Month: November 2008

Alex Knapp dissects “Derangement Syndrome” Syndrome. Let me just say that it is never deranged to believe that the United States president must obey the rule of law and that torture is always wrong.

Bob Novak hypes his old buddy. Yeah: a conservatism in need of a p.r. boost needs Gingrich as its figurehead.

"The towel story categorically is not true," – Steve Schmidt.

Some Palin quotes from an interview with the Alaskan TV station, KTUU:

Q. There’s been an enormous amount of information about you that Alaskans have been exposed to the past couple of months — and lots of it very critical. What are Alaskans supposed to make of all this?

A. Regarding information regarding my record, that is now out there, much of it that was based on misinformation was a very, very frustrating thing to have to go through when the record was never corrected. And we would try to correct the record and too many in the media chose not to make those corrections.

Q. What misinformation are you talking about?

A. Some of the goofy things like who was Trig’s mom. Well, I’m Trig’s mom (raises her hand) and do you want to see my medical records to prove that?

Yes, please! I’ve only been asking for two fricking months.

Hilzoy considers how much to trust an Obama administration. Three Reaganite words from the Dish: Trust But Verify.

It’s in need of intellectual irrigation – and fast. Ryan Sager looks to Bloomberg as a model for the Obamified Rocky Belt.

Ahem:

Two weeks ago on his HBO show "Real Time," comedian, social commentator and movie producer Bill Maher said something to the effect he would believe race had not played a role in the 2008 presidential election "When Tuscaloosa, Alabama, votes for Barack Obama."

Well, guess what, Bill, our fine city of 80,000 or so on the banks of the lovely Black Warrior River, went overwhelmingly for Obama, 62 percent to 38 percent, by my preliminary, rough estimate.

Now it is true that Republican John McCain carried Tuscaloosa County 55.5 percent to 44.4 percent, but within the city limits of Tuscaloosa, which is a majority white city and the home of the University of Alabama (whose Crimson Tide football team is ranked number one in the country, in case you haven’t noticed), Democrat Obama had approximately 26,000 votes to about 15,600 for McCain. The countywide vote was 45,351 for McCain and 32,738 for Obama.

Well done (from 2005). The bit about his middle finger is hilarious:

Dale Carpenter finds the marriage equality protests misguided:

Here’s my advice to righteously furious gay-marriage supporters: Stop the focus on the Mormon Church. Stop it now. We just lost a ballot fight in which we were falsely but effectively portrayed as attacking religion. So now some of us attack a religion? People were warned that churches would lose their tax-exempt status, which was untrue. So now we have (frivolous) calls for the Mormon Church to lose its tax-exempt status? It’s rather selective indignation, anyway, since lots of demographic groups gave us Prop 8 in different ways — some with money and others with votes. I understand the frustration, but this particular expression of it is wrong and counter-productive.

He has another proposal:

If a more intense physical expression of anger and frustration is needed, why not have sit-ins at marriage-license bureaus in California? It could be modeled on the sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the 1960s. The demonstrations would be targeted at government buildings — rather than at churches. And after all, it’s government policy we’re legitimately protesting, not religious doctrine. Let people get arrested as they sing "We Shall Overcome." The protesters themselves — gay and straight, single and married, black and white, Mormon and Catholic, Republicans and Democrats, moms and dads raising kids — would suffer and accept the legal consequences of their acts. Rather than instilling fear and resentment in others, rather than dividing people on religious and racial lines, they would literally be putting their own bodies on the line for the good of their relationships, their families, their friends, and for a just cause whose time has come. We’ve had enough of lawyers, courts, focus groups, and media handlers. Let peaceful protesters by the thousands be dragged away just because they want to marry. It would be good old-fashioned civil disobedience, an American protest tradition.

After totally reneging on his pledge to campaign against Proposition 8, girly-man Schwarzenegger again tries to throw the issue to the courts: