

Economic security means lower and fewer taxes, smaller government, and less spending– an environment for economic prosperity. Republicans in South Carolina have been working toward that end. It’s why we were able to bring in Boeing and the thousands of jobs created throughout the state by the Dreamliner facility.

The attraction of Boeing to our state is a case study in effective economic development. Republicans have worked to keep taxes low, limit regulation, and make sure government stays small and out of the way of business. Washington State, on the other hand, created an inhospitable environment for a major company like Boeing because of the state’s higher taxes and unions. So, instead of expanding in its home base, Boeing came to our part of the country.

The comparison with Washington is interesting.

For one thing, the Boeing plant in SC hasn't created any new jobs yet. It was only announced a few weeks ago, and groundbreaking on its expanded Charleston-area facility is even more recent.

For another, the Charleston plant isn't like Boeing decided to shut down the plants at Renton and Paine Field and move the whole kit and kaboodle south. It's a backup plant. Primary construction will remain at Paine Field, where Boeing has one of the largest factories in the world. If unionization was a zero-sum game, you'd have expected Washington to have withered decades ago; indeed, Franklin Roosevelt's postmaster general, James A. Farley, used to called the nation's most northwesterly continental state "the Soviet of Washington."

So Shane Massey's thesis is false on its face. Washington has not created an inhospitable environment because of its higher taxes and unions. If what he says was true, you'd expect to see a dive to the bottom- but a different sort of dive than is the case in the real world.

In Shane Massey's fantasy land, corporations flock to places like SC because we offer low taxes, a docile work force, a tiny, ineffective government, and a hostility to unions so profound Republicans dream it while they sleep.

But it's not happening. 

Sure, unions are a headache for corporations. Unions have an annoying tendency to pressurize corporations into paying better wages and offering better benefits.

"Unions" have also become a shorthand term for hiding the downsides of the globalization of trade and industry. Long before Boeing decided to build a backup plant at Charleston, it had made the decision that the Dreamliner would not be built from the ground up at Everett but would be assembled there with parts sourced from all over the world- wherever Boeing could get the best deal.

Which brings us back to South Carolina. Boeing already had a major supplier in Charleston- albeit a troubled one the company had to eventually take over because of fabrication problems for the Dreamliner (you can look it up). What drew Boeing was that existing presence, and the state legislature's willingness to pony up three quarters of a billion dollars in tax breaks even as the state cuts its budget once a quarter due to declining business and its resulting fall in tax revenues.

So much for a thriving business climate.

The thing about tax breaks is that they represent monies that the state has voluntarily forgone, and will never get back. Ever.  All such deals do is create jobs. When this economic development strategy came into vogue after World War II, it made sense. In that trade-regulated world, US companies built US factories and stayed there. Life was good.

Like with the textile industry in the South.

One of the failings of the Massey analysis is that he assumes that Boeing, having held SC to a bigger ransom than any other state was willing to give, it will stay here forever. But when a corporation's presence is based not on a commitment to the place on its merits but rather on the state's willingness to give the company what it wants, the corporation has no loyalty at all to remaining there. Tax laws don't encourage staying put. They encourage depreciating a facility to zero and then building a new one- somewhere. Somewhere that, in a big world full of people who can bolt stuff together, tends to mean there's always another state willing to go knees-up even bigger than the last one.

So your facilities upgrade costs are offloaded to the happy saps whose legislators have just sold them down the river for as long as the deal makes the corporation money.

Which brings us back to Washington.

Why did Jeff Bezos move to Seattle to start Amazon.com? Sure, they have facilities in the South, but what sort? Order fulfillment centers. A handful of employees pull stuff off shelves, put them in boxes, and mail them. Corporate HQ, where they come up with the ideas like the Kindle, remain in Seattle.

Why hasn't Costco left Seattle? The wholesaler runs a highly profitable business model founded on paying its employees way better, and offering a way better benefits package, than its competitors.

Why is Starbucks staying in Seattle? They have a plant in South Carolina. Its employees here roast and distribute coffee beans. That's only economic advantage in the sense that geographic dispersion saves you money in distribution costs. But- again- the idea people stay in Seattle.

Why does the giant Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center remain in Seattle? Among other things, because Seattle- with its union headaches imagined from afar, and the social benefits taxes provide, attracts Nobel laureates and smart people generally.

Why does Nordstrom stay in Seattle? Why does Boeing stay where it has been building aircraft since 1916?

Here's the problem Sean Massey misses, mired, as his media man is, in the 1950s.

There are two dives going on. One is the dive to the bottom. South Carolina is willing to attract industries that pay locals less crappily than they would be paid locally to bolt things together. The state makes little on the deal but the otherwise poorly-paid workforce is bought off for a few decades by being paid less poorly.

The other dive is the dive UP.

That's the one SC is losing so spectacularly it doesn't even know it's not in the game.

It's the one Richard Florida has documented- the one where states and communities have the wit to put the amenities in place to attract knowledge workers.  They're the people who come up with the idea to drop a Google server farm in SC, where a handful of employees keep the air conditioners running.

If Massey's thesis is correct, New York and Boston should be ghost towns.

And yet, such places aren't. They are among the creative powerhouses of the nation, while Massey is getting dolled up in his cheerleader outfit to celebrate that Boeing is giving us a factory where some people in Charleston will get to bolt together a bunch of components- made somewhere else.

More on why we must reserve marriage for a man and a woman

A man and woman in the US state of Georgia are facing child cruelty charges after using a homemade device to tattoo six of their children.

Patty "Jo Jo" Marsh and Jacob Edward Bartels allegedly used a plastic pen fitted with a piece of guitar string to mark the children, aged 10 to 17.

Unlicensed tattooists and the tattooing of minors are illegal in Georgia.

Ms Marsh told local media she had not done anything wrong and that the children had asked for the tattoos.

"I'm not breaking the skin. It's going to fade away, it's like a pen mark," she told reporters.

The children were marked with small black crosses on the skin between their thumb and index finger. One was also tattooed with the words "Mama & Dad".

Chattooga County Sheriff John Everett said the couple had been reported by the biological mother of some of the children, who noticed the ink marks could not be wiped off.

"We've never seen anything, or heard of anything like this, in the surrounding counties, or anywhere," he told the WHEC news website, adding that police believe the same improvised needle was used for all the children.

Mr Bartels and Ms Marsh were released on bail by police, but Ms Marsh said she could not understand the public's reaction.

"I love my children, we'd never do anything to harm our kids," WHEC quoted her as saying.

"Relax, Jake...it's just Chinatown."

NORWAY, S.C. – Former Norway police chief Jim Preacher was sworn in as mayor of the town Monday evening – then, about two hours later, he resigned. 

But not before attempting to set the record straight about some of his concerns.

Boy Fogle disses the Lawn Jockey Party's base

The Palmetto Scoop unleashes its inner misogynist (emphasis added):

Attention all you highbrow, middle-aged, bored housewives of the local, suburban cul-de-sac: South Carolina’s first lady will be visiting your book of the month club a few months earlier than expected.

Block That Metaphor!

The Republican National Committee's chief gaffer, Michael Steele, asked if his party is ready to lead if they regain control of Congress, utters this gnomic comment:

"I don't know. And that's what I'm assessing and evaluating right now. Those candidates who are looking to run have to be anchored in these principles," he said, referring to 5 conservative ideals he lays out in his new tome. "If they don't [anchor themselves], then they'll get to Washington, and they'll start drinking that Potomac River water, and they'll get drunk with power and throw the steps out the window."

Family values is a flexible term

Red State's Erickson is drooling over the prospects of the GOP's Senate candidate, the former Playgirl centerfold Scott Brown.

Lexy GOP leaders unanimous on shouting down the President but split on ideological purity

Lexington County's GOP executive committee wants Senator Lindsey Graham to get with the freedom thing:

The Lexington County GOP issued a censure document Monday accusing Graham (R-S.C.) of supporting cap-and-trade legislation, rapping him for his vote on last year's bank bailout and for "repeatedly demonstrat[ing] contempt and belligerence towards those members of the Republican Party who support freedom."

The resolution doesn't note that the vote was 13-7. The party's last resolution, according to their website, was issued in September 2009 in support of Jackass Joe Wilson. They unanimously agreed that:

Joe is a very popular figure in Lexington County.  He has always served his constituents with honor, dignity and unparalleled responsiveness to their needs.  

SC politicos never need to make such bets since no SC teams win

SC Attorney General Henry McMaster would, apparently, like to jail several members of the US Senate.

Teeming ids at work

David Aaronovitch in The Times (London):

Mr Buhati’s Bill says that it wants to “protect the cherished culture of the people of Uganda ... [and the] legal, religious, and traditional family values of the people of Uganda” from homosexuals. In other words, the structures and sexual mores that he considers to be so loved and natural are simultaneously so incredibly fragile that they must be protected, on pain of death, from even the example of other ways of having sex.

The sexual conservative’s true hypocrisy is that he doesn’t really believe in his own idealisation. Men will be inflamed by the sight of hair, women will bear other men’s children at the fall of a veil, boys will suddenly cast off the tedious ways of heterosexuality and put on the gaudy garb of gayness. In truth, sexual conservatives wants to make everyone else pay for their own dark thoughts.

Blacks, after all, simply cannot be Republicans

The latest rap on Florida GOP Senate candidate Charlie Crist: he thinks nigras might be qualified for public office:

Conservatives are still apoplectic about his appointment of an African-American Democrat to the Florida Supreme Court this year...

Can correctional dismemberments be far behind?

The purpose-driven world Rick Warren helped create in the Christianist evangelical playground of Africa:

 According to The Times’s Jeffrey Gettleman, officially sanctioned homophobia is particularly acute. Gay Ugandans are tormented with beatings, blackmail, death threats and what has been described as “correctional rape.”

"We just love your Lena Horne."

The New York Times has just stumbled over the planned- and legal, Ugandan, genocide-that gay blogs have been reporting on for months:

Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

KAMPALA, Uganda — Last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda’s capital to give a series of talks.

The theme of the event, according to Stephen Langa, its Ugandan organizer, was “the gay agenda — that whole hidden and dark agenda” — and the threat homosexuals posed to Bible-based values and the traditional African family.

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior.

One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Donor countries, including the United States, are demanding that Uganda’s government drop the proposed law, saying it violates human rights, though Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity (who previously tried to ban miniskirts) recently said, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.”

The Ugandan government, facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid, is now indicating that it will back down, slightly, and change the death penalty provision to life in prison for some homosexuals. But the battle is far from over.

Instead, Uganda seems to have become a far-flung front line in the American culture wars, with American groups on both sides, the Christian right and gay activists, pouring in support and money as they get involved in the broader debate over homosexuality in Africa.

“It’s a fight for their lives,” said Mai Kiang, a director at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, a New York-based group that has channeled nearly $75,000 to Ugandan gay rights activists and expects that amount to grow.

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

“I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality.

“That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

How come you didn't make FITS News' 100 Most Influential List?

Daniel J. Cassidy, the "Christianist" hatemonger who runs Sunlit Uplands, with its gushing suckups to English traditions of the aristocracy (especially English cathedral choirboys) and Queen Elizabeth II- head of the Church of England- while idealizing the most hateful, reactionary, sides of his own Catholic Church (too many links to choose from); and while clinging like grim death to the ultimate hypocrisy of pretending to be an advisor to the US Commission on Civil Rights under a president he's condemned as illegitimate and a thug, and who calls people who challenge him all manner of names while maintaining his pose of the defense of the defense of the west (California, Oregon and Washington?), culture ("white culture", a la Glenn Beck?), and whatever else makes him feel good in his imaginary, Brideshead Revisited world, minus, of course, the objectionable bits, (never mind, of course, that he has zero citation influence among SC Republican/conservative blogs, and we mean zero, nada, zilch),  has crawled out from under his rock again, antennae quivering with suspicion, over the idea that a person who had gender reassignment surgery is incompetent to hold public office.

Prove it, you bigot.

Senator Jim DeMint wants to welcome illiterate racists into the GOP, and thinks witchcraft will defeat terror. Except when he changes his mind the next day.

Here's one of Sentor Jim DeMint's BFFs, Teabagger co-founder Dale Robertson (h/t Joe.My.God)





Note the "Man of Faith" cap (h/t epluribus media):





Here's DeMint's take on Robertson and his work:

"We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party," adds DeMint. “If we do that, we can stand up and create the biggest tent of all.”

At the same time, Senator Headlines has proven himself remarkably flexible hypocritical. Here's what he said on Fox News yesterday:

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) on Sunday revived his assault against the White House's approach to counter-terrorism, charging the president was too "distracted by other things" to focus intently enough on national security.

During an interview on CNN"s "State of the Union," DeMint said President Barack Obama has "downplayed the risk of terrorism since taking office," to the detriment to Americans' safety.

"It begins with not even been willing to use the word," DeMint said. "Aside from the semantics, he's been completely distracted by other things, and he is not focused on building the security and intelligence apparatus of our country."

Basically, what DeMint's admitting there is that he's a witch. He believes terrorists will be defeated not by military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts, but by ritual incantations. Just how many times, Senator, will saying "terror" make us safe?


Never mind. That was yesterday. Here's what he had to say on MSNBC today:

After saying the president was "downplaying" security, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) now says Barack Obama is using "the right approach" in fighting terror.

The sad part is DeMint has a media guy who blogs about his church faith all the time yet is willing to sell his ethics on the cheap to help a man like DeMint stay in office. Shame.

Prove it, Scoopy. The ghosts AND that he hasn't read it. You said it's true, so it must be, right? So it'll be easy to prove.

Boy Fogle's at it again, conflating miniscule sums of money into a big scandal. Now's he's slagging off RNC Chair Michael Steele for giving party money- $20,000- to the GOP in some Pacific territories that don't get a vote in Congress but do get to vote for RNC chair.


Fogle adds nothing to the story other than that he agrees with its source that the payment looks like payoff for supporting Steel for RNC chair. The bit he left out from the Hotline story- tellingly-- was this- Lawn Jockey Party honorary chair Massa Katon Dawson- he of the all-white country club, considered making a deal till, apparently, he discovered the supplicants were all little brown people:

Traditionally, the islands vote as a bloc, and in early rounds of voting, that bloc mostly backed ex-MI GOP chair Saul Anuzis. But Anuzis dropped out after 5 ballots, and representatives of the island bloc met with both remaining candidates -- Steele and ex-SC GOP chair Katon Dawson -- to seek a deal.

Insiders said the islands sought a financial commitment from the eventual chair; Dawson refused, and the island votes went to Steele. Steele advisors have denied a deal was cut.

Fogle then adds an unsourced, unsupported dig:

Coincidentally, the news of Steele’s Saipan Sweetener came on the same day he released his new book, “A 12-Step Program For Defeating The Obama Agenda.”

Interestingly, the Hotline story he cribbed says the title is "Right Now." Which, if nothing else, underscores sometime Columbia SC arts (as in defending "the artisans")-critic Fogle's confession, 

I haven’t read the book — 

-after which he adds, 

-and I’m betting Steele hasn’t either — but his ghostwriters probably should have picked “Don’t act like the Democrats” as step one.

Henry Brown retires to spend time with family and controlled burns on his land

Boy Fogle says he broke the story that Congressman Henry Brown's retiring.  While the story- and the claim- appears to be true, The Palmetto Scoop's fast 'n loose sourcing and frequent indifference to doing the research that would prove his allegations wrong, or admitted to work copied from other sources, or his regular flacking of press releases for candidates his paymasters work for, and dutiful attacks on those they don't work for, Fogle's decision not to time stamp his post several site redesigns ago (after he claimed he never worked on the blog at work) means you can only assume he's right from the time stamps on reader comments.Why won't the big dog fess up to when he posts?


Jamie Sanderson glosses Scoopy on Brown's reasons:

In other words, he's not seeking reelection and will retire after this term. Why, however, is so revealing of what he's truly stood for.

Sources said Brown was upset with being a member of the minority party in Washington. And at 74 years old, age was also a factor in Brown’s decision not to run again.

Well said, and pretty much tells you that all the so-called power he had was only for self-intended reasons. Instead of getting beat – and he would – he chooses to bow out.

Instead of defending the record he has of not doing what's good for South Carolina and his district, he'll step down because he's "upset" with his role in Congress.

Brown must've felt like Ichabod Crane after the last election, when- a rock solid conservative, get-along, go-along, GOP backbencher- Wilson nearly got his ass handed a big ol' Costco-sized barrel of whoop-ass from a Democratic lesbian candidate, despite all of Boy Fogle's Chicken Little ravings.


Wee Willie Winkie has an Idiot's Delight listing of who might get into the race with Brown out, including his usual dollop of homophobia (let's see ya blame that comment on Thad Viers on Mande, Ol' Folksy).

Tiger, meet Tebow

Thanks for Joe.My.God, saving us having to listen to Fox News programs just to hear nuggets like this:

Fox News: If Tiger Woods Was A Christian, All This Wouldn't Have Happened

Brit Hume says that Tiger Woods wouldn't have been cheating if he'd just been a Christian. Like non-adulterous Christians such as Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Tom DeLay, Sen. John Ensign, Gov. Mark Sanford, Ted Haggard, etc, etc, etc, etc.

The Guv done good...

One judge's comment about Talking Points Memo's 2009 Golden Duke Awards for acting up in public life:

Mark Sanford. I tried to get excited about the others but Sanford really is epic. It goes beyond greed and stupidity into the realm of Byronic tragedy. The emails! The hypocrisy! The fact the no one will ever again hike the Appalachian trail with a straight face. This one is for the ages...

Question others' patriotism, and delegitimize elections, too

Glenn Greenwald:

Reducing the citizenry to a frightened puddle of passivity, hysteria and a child-like expectation of Absolute Safety is irrevocable and far more consequential than any specific new laws.  Fear is always the enabling force of authoritarianism:  the desire to vest unlimited power in political authority in exchange for promises of protection.

When they're not closeted gays, or married and having affairs, conservative always seem to be hauling out the chastity belts and the pillory stocks

Low Country blogger Jamie Sanderson highlights another of the weird sexual obsessions of  middle-aged and elderly Republican white, male officeholders: shaming women who- exercising their own, apparently faulty- judgment- feel the need to seek an abortion.

It'd be fascinating if a journalist bothered to ask SC congressmen Henry Brown, J. Gresham Barrett (R-Running for Governor), Bob Inglis and Jackass Joe Wilson if they ever discuss this sort of stuff with their wives. Or listen to what their wives say.

"Daddy can't leave the nursing home, but you can stop by and show him your diploma through his oxygen tent."

Imagine being an 18 year-old high school senior at graduation, milling about with family and friends. Only this kid is surrounded by a man who's 84 years old and three other adults, aged 63, 61 and 58. And a woman younger than the others.

"This is my dad and mom and my step-brothers and sisters," the kid explains.

That's the world of former The Dating Game host Bob Eubanks, who takes literally the anti-marriage equality crowd that marriage is about the children- even when you produce them knowing you're not likely to live long enough to see them to adulthood, or even be much more than an increasingly doddering presence in their lives before you peg off.

Think of  the Nobel laureate Saul Bellow, who produced a child at the age of 84 and died five years later; or the actor Tony Randall, who conjured two children at age 77 and 78 and died at 84.

Campaigning beats working for a living

Henry McMaster (R-Running for Governor) isn't willing to talk to Senator Ben Nelson about what McMaster calls "the Cornhusker Kickback" but he's willing to leak a memo about what Nelson said.

Senator DeMint, did we make up the shortfall in "freedom"?

Here's an interesting graph showing how Ronald Reagan's "heirs" have  been stewards of the US economy:

Given the state of SC roads, it's a nice irony

From The Secular Right, a meditation- without specifically saying so- on Senator Jim DeMint's obsession with men who wear girly underwear on planes:

But it’s still intriguing to me why dying in a terrorist-induced airplane crash has a greater hold on the public imagination than driving on the highway, where there are about 40,000 fatalities in the U.S. a year, much higher on a per-mile basis than the number of deaths from non-terror-induced airline crashes, of which there are many more than terror incidents.  We do not have a federal agency checking everyone who gets on a highway for driving safety.  Terror attacks are intentional, not accidental, so the public policy imperative of sending a tough-on-terror message is arguably far greater than for highway crashes.  But that fact doesn’t affect the individual perception of risk, which seems to be influenced by issues of agency, control, possibly even altitude. 

Feel safer?

[Gilbert] Arenas insists theNew York Post has blown the incident out of proportion; he told a Washington Post reporter, "That's not the real story" as he left practice Friday. The same day, he tweeted "i wake up this morning and seen i was the new JOHN WAYNE .. lmao media is too funny." A Wizards source told the Washington Post the incident was "nothing more than horseplay" and that the dispute was over "who had the bigger gun," not a gambling debt, as the New York Postreported.

A new year demands a comment

Andrew Sullivan is starting to sound like Lily von Schtupp:

The growth of the Dish has become harder to handle this year - a first-class problem, of course, but a real one. In 2006, we had 25 million pageviews. In 2007, we had 40 million. In 2008, that historic and exciting election year, the traffic soared to 120 million. As traffic quintupled, our editorial staff tripled to, er, three.

2009, we all expected, could not match 2008. The three-fold surge was so great it had to subside. We couldn't expect another round of sky-high traffic like that in the election months of the fall of 2008. But tallying up 2009 this morning - using the rough-and-ready Sitemeter counter, as in the other data - we ended up with around 110 million pageviews, a much smaller drop-off from last year than I expected. Our biggest month was last June, as the Iran coverage garnered a truly global audience of 13 million pageviews. But we've seen solid, consistent gains since then. This December, for example, produced 9 million pageviews; last December's total was 7.2 million. December 2007 gained 4.1 million. December 2006 racked up 2 million. Get the picture?

Such numbers are, to this blog, unimaginable. But Waldo's more a bespoke blogger- "artisanal" as the foodies say. He spends his days reading the broadsheets and typing furiously in his bathtub:

WLJ has a miniscule readership, as he cheerfully posts every day. But it has proved an interesting- and interested-  and geographically scattered- readership. It's hard to imagine how readers find their way from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia every day, but that's one of the wonders of the Internets. Waldo welcomes you all and is grateful for  your occasional contributions. Your comments are always welcome.

In South Carolina, WLJ has evolved into a different sort of blog than it was when it moved here. Back in the day, The Journal was a blog about everything. Here, it has become more political (the "everything"  has been hived off to two other blogs) as Waldo noticed virtually all the influential political blogs in this state are run- or financed- by Republican political consultants. A couple of them, in particular, go on about the decline of the dead-tree media and the superiority of the blogdom, while, at the same time, passing up on the basic rules of any kind of reporting: particularly going back to original sources and disclosing conflicts of interest. WLJ has become the fact-checker (as several other bloggers who did the job better, and longer, have dropped out), and it's a mark of the effort's value that, when WLJ gets its roughly quarterly carpet-bombing from one of the big political consultant bloggers, it has never been about content. It's been about annoying them.

Republican thinking here has become so starved and Robespierriean that there's really no communicating with them in the SC blogdom. They seem to be incapable of understanding how a Republican could feel excluded by his party, even as they lionize Ronald Reagan, who became a Republican because he felt excluded by the Democrats. Their entire thought process is one of exclusion. Even though they quote Reagan's maxim that an ally is someone who agrees with you 80% of the time, they focus on the 20% of the time when you don't. The mark of serious blogging ought to be at least a measure of intellectual rigor and the willingness to consider you might, yourself, occasionally, be wrong. Or, at least, mistaken. Or maybe jumping to conclusions before the pool is full. Even if you're a party consultant. Otherwise, what's the point? Partisan talking points are partisan talking points no matter what the media in which they are transmitted.

So that's how Waldo sees things, and if you know him at all, you have to assume a little preening will be called for from a man who types in his bathtub.

But it's all in aid of saying "thank you" to our phone-boothful of readers. Waldo's stumbling into his fourth year in the blogdom, and it just gets more interesting every day.

"-but not including the 'objectively disordered.'"

Quotes of the Day

"Peace begins with a look of respect that recognizes in another man's face a person, regardless of the color of his skin, nationality, language or religion."

POPE BENEDICT XVI, calls for the respect of all people during the Mass marking the start of the new year

When the intolerant denounce intolerance, you know it's an election year in SC.

After spending several days holding a wet finger in the air, Boy Fogle has decided an anti-black slur spray-painted on the Columbia city hall is a bad thing:

Regardless, it is truly disappointing that nearly 42 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared “I’ve been to the mountaintop” we are still fighting the same racial ignorance and intolerance that nearly destroyed this country.

It's about as convincing as his recent  conversion to recycling when it gave him a chance to slag off Congressman J. Gresham Barrett (R-Running for Governor). Or his announcement, last year, that he had determined what he called "the gay community" accepted him. Never mind that he takes credit for erecting border walls to foreign gay tourists even as the state's latest big corporate get- Boeing- like previous scores Google and Starbucks- carry on the sort of inclusive hiring practices that would bring people to SC who'd cost him sleep.

These gestures are so utterly devoid of content one has to wonder whom Boyo thinks will believe them. Certainly not the SCGOP: going all moist and gooey on gays and nigras gets you labeled a RINO.

Mrs. Palin's Republicans launch the new year

Here's a post on Mrs. Palin's TeamSarah website. Question: which will not happen first? 1) She will order it pulled and apologize. 2) a South Carolina Republican will denounce it.

More like a Levi Johnston Republican, it seems

Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics argues Massachusetts voters may be inclined to send a solid, right-wing Republican to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat:

There's been a fair amount of excitement in the rightosphere regarding the January 19, 2010 special election to fill the seat of Senator Ted Kennedy. The race pits Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley against Republican state Senator Scott Brown. The cases for GOP optimism are pretty well spelled out in Jim Geraghty's piece at National Review.

There's some truth to these arguments, as Massachusetts isn't as monolithically Democratic as most make it out to be; the real power brokers in the state are the Independents, who make up a near-plurality of the electorate. Hence, Republicans have been able to elect a number of GOP Governors over the last few decades (and in a straight-up match up with Deval Patrick, would probably be poised to do it again in 2010). Jim Ogonowski's near-win in MA-05 in 2007, during the depths of anti-GOP sentiment in the country, gives further proof of the state's willingness to embrace the right kind of Republican (ie a non-Southern, non-conservative Republican without ties to the religious right). In a lot of ways this is the flip of Southern states, which are thoroughly Republican at the Presidential level, but are more politically diverse at the state level.

Comparing the coming race to 2009's governors races, Trende concludes:

Finally, Bob McDonnell, and to a lesser extent Chris Christie, were strong candidates who had something of an established statewide persona. Scott Brown? Not so much. He may be a perfectly capable public servant, but it isn't a great sign that Wikipedia couldn't find a picture of him to put up on their race status entry.

Odd, that. As Waldo noted September 23, 2009, Brown's most famous photo pounds yet another nail into the seemingly un-nailable coffin of Republican family values:

Well, one year or the other

Others who, by their own admission, are way more knowledgeable than Waldo, have offered up their year-end summaries of what should be reckoned important in our lives here in Cackalaky. Because they do know so much more than everyone else, we feel obligated to help spread their views to a larger world.


First up: Boy Fogle. The blogger who complained that Columbia's funding of a gay pride event was stealing money from Confederate battle-losing re-enactors, says 2009 was the most important year "More than perhaps any other year since 1860 or 1861." Not content with one whack at the calendar's end, he put up a second post to remind readers how much he had noticed things that happened in 2009.


Fogle's idea of the biggest stories since starting the American Civil War? Gazing at a  Fox Newsbabe's ass; a kid in his twenties (shock-horror!) compared to some of Boyo's alleged alcohol-fueled, exploits, for example, smokes dope; The Scoop, which  peddles slurs for a living, claims a sudden concern for Jews; Scoop Doggy gave away a handful of teeshirts fluffing Jackass Joe Wilson but  considers the historical part how many more he sold; a little local pandering over a war death was, somehow, part of his equivalence to the start of the Civil War, but ended up being about Boy himself; a TV station billboard ran a headline about three rapists next to a photo of its three-member news team (trust Boy to find the local angle for his leering salaciousness even as in the past he's gotten all purse-lipped about campaigns his paymasters don't get money from); Congressman Gresham Barrett got booed at a teabagger rally months ago but what makes it important is that Fogle's paymasters take money for a different candidate for governor so telling the same story over and over and over and over and over and over and over somehow makes it news because his home video got onto one or two named media outlets and tons of anonymous, uncited and therefore unprovable ones; how his teeshirt idol Joe Wilson made a jackass of himself- and how Fogle thinks this is really admirable; and how, with his nose for news, "I’ll never forget waiting outside Gov. Mark Sanford’s office after his five-day disappearance. It was moments later that he shocked the world and admitted an affair with a woman in Argentina, becoming the biggest story of the year for South Carolina and for The Palmetto Scoop." (some of the more nitwitty bits are in italics below):

#10. Ainsley Earhardt becomes ‘butt’ of Leno joke (May 27) — Until I checked my Google Analytics, I had no idea how wildly popular former WLTX anchor Ainsley Earhardt had become in her job at FOX News. But when The Palmetto Scoop ran video of her appearing on The Tonight Show after her co-host was caught checking out her behind, the hits went through the roof. Remind me to write about Ainsley Earhardt more in 2010.

———————–

#9. Phelps had fun in SC (Jan. 31) — Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps came to Columbia for a few days last year and in January, photos of him allegedly smoking pot surfaced online. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott grabbed international headlines by saying he would investigate Phelps over the incident, but nothing materialized. Little did we know then that this would be only a mild embarrassment for South Carolina compared to the events yet to come.

———————–

#8. Boeing coming to SC (Oct. 28) — By far the best news of the year for South Carolina, Boeing announced in October that would be locating a massive 787 Dreamliner assembly plant in North Charleston. The deal will bring thousands of jobs and millions in economic investments to the state. And it gives us all something to look forward to in 2010.

———————–

#7. Jews, Gentiles and Jim DeMint (Oct. 19) — An October guest editorial by Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County GOP Chairman James Ulmer went largely unnoticed for a day until The Palmetto Scoop wrote about an interesting ethnic stereotype. “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves,” the two men wrote in reference to Sen. Jim DeMint’s “watching our nation’s pennies.” It was yet another unfortunate national embarrassment for South Carolina.

———————–

#6. Get your free ‘I’m With Joe Wilson’ t-shirt (Sept. 10) — Following Joe Wilson’s “you lie” outburst aimed at President Obama during a joint address to Congress, The Palmetto Scoop teamed up with t-shirt company Made in Multiples to honor the moment. Little did I know how much demand there would be for the shirts. We gave away a few dozen on Twitter in mere moments, and ended up selling hundreds more.

———————–

#5. Bank of America in hot water over SC flag flap (Sept. 17) — This was one of the most saddening stories I had to write about all year. Marine Lance Corporal Christopher Fowlkes, 20, was killed in Afghanistan in September. But prior to his funeral procession in Gaffney, a Bank of America branch manager pulled up the small American flags that lined the road in his honor. The flags were replaced and the manager apologized, but the damage had already been done.

———————–

#4. Epic Twitter billboard fail (Nov. 19) — When someone sends a photo of the three WPMI-TV anchors on an electronic billboard appearing next to the unfortunate Twitter headline “3 Accused of Gang Rape in Monroeville,” it’s just too good not to write about. Some of the most popular websites in the country like CNet and Mashable agreed, running with our story. This is the only story on the Top 10 list that didn’t directly involve South Carolina, but it did have a Palmetto State link. One of the three anchors, Greg Peterson is a University of South Carolina graduate.

———————–

#3. Barrett booed at Greenville Tea Party (April 17) — The week of the Tax Day Tea Parties, I wrote about events in Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and a number of other cities and towns in South Carolina. But it was at the largest Tea Party in Greenville that Congressman Gresham Barrett, a Republican who supported a $700 billion bank bailout, felt the true wrath of small government conservatives. The Palmetto Scoop’s video of Barrett’s merciless, five-minute booing from the more than 4,000 attendees made its way onto FOX News, ABC News, and dozens of other national news outlets.

———————–

#2. Wilson calls out Obama during Congressional address (Sept. 9) — With only two words, Joe Wilson went from being a back bench, minority party Congressman to the spokesman against President Obama’s health care reform proposal. “You lie” became an instant rallying cry for conservatives across the country who were outraged by the trillion-dollar plan. And Wilson went on to raise nearly $4 million for his re-election campaign.

———————–

#1. Sanford admits to Argentinian affair (June 24) — I’ll never forget waiting outside Gov. Mark Sanford’s office after his five-day disappearance. It was moments later that he shocked the world and admitted an affair with a woman in Argentina, becoming the biggest story of the year for South Carolina and for The Palmetto Scoop.

And that, dear readers, is what made 2009 equal to the beginning of the Civil War: or not, depending upon whether it is 1860 or 1861 being compared to.

Oh, and- quel dommage!- Wee Willie Winkie has dropped Boyo from his 100 most influential South Carolinians who do what Winkie wants:

Adam Fogle – Blogger

Great writer. Good blog. Too bad it’s a paid RINO infomercial …