Category: Awards

Yglesias Award Nominee

“Mike Huckabee is not only recruiting Jesus to be a foot soldier in the culture wars; he’s trying to raise money for his political action committee on it. I understand that how one views this is entirely subjective, but I for one find this kind of thing to be, at a minimum, tasteless and crass. We all get the game that’s being played: the Supreme Court renders a verdict on a hot-button social issue –and within hours ‘Jesus wept’ is used as a fundraising tool. One has to strike while the iron is hot, after all. Still, you might think that a Christian would use a good deal of caution when it comes to leveraging poignant verses about Jesus into three dollar donations for HuckPAC. …

I will say that on policy, Mr. Huckabee and I are fairly close in the views we hold (though certainly not identical). But what troubles me, and what I would hope would trouble Huckabee, is we’ve seen what happens when Christians use their faith as a blunt political instrument. It isn’t good for politics; but it’s a good deal worse for Christianity. A politicized faith is discrediting. It pushes people away. And it frankly distorts who Jesus was,” – Peter Wehner.

Malkin Award Nominee

“It feels to me like we’re either in Iran or Communist China,” – Fox News’ Eric Bolling to a former half-term delusional fantasist.

It’s worth noting that the key difference between the Bush-Cheney program, accountable only to the Supreme Leader, and the Obama program, is that Obama has included Congressional and judicial checks on data-gathering. The idea of genuine checks by an independent Congress or judiciary in China or Iran is absurd.

Malkin Award Nominee

“The American Spectator is under the watchful eye of the Obama Administration! Since January 1, 2013, federal government has been on the spectator.org website 81,164 times, with the IRS, Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security leading the way. It’s true The American Spectator has seen the likes of Barack Obama before. Arrogant, unfailingly sure of his own righteousness, and willing to do anything to hold on to the reins of power — even going so far as to encourage and oversee the harassment of his administration’s critics, as we’ve seen in the recent revelations about the IRS targeting conservative groups,” – a pitch to contribute by the American Spectator.

Notice how the ugly and utterly unsubstantiated smear of Obama-As-Nixon is now repeated as fact.

Yglesias Award Nominee

“National security is different from internal matters of the government. We’re dealing with foreign threats here. They’re not allowed to go into that data until they have a warrant signed off on by a judge. That is totally different from the IRS abuses, which I think are very serious, and I think it’s very important for conservatives and Republicans to make that distinction,” – Bill Kristol, agreeing with me and Josh Marshall (on PRISM anyway). And, er, yes, gulp.

Malkin Award Nominee

“Racial groups like African Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime,” – 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones, as reported in a complaint against alleged judicial misconduct in a speech she gave on Feb. 20, 2013, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Jones was on a shortlist for the US Supreme Court under the last two Republican administrations. Here’s what the complaint against her alleges she stated that day:

That claims of “mental retardation” by capital defendants disgust her, and the fact such persons were convicted of a capital crime is itself sufficient to prove they are not in fact “mentally retarded”;

That Defendants’ claims of racism, innocence, arbitrariness, and violations of international law and treaties are really nothing more than “red herrings” used by opponents of capital punishment;

That certain “racial groups like African Americans and Hispanics” are “’prone’ to commit acts of violence,” and get involved in more violent and “heinous” crimes than people of other ethnicities;

That Mexican nationals would prefer to be on death row in the United States rather than serving prison terms in Mexico, and it is an insult for the United States to look to the laws of other countries such as Mexico; and

That the imposition of a death sentence provides a positive service to capital-case defendants because defendants are likely to make peace with God only in the moment before their imminent execution.

Every now and again, you get an unvarnished glimpse of the current Republican soul. And it is rank.

Malkin Award Nominee

“That’s the attitude necessary to victory, a core belief that whatever Democrats are in favor of is a bad thing for America, because if it was good for America, Democrats would be against it. Democrats are the Evil Coalition of Liars and Fools, and the job of Republicans is to convince America of this basic truth,” – Robert Stacy McCain, proving Josh Barro right.

Malkin Award Nominee

“I believe that the Obama administration is conducting psychological warfare on conservative Americans. Not only that but it is also waging this war on all Americans who previously viewed themselves, their country, their Constitution and their overwhelming belief in God as a force for good in the world … Seen through the lens of psychological warfare, the failure to defend our embassy in Benghazi need not be understood simply as a screw-up. It could reflect an actual strategy on the part of the administration to reinforce the notion that homicidal violence born of hatred toward America is understandable—even condonable—because we have generated it ourselves and are reaping the harvest of ill will we have sown. In other words, we should take our punishment,” – Dr Keith Ablow, Fox News.

Dr Ablow is a psychiatrist. Yes, you read that right.