Somewhere, the Sons of the Confederacy are laughing

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell has issued a non apology apology addition to  his Confederate History Month declaration:

Update: McDonnell just released a statement apologizing for having omitted slavery from the pronouncement. He also added the following language:

WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders, and the study of this time period should reflect upon and learn from this painful part of our history.....

Other sources note it's not the first time McDonnell has tried to enact his master's thesis from Pat Robertson University.

More Teabagger hate

A day after a man in Washington was indicted for threatening to kill Senator Patty Murray, a man has been arrested for threatening harm to the Speaker of the US House over the health care law.

And still the Republicans remain silent.

FITS News signs on with the Church against its victims

FITS News has scaled back from the half a dozen links a day to "Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands on his "Morning Blast" to one every few days, but when Folksy does hook up with his ally, as Spencer Tracy once said in a movie, "It's cherce."

The latest? Will Folks endorses the Daniel Cassidy/Patrick Buchanan argument that documentation of decades of  child abuse by Catholic priests- with the knowledge of officials all the way to the Vatican- is the equivalent of anti-Semitism.

Not a peep about the victims.

Warning: if you've got a decent firewall program, you'll get a warning that Sunlit Uplands is infected with malware. Again.

McMaster: I'm for Jesus license plates, water, and denying the people I want to rule health care.

SC Attorney General Henry McMaster and his fluffers have been making the rounds claiming that he's the leader of the loony toons, tax-money wasting anti-health care lawsuit whose sole Democratic AG participant- in Louisiana- confessed to his staff he joined it because Governor Bobby Jindal told him his department would be exempt from swingeing personnel cuts.

If you watch the news, however, it's a rare day when the purse-lipped McMaster is ever interviewed on the national news shows. This Reuters lead pretty much sums up the facts of the matter- McMaster's a tagalong, spending tax monies on a high-profile, unwinnnable case to bolster his campaign:

Florida says challenge to healthcare reform widens

3:38pm EDT

By Pascal Fletcher

MIAMI (Reuters) - Five more states are joining a Florida-led group of states in a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, Florida's attorney general said on Wednesday.

The joint lawsuit led by Florida and now grouping 18 states was filed on March 23 by mostly Republican attorney generals.

"We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy."

A young woman who says she's a student at the Fulton, Misssisippi high school that created a fake prom for a lesbian student, her girlfriend, and a couple of what Rush Limbaugh called "retards", explains why the lesbian student deserved what she got:

**Open Minded Readers Only**

I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.

The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.

Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.

Boy Fogle joins VA gov in promoting redneck tourism: racists, c'mon down!

Confederate heritage groups fan Adam Fogle must have the ear of new Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. Last year, Fogle, a protege' of right wing CNN commentator and blogger Erick Erickson, celebrated Confederate Memorial Day thusly:

It is Confederate Memorial Day in South Carolina. Today, we honor the sacrifice made by an entire generation of men and women who sacrificed so much in defense of their country.

McDonnell's proclamation follows right along:

The seven-paragraph declaration calls for Virginians to "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War."

Here's the full text of McDonnell's declaration. According to him, the Confederates weren't trying to destroy the Union in order to keep owning other people, they just got overwhelmed by superior resources:

Confederate History Month

---

WHEREAS,  April is the month in which the people of Virginia joined the Confederate States of America in a four year war between the states for independence that concluded at Appomattox Courthouse; and

WHEREAS,  Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the numerous civil war battlefields that mark every  region of the state, the leaders and individuals in the Army, Navy and at home who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today; and

WHEREAS,  it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s  shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present; and

WHEREAS, Confederate historical sites such as the White House of the Confederacy are open for people to visit in Richmond today; and

WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace, following the instruction of General Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who wrote that, “...all should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war and to restore the blessings of peace."; and

WHEREAS,   this defining chapter in Virginia’s history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live, and this study and remembrance takes on particular importance as the Commonwealth prepares to welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War, a four-year period in which the exploration of our history can benefit all;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in ourCOMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Both McDonnell and Fogle believe Confederate re-enactments and slavery-free events will bolster tourism, only Fogle wants to hold his at rest stops along SC's interstate highways:

But worse than not being able to welcome all the tourists from Ohio to South Carolina is the fact we also now can’t remind them of why it is that we’re not too sad about not being able to welcome them anymore...

I think I am just going to hold my own Civil War reenactment like I did when I was a child a few months years ago. Only this time I’ll use a real musket and Sen. Glenn McConnell’s $30,000 cannon. And it will take place at a welcome center on a Tuesday or Wednesday, since they’ll be closed.

McDonnell's version:

McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

Fogle's great claim to fame, of course, is bringing international ridicule to South Carolina when he got scared gay people from London might come here and spend money.

It may be smart politics keeping your base angry and check-writing, and good for getting your paymasters the sort of wingnut clients who run the SC legislature, but Ben Smith wonders if it's a smart move nationally:

After several months of driving the political conversation and putting the White House on its heels, Republicans seem to find the situation reversed: The circus at the Republican National Committee was bad enough, but one of the party's stars' decision to relitigate the Civil War plays to all the narrowest perceptions of the GOP as a regional, cultural party.

Savonarola's infecting your computer for Jesus, the Pope and Queen Elizabeth II

When Waldo reported last year that he was getting a malware warning on visiting "Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands  its hater-in-chief said it was all a lie peddled by one of his sodomite foes.

Well, over the last couple of days, we've gotten another malware warning from Google/Blogspot.

For reasons eluding Waldo's understanding of technology- he uses a Remington typewriter after all- we can't copy the message in its vivid red, so we'll just type in here want the warning says:

Warning: visiting this site may harm your computer!

The website at www.sunlituplands.com contains elements from the site jimleeforcongress2010.com, which appears to host malware- software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

For detailed information about the problems with these elements, visit the Google Safe Browsing Diagnostic page for jimleeforcongress2010.com.

Learn more about how to protect yourself from harmful software online.

Then there's a box for you to check if you want to proceed, or go "Back to Safety."

Cow seems to be out of the barn-

A Texas Democratic legislator has issued a non-apology apology for outing her primary opponent, which proves- once again- being a jerk is not a partisan issue:

"I regret that in response to one of my opponent's repeated, negative, personal attacks, I made reference to her sexual orientation," Chávez said in a statement. "My opponent's sexual orientation has no bearing on this campaign. This campaign should be about who is going to be the most effective legislator for El Paso in the Texas House."

Short campaigns vs. long campaigns

The UK is having a national election. The campaign will last for a month.


While American observers often get wistful about how lovely it would be if presidential elections could be done that quickly, there are tradeoffs.


For one thing- Waldo lived through the UK election of 1979- when a campaign is on you get drowned in campaign news and ads. It's like trying to have breakfast, lunch and dinner under Niagara Falls. It may only be thirty days but it feels like 365.


There's three two and a half major parties as well, so the messaging is increased that much more.


The big new thing in the UK is TV debates with the three leading party heads. Times op-ed chief Daniel Finkelstein wonders if the ROI is worth it in such a compressed campaign schedule:

Doing the rounds of the BBC last night and this morning, a very interesting question arose about the TV debates.

We all assumed they would improve the accountability of leaders during the campaign.

But were we wrong?

Because the debates take three nights to do, and much longer to prepare for, the time has to come from somewhere. And the natural place to take it from is the time allocated to media work.

This will happen partly because the parties won't want to cut down on rallies and visits, and partly because they won't want to add preparation and risk for big interviews to the heavy and somewhat similar burden of the debates.

So the debates are going to come at the expense of big TV interviews.

Is this a good swap?

Not necessarily. The debates are so controlled and rule bound that they may be rather dull in the end. And they may provide the public with less information than a proper grilling.

In the meantime, Tory blogger/publisher Iain Dale is collecting funny campaign stories:

A load of us hit a local station at rush hour last night and leafletted the locals on their journey home. One guy came up to me and said:

'I used to campaign all summer, every summer.'

'Oh, who for?' I replied.

'The Conservatives of course...'

'Great stuff, well, we're really pleased to have your support.'

'...I have to support the Tories, really - after all, my mother was shagging a Tory cabinet minister throughout my childhood.'

Cue speechlessness and guffawing all round as the bloke dashed off merrily down the street.

Measuring "all deliberate speed" in centuries

A Daily Dish reader compares the Catholic and Episcopalian responses to priests using their authority to abuse children:

The Roman Church is very quick to protest that clergy sex abuse is not limited to their domain, and this is true, but when one compares the way that it has handled the issue to the way it is handled by other denominations, their protestations ring mighty hollow.

A singular case in point happened a number of years ago in a small town in Massachusetts. The rector of the Episcopal Church was accused of having had a sexual relationship with a 14 year old boy more than thirty years prior when the priest was serving at another parish in another state. The relationship appears to have been at least quasi-consensual (although one could argue, convincingly in my view, that a fully consensual relationship between a grown man, particularly one as influential as a priest, and an adolescent is not possible).

The priest, when confronted with the accusation, admitted that the relationship had taken place, and the Diocese of Massachusetts removed him, not only from his position as parish rector, but also from the Episcopal priesthood, THAT VERY DAY.

And the national Republican Party chose him to respond to the State of the Union Address.

Jonathan Chait, noting the lies VA Gov. Bob McDonnell told to con voters he was a moderate, observes that the state's one-term rule frees ideologues to fib and then go rogue:

Last year, the Richmond Times-Dispatch endorsed Bob McConnell for governor, citing his "moderate temperament." Now (via Greg Sargent) the newspaper is expressing alarm over McConnell's decision to reinstate Confederate History Month, and to completely ignore slavery in his proclamation, his latest embrace of hard-right social conservatism.

Mauldin: trash magnet of the Upstate

Angry Mauldin, SC Republicans worry about things that go on with their trash in the middle of the night:

“I can just imagine in the middle of the night, I've got a bunch of crap that I need to put somewhere, and I'm out of bags,” Barber said. “I can see this interfering with my life a whole lot more than a bond or a temporary sort of tax that is addressed to the $600,000 shortfall.”

...With more recycling put on the curb, Phil Cochrane said the city would have problems with thieves carting away the more expensive items in the middle of the night.

“Unemployed people, vagrants, you name it, (they'll) come into your community at 2 and 3 in the morning and they'll gather up all the expensive recyclables, so the city loses money and you lose money as a taxpayer,” Cochrane said.

Why not kill off the rest of the Seminoles, then, and just pocket the cash?

FITS News has a typically sensitive post up about Florida negotiating a gambling deal with the Seminole tribe, and why it will put SC tourism at a competitive disadvantage, thus the need for legalizing gambling in South Carolina.

Seriously, how long are we going to continue assuaging our guilt over Manifest Destiny?

More on the conservative obsession with anal functions

Garnet Spy has a post up about the nature of RINOs in South Carolina. It must be in some code left over from his intellegence agency days, as it makes little, if any sense.


Readers can, however, be even more grateful he's not a doctor:

Now, this doesn’t mean that the national Republican apparatus is anything to be emulate.   There needs to be a wholesale party colonoscopy in the GOP to flush out the political effluent of party hacks and opportunists has made Republicans so ineffective over the last couple of decades.

A colonoscopy, after all, is a different procedure for a different purpose:

It is through a colonoscopy that a doctor can see if there is inflammation or abnormalities in the rectum, intestines and colon.

The patient is given pain medication and a mild sedative so they can stay relaxed and comfortable during the procedure. A colonoscope (a long, flexible, lighted tube) is inserted into the patient's rectum and is slowly guided up through the small intestines and further up into the colon.

There is a tiny camera in the scope that transmits an image of the lining of the colon. By examining the image on a video monitor, the doctor can check for any abnormalities. If any are detected, the doctor can either remove it or take samples to be tested in a lab.

No flushing accomplished by that means. 


(A "wholesale party colonoscopy" is a proposed Republican National Committee "Young Eagles" event at a dwarf hermaphrodite showtunes piano bar in Branson, Missouri.)


So how to flush the effluent?


You can't.


Effluent is already out. Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: ²effluent

Function: noun

Date: 1859

: something that flows out: as a : an outflowing branch of a main stream or lake b : waste material (as smoke, liquid industrial refuse, or sewage) discharged into the environment especially when serving as a pollutant.

Maybe the word he's searching for is "enema."

Curiously, before calling for "party hacks and opportunists" to be flushed out of the party, the Spy praises South Carolina Republican office holders for being party hacks and opportunists:

Palmetto State politicians aren’t dumb (go ahead… laugh.  I’ll wait).  If they want to be elected, most of them come from districts that won’t pick a Democrat.  So, no matter what their political philosophies, they do the expedient thing and register as Republicans.

Who got South Carolina?

Surely they'd need political consultants:

The ex-fiance of the leader of the Hutaree Christian militia tells the AP that the group harbored delusions of grandeur to the point that they created "a big map on a room in their house of their own country and their own names of their countries and cities and stuff."

Andrea Harsh, who was engaged to alleged Hutaree leader David Stone, described the map as "very extensive."

Mike Rogers needs to put up or STFU

Waldo checked in at Blog Active, Mike Rogers' blog for outing gay politicians. He has an item about  SC gubernatorial candidate Andre Bauer but persists in not producing the evidence that supports his claim that Bauer is gay.


In past outings of Republicans who opposed gay rights while going for it on the side, he put up the proof. In Bauer's case, he just said he'd talked to "people" who said they know the scoop.


Sorry, that's not professionalism- or good journalism. Bauer has challenged anybody making the claim to produce the proof. Here's Rogers' latest non-story story:

From corrupt to the closet...

A gay governor of South Carolina... That would be interesting.
Bauer making run for governor official - WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina:

South Carolina's lieutenant governor will be making his bid for governor official.

Republican Andre Bauer has been in the race to replace the term-limited Gov. Mark Sanford, but has not formally announced his candidacy.

Campaign manager Hank Page said Bauer will do so as he launches a 24-hour tour across the state Monday. The fly around will start about 7:00am at a restaurant in Spartanburg and conclude Tuesday in time for Bauer to preside over the Senate for the week's legislative session."

Progress among the Official Progressives

Indigo Journal, "the" progressive blog of South Carolina, has revamped its site design.

Much cleaner. Good luck- Waldo hopes it bumps up the readership.

Massa Dawson speaks

In between sips of a mint julep at his all-white country club, the great white hope  is making a move:

“Right now it is crucial for the R.N.C. to get off the front pages of the newspapers,” said Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Committee chairman who ran against Mr. Steele. “Get back to the mission of winning elections.”

Mr. Dawson, who did not rule out challenging Mr. Steele when his term is up, suggested that Mr. Steele did not appreciate the fact that not all publicity is good publicity, even for a chairman whose role includes keeping his party (and himself) in the spotlight.

“Lee Harvey Oswald had 100 percent name ID and none of it was any good,” Mr. Dawson said. “The bad press hurts us on the ground. One donor called me up and said, ‘I’m not going to give those guys any money.’ “

CNN = Fox News Lite?

Here's a long- but worthwhile- clip (13:38) from last night's The Ed Show on RedState blogger Erik Erickson's latest asshattery- that if a census worker shows up on his land he'll grab his wife's shotgun and she what the little twerp thinks of that.

His wife's shotgun? What a wussie. If you're gonna threaten violence, why not have your own gun?

What's interesting is that host Ed Shultz and two guests recap Erickson's long record of threats of violence, hate speech and outright lies at RedState.com. CNN has hired him as a paid commentator.

One of Erickson's proteges is The Palmetto Scoop's Adam Fogle. Will he show some integrity and renounce his mentor's record?

Waldo, typing furiously in his bath, sighed loudly.

"Pollyanna," he said.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bless their hearts, it always bubbles up somehow

Heading into an election so close many observers believe will end in a Parliament in which no party has a majority, the Tories' shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, damaged years of UK conservative efforts to put their gay-bashing past behind them and cost his party a five point drop among gay voters almost overnight after he said he believes gay couples can stay in hotels but can be turned away by B&B owners.

Coburn goes off the rez

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who sitteth at the right hand of Senator Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund ratings (Coburn has a 96% rating, while only Himself gets 100) says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a nice person, Teabaggers ought to consider differing points of view in aid of real debate on the issues, and you can't believe everything you see on Fox News.

Will DeMint give Coburn the boot from the circle of the elect, or will he hand out another Ensign/Vitter No Harm, No Foul Pass?

The Young Eagles are an open carry picnic for insecure guys who CAN afford Porsches and find it doesn't fill the need.

So far nobody seems to be able to find any women in the Republican National Committee's Young Eagles Club, which may explain the lezzie bondage strip club escapade. Frat boys just love that sort of thing:

Whoever it is, there's no doubt they know how to roll, GOP-style. Before an RNC official indicated this week that the group's activities would be scaled back in light of the bondage-related fiasco, the Young Eagles had planned a Texas bird hunt, a trip to the Indy 500, a bull-riding event, and a jaunt to London to hobnob with Tory party leader David Cameron.

One DC gossip blogger noted last year, apparently without irony, that the group "has been hitting all the sexy hotspots" -- including a Redskins game with Steele, dinner at Spago in LA with Newt Gingrich, and cocktails at the W Hotel with John Boehner.

And it's not hard to see what makes these guys popular. As one young GOP donor put it to Politico: "If you've got a little insecurity complex, but you've got money -- what a cool group to hang out with."

According to a Young Eagles brochure obtained by The Daily Caller, the group has offered annual memberships at reduced rates of $2,500 if you're 21-25, and $5,000 if you're 26-35.

In fact, it looks like the Young Eagles penchant for living la vida loca has been simmering in the background of Republican politics for a while now. In late 2008, a plan for the group to attend a party at the swank Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida provoked grumbling about the optics from National Review.

But the RNC has clearly been feeling the pressure to keep these high-rollers entertained. "Everything that's cool from a pop culture perspective is Democratic -- whether it's Kanye West or Bruce Springsteen -- and with younger conservatives, a good event is often a big way to help sell," one former Young Eagle put it toPolitico. "How many times can you go to the U.S. Open?"

Burn them!

And the Vatican blames gays and pro-choicers:

"The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different" agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, was quoted as saying.

Gun envy

The Michigan Militia, which trains with those Hutaree loons and then goes out for fajitas, is having an "Open Carry Family Picnic and Tea Party Saturday.

An open carry picnic is just a car rally for insecure guys who can't afford a Porsche.

What price coal?

Waldo's no big government enthusiast. It don't make no never mind whether it's Ds or Rs in power. Either one's got its favorites and its enemies. People to reward; people to punish.

But the free market, voluntary-compliance regimen the conservatives of the US have advocated for decades- and substantially installed in aid of the fortunes of their corporate patrons, doesn't seem to have worked very well for the 25- and likely 29- mine workers killed in a gas explosion in a West Virginia mine the other day.

Massey Energy is a nonunion shop and the workers there made their choice. If choice includes going to work for the only viable business in the region.

But as it emerges the mine was piling up safety violations like pages in the health care bill, the question must be asked: how many lives are coal companies willing to sacrifice to keep costs down and profits high?

Are mine workers like Ford Motor Company once considered Pinto drivers?

Teabagger rage gets racist

Yesterday Waldo clipped a post from National Review Online, where a writer said Congressman John Lewis is, more or less, making things up because white people were mean to him in the civil rights protest days.

Chris Matthews seems to have put that one to rest with this recording Lewis' office received. Have a listen. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The plain fact is Congressional Republicans,when they appear at Teabagger events, encourage their rage, call for them to become part of the GOP's tiny tent, and don't speak up as the language of violence ratchets up week by week, are complicit in this sort of stuff. A man in Washington State has been indicted for threatening to assassinate Senator Patty Murray over her vote on health care as well.

Senator Jim DeMint styles himself the leader of the Teabaggers. Fancy adding some gas to you playing with matches, Senator?

Good morning-

But mad dogs and Englishmen/Go out in the noonday sun.


     -Noel Coward (1938)

New GOP governor busy turning the state into Adamfogleistan

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell ran for governor promising a moderate administration devoted to creating jobs. So far he's repealed  antidiscrimination protections for gay state employees; saying it's a legislative issue; declared he'd oppose the legislature taking any action; supported his attorney general's order to state college and universities to eliminate any gay rights protection in their rules; then issued a state declaration against discrimination that hasn't the force of law, then declared Christian Heritage Week; and now has declared April Confederate Heritage Month.

Boy Fogle, who frets all the time that gay pride groups get grant money that should have better gone to "conservative heritage groups," (and who also has the sharpest inside contacts around about Virginia politics) will doubtless be pleased.

Last May 11, for example, he got really secceshy (emphasis added):

It is Confederate Memorial Day in South Carolina. Today, we honor the sacrifice made by an entire generation of men and women who sacrificed so much in defense of their country.

Conspiracies are always vast now

A former Vatican reporter argues the Papal State is acting like the Clintons, and getting about the same result:

Yet for reasons that surpasseth understanding, the Vatican sticks to the Clinton playbook: deny, cover up, and when busted, apologize but also make things worse by pointing fingers at enemies who do exist, but are not remotely to blame. (Of course the whole secular culture would love to see Benedict step down to spend more time with his family, if only he had one, hahaha -- but why doesn't knowing they're taunting him like that, and would revel in his downfall, strengthen his resolve to deprive them of ammo? Instead, his team keeps them fully supplied with targets any fool could hit without so much as stepping off his porch.)

Undeterred, Benedict and his top deputies refer to reports on the mishandling of Father Murphy's stomach-turning (and undisputed) sexual attacks on hundreds of deaf boys as "petty gossip." The Vatican's Father Raniero Cantalamessa even had the chutzpah to deliver aGood Friday homily in which he compared media coverage of the revelations of abuse to . . . yes, the persecution of Jews. Though nothing should ever be compared to that, period, those of us whose spiritual predecessors were responsible for that persecution should need no reminders to steer clear.

Like the former president, however, Vatican officials can't seem to help themselves, and Sunday's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano again denounced accusations against the pope as a "vile defamation operation." Like Clinton, too, Benedict and his defenders so fully see themselves as the wronged party that they're unable to learn from their mistakes. If church officials are any humbler since the American clerical sex scandals that so damaged the church when I was covering the Vatican for The New York Times in 2002, I can't tell it.

Whoring senator's porn star opponent says,"It's the GOP for me!"

 

The porn star who has toyed with a run against the Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) announced today that she is becoming a Republican.

Stormy Daniels has been considering a (joke?) campaign ever since Vitter was linked to the "D.C. madam" in in 2007. But back then, she was a Democrat.

Now that the RNC has patronized a lesbian bondage themed club in Hollywood, Daniels says the GOP is the party for her.

"It is time again to inspire positive risks and out-of-the-box thinking in the interest of growing a strong economy and a strong America," Daniels said in a tongue-in-cheek press release. “For me, this spirit can be summed up in the RNC’s investment of donor funds at Voyeur."

She continued: “As someone who has worked extensively in both the club and film side of the Adult Entertainment Industry, I know from experience that a mere $1900 outlay at a club with the reputation of Voyeur is a clear indication of a frugal investment with a keen eye toward maximum return."

Though Daniels said she has been a lifelong Democrat, she "cannot help but recognize that over time my libertarian values regarding both money and sex and the legal use of one for the other is now best espoused by the Republican Party.”

Senator Vitter is one of Senator Jim DeMint's favorite, most pure, Republican colleagues.

Republican populism at work

TPM demonstrates how GOP Senators can blank check $200,000-a-minute wars and oppose unemployment compensation extensions:

Young GOP Donor: 'I Believe In A Purpose Driven Life ... If Life's Purpose Is Backgammon And Tennis'

Zachary Roth | April 6, 2010, 12:46PM

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John Roby Penn IV (right), with Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, at an event in Washington, D.C.

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J. Roby Penn IV, Republican National Committee, Sex, Young Eagles

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"My ancestors, actually, weren't on the Mayflower. They sent the servants over first to get the cottage ready."

Haw haw haw haw haw! That's from theFacebook page of J. Roby Penn IV, the 29-year-old oil-and-gas heir who serves as the mid-Atlantic director of the RNC's Young Eagles program. 

Also: "I believe in a purpose driven life... if life's purpose is backgammon and tennis."

And: "If you don't have an oil well, get one."

The Young Eagles, as you know, have helpedthrow the RNC into crisis after their trip to one of LA's top bondage-themed nightclubs. But given the man-of-leisure persona cultivated by Penn, maybe it's not so surprising that the group is used to being entertained in style.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Slowly dying in the ratings wars among cable news outlets, CNN seems intent on pivoting hard right into Foxland. First they hired Red State's Erick Erickson, then John Avlon, and now this:

CNN's Kyra Phillips asked: 'Homosexuality: Is it a problem in need of a cure?'

Posted by Joe Sudbay (DC) at 4/06/2010 11:58:00 AM 

I watched this jaw-dropping segment on CNN this morning. It was shocking as Andy Towle reported:

CNN's Kyra Phillips just ran a repulsive and shockingly irresponsible segment on Lowenthal's efforts in which she asked, "Homosexuality: Is it a problem in need of a cure?"

She then brought on crackpot "ex-gay" Richard Cohen, spewing lies about how people can change their sexuality and become straight, with nobody to rebut his disproven arguments. (You may remember when Rachel Maddow ripped Cohen to shreds over Uganda).

From CNN's blog: "At 10:40 we’ll talk with the State Assemblywoman who’s heading up the repeal effort. We’ll also talke (sic) with a leading expert on sexual reorientation, who was gay but is now married to a woman and has 3 kids."

Mrs Palin can see Uncle Grumpy from her TeleprompTer

FITS News snarks the President with the standard right-wing TelePrompTer meme.

Turns out they've been around since 1952, and lots of people have used them.

A report from the 2008 campaign:

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy

In a constant effort to improve its candidate's big speech abilities, the McCain campaign is using both a large flat screen monitor and two side pannel teleprompters for the candidate to read his prepared remarks on the housing crisis outside of LA, which he is delivering now. Teleprompters are nothing new for any of these candidates, but the McCain campaign had expressed concern that the side panel prompters made McCain look like he was watching a tennis match, but by using the large monitor fixed in the back of the room, McCain rarely shifted his gaze from straight ahead.

The hope is that by surrounding him with teleprompters McCain will be able to look more natural speaking to nearly 20 cameras in what will be his most extensive remarks on the housing crisis to date.

"I'm not some college professor with a teleprompter, you betcha, I shoot from the hip for the progressing of this great country of ours (wink)"

A linguist considers Mrs Palin's roving armies of words:

Rather, Palin is given to meandering phraseology of a kind suggesting someone more commenting on impressions as they enter and leave her head rather than constructing insights about them. Or at least, insights that go beyond the bare-bones essentials of human cognition — an entity (i.e. something) and a predicate (i.e. something about it).

When we think we can't be shocked any more, we are shocked anew.

Andrew Sullivan's posting the personal accounts of Catholics about the sex abuse crisis. The incomparable religion correspondent of The Times, Ruth Gledhill, has a sad, moving blogpost about the unfolding tragedy:

...According to one organisation for abuse survivors, 150,000 children went through the church-run institutions in Ireland. About 15,000 are still alive today.  Many of those who were abused fled to England as soon as they got out, I was told. But illiterate and damaged, they were unable to function in adult society. They ended up homeless, on the streets of London. The organisation told me some are still there today, on the streets, but hurt so badly they cannot even begin to articulate what happened to them.

It is as if they are just waiting to die. And maybe that is what some in the hierarchy hoped, that time itself would solve the problem.

But it won't. In Ireland, a source told me last night: 'It's only just beginning.'

The Belfast Telegraph and Irish Independent publish details today of the new police unit set up specifically to probe allegations of child sex abuse. 

I suggest they start with investigating the religious brother that one of the victim survivors told me this week had raped and beaten him, repeatedly, showing merciless sadism, before placing the Body of Christ on the boy's tongue at services of Holy Communion.  The survivor is living back in Ireland. Less than a mile away, he says, still protected by his community and in a house neighbouring a school, is the man who abused him. He has never been brought to justice.

It comes to something when even Richard Dawkins is defending Christianity. He told me yesterday why he had mixed feelings about a putative end to Christianity: 'There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death. I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity, in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse.'

The Prime Minster Gordon Brown has also stepped into the debate, describing the Roman Catholic Church as the conscience of the nation. Archbishop Cranmer has the story. The Prime Minister was responding to a questionnaire sent him by Faith Today, a new magazine published by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. As we say in The Times leader today, 'The character of our society is determined by culture and not just by policymakers. Christians will and ought to be a powerful influence in the general election in the next few weeks, not least as a corrective to extravagant claims. Reinhold Niebuhr, the great Protestant social thinker, noted with scepticism the human tendency to obscure the morally ambiguous element in political causes by investing them with religious sanctity. Christians will serve the nation in pointing to the moral costs and compromises of political decisions.

'Through all these temporal squalls, there is a truth that Christians hold to and will proclaim this weekend: an ultimate harmony that is the Kingdom of God, and that is but dimly perceived now. For above all revelations of weakness, failure and disunity within the Church, that is what the Risen Christ points His servants to.'

On this day when Christian's remember Christ's crucifixion, where can they turn to for hope as the moral and ethical credibility of the Church founded by St Peter bleeds away, minute by minute, second by second? As the horror of what little children suffered at the hands and other body parts of the servants of Christ emerges over and over again, plumbing unimaginably disgusting depths of torture, sadism and perversion?

I will just recommend one link for now. Try Pastor Bob Cornwall's latest post for reflection. I would be grateful to readers here if, as well as the usual lively debates we have at Articles of Faith, you could do me and all of us a service by looking out links and meditations that might provide help and consolation, and post them in your comments.

Now I must take a break to dry my eyes.