Telescoping history

Another Confederate widow has died - but not the last. Key dates in the story:

• 1848 - birth of William Cantrell
• 1864 - enlistment of Cantrell in the Confederate Army
  
• 1915 - birth of Maudie White Hopkins
  
• 1934 - financial marriage, husband 86, wife 19
• 1937 - death of Cantrell
• 2008 - death of Hopkins

This is interesting because it shows how huge a span of history the relationships of one person can encompass. Cantrell could have known someone born before the Revolution.

I started to think about time spans when I realized that my daughter had been born longer after the Vietnam War than I had been born after World War II. It was shocking to me that she must think, as I had about my parents' childhood war, that her parents' war was safely settled.

Of course, with John McCain gaining ground and after 2004's vast cultural divide, it's obvious that Vietnam is not settled.

Update: Almost forgot - she married him in part for his Confederate pension. Who paid these pensions to a treasonous army? The former CSA states [--Peggy Harris]. Yet 40 acres and a mule never materialized.

Dishonest and a crook

There's no reason to believe anything Jerome Corsi says, writes, or belches out onto the Internet.

He's in it for the money. Yours, mine, anyone's.

Lie, cheat, steal, it's all the same to him. Sue him and his wife owns everything.

Why is someone who couldn't buy credibility if it were half off at Credibility Barn on everyone's television? He's a bestselling bullshitter.

Denver and St. Paul

The conventions are coming. Violating my usual rule against speculation when a week or two of waiting would reveal all, here's what I expect.

The Democrats go first, apparently because they don't hold the White House and therefore don't have home court advantage. The media will tell us how much of a polling bounce Obama should get from his week of "overwhelmingly postive [sic] coverage." They'll conveniently forget the recent events of Obama's overseas trip, when the McCain press operation released attack after attack.

Tucky Bounds and his conscienceless corps of spinners will be at their blast faxes again. They know that they can count on a compliant media to type them up in the name of faux balance without ever noticing the larger story. That's what happened when Obama travelled, and the media kept posing naive questions about why the trip didn't do him more good. The answer was staring them in the face on their own web sites, but it would have been impolite to their old pal McCain to notice.

The media won't notice that they're being used again. They never notice. They're too busy sniffing for middle school level scandal and gossip.

What could the Obama campaign do about this?

First, immunize. McCain is going to attack the stadium speech again, for example. Parry and counterattack. Prep an ad that shows previous stadium speeches. Richard Nixon spoke before a Billy Graham Crusade in Neyland Stadium when it only held 95,000. Say, "Politicians of all stripes who can fill them have spoken before stadium crowds for many years. It's what they have to say, not where they say it, that's important." Repeat for any wedge you can foresee the Republicans using.

Second, attack. Have surrogates prepped and ready. The distant surrogates should attack strongly and repeatedly. McCain's loopiness is a legitimate issue. Close surrogates - the ones that you might have to take responsibility for - should have talking points ready. Democrats are awful at sticking to a script (Joe Biden); ask Ted Kennedy (if he's well enough) or Al Gore to tell them the vital importance of sticking to your message and not stretching a bridge too far. Then, dammit, don't back down.

Third, prepare your own blast faxes for the Republicans' week in St. Paul. Put them on the defensive for a change. Be sure you give the lazy media an irresistible catch phrase to tag each story, like "McCain knows the drill."

For the past thirty years, though, Democrats have been slow learners about Republican politics. I don't see any reason to think that's suddenly changed.

Look for McCain to lead the polls by Labor Day.

Catching up after your coma

McCNN gives us the Authorized Biography of John McCain for all the curious voters who've been unconscious for the past two years or even longer. Should you be able to vote with an EEG so flat?

Can we expect an equally friendly Obama hagiography? I'll be watching for it. Hey, Bigfoot was almost real the other day.

Update: I didn't realize for a moment that McCNN had already posted the answer, albeit with a link in small type. Here's the result: McCain called to duty vs. Obama unexpectedly lucky bastard. Incredible!

Nasty, brutish, and long

The escalation branded the 'surge' by the Bushists was timed, intentionally or not, to follow ethnic cleansing rather than to prevent it. Meanwhile, those torture rooms that the neocons told us they had closed were still operating - and not just under our supervision.

Update: Newsweek has the happy talk. Swimming pools! Groovy. Of course, two drownings, no female swimmers, no Sunnis from next door, and outrageous expenditures. In short, Iraq.

Isn't it rich?

The best bullshit peddlers are Republicans - by a long shot. Here's the sequence:

1. John McCain defines rich this way:

“So I think if you’re just talking about income, how about five million?” he later added. “I’m sure that comment will be distorted, but the point is that we want to keep people’s taxes low and increase revenues.”

2. Barack Obama, whose definition was $250,000, jokes about it:

“Which I guess if you’re making $3 million a year, you're middle class,” said Obama.

3. McCain mouthpiece Tucky Bounds retorts:

Obama is “shamelessly distorting” McCain’s comment.

"Remember when Barack Obama said he was ‘tired of distortion, name-calling, and sound bite solutions to complicated problems?’ Neither do we," wrote Bounds.

So, one campaign claims the well-worn and debunked standard issue Republican bullshit that tax cuts for the wealthy paradoxically increase revenue. The other campaign makes a completely legitimate and humorous dig about McCain's crazy claims. Yet, it's McCain's campaign that accuses Obama's of distortion. Up is down. Big Bushist Brother loves you.

If you have a job like Tucky's (Eric Fehrnstrom), you can't have a functioning conscience because you have to say shit like that. You're not being paid to put the best face on your candidate. You're being paid to pull wool over the eyes of the credulous as the first step in giving them a bullshit bath.

And these are the so-called Christians.

No way out

Contrary to CNN's false teaser headline ("Ticker: Minnesota Republican to skip convention"), Norm Coleman (R-MN) is going to the Republican convention in St. Paul. He just wishes he weren't. He wishes he didn't have to be associated with all the laughingstock Bushist bullshitters who will be appearing there in prime time.

Many of his Senate caucus-mates are trying to alibi out of the Duhbya disaster by staying home. They're saying, "George Duhbya Bush? I've met him, but we're not friends. Acquaintances, no more."

Coleman will be keeping his head down, even though he fits right in with the Bushists. I expect Al Franken to take full advantage of the conservatism-induced stupor that will be on bald display in their back yard.

For the Republican Senate cowards who suddenly don't want to be anywhere in the frame with Duhbya or Darth, the association is still easy to make:

• Open: empty chair
• "Fill in the blank is skipping the Republican convention this year."
• Fade into montage of the two embracing, signing legislation, grinning together.
  
• "After all these years of supporting in lock step every Republican disaster from George Duhbya Bush and Dick Cheney, fill in the blank is now ashamed of them and doesn't want his picture taken with them."
• Stop on the most damning photo.
  
• "Wouldn't it be better for name of state to skip Republican fill in the blank?"
• Fade to candid of Democratic challenger out listening to the voters.
  
• "Vote name of Democrat."
• Fill the seat with someone who'll change directions for the sake of America.
• (FEC blah-blah-blah)
  

Pander to me

[A]s the Saddleback forum revealed, McCain might finally be approaching his comfort zone on faith.

McCain has finally, finally learned to pander to the fundies, and this elicits a laudatory piece from McCNN.

Born into the bully faction, married into the wealthy faction, thrust by electoral necessity into the fundie faction, McCain is finally hitting the trifecta of Republican politics. Duhbya did this long ago in a different order: Born into the wealthy faction, Roved into a fundie, and Cheneyed among the bullies.

By definition, any man who can satisfy all three factions has to learn to pander deeply and without conscience and would therefore be a bad President.

Falling on his syringe

Those Greeks and Turks keep sending testosterone-laced supplements (scroll to middle of page) to Bulgaria:

The coach for Bulgarian middle-distance runner Daniela Yordanova said he was responsible for her positive doping test. Yordanova was banned Friday after she tested positive for testosterone June 13. "It was a big shock for me, but I should say I am fully responsible for Daniela's positive test," Dimitar Vasilev said. "I've always tried to buy medicines for her physical recovery from well-known companies. But last spring, I bought some medical goods from Greece and Turkey and most probably they caused the problem. Obviously, she consumed some contaminated food supplements."

Jeez, he couldn't come up with a better line of bullshit than to blame foreigners?

Thought you said 'dogs'

War on drugs, war on dogs, what's the difference?

Either way, you don't expect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to still apply, do you?

If this sort of thing can happen to the township mayor, you better believe it could happen to you. Over marijuana, not even an opiate.

Mayor Calvo came downstairs into a new time in America, in which no one is presumed innocent and guilt is only an assumption away.

My guess: If you looked into the operating history of the Prince George's County Police, you'd find aggressive use of civil forfeiture laws to fund special projects out of alleged drug money.

Something else that I had to go find myself: The PGCP is under a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice for excessive force and civil rights violations, ironically related to its K-9 unit.

Noticing the lie

McCNN offers this defense of John McCain:

Sometimes you just have to take it on faith.

Uh, guys, how has blind credulity toward Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter) worked out in the recent past? Did you learn anything like maybe a little skepticism?

Of course, we all know that you're too polite to notice that Christian pastor Rick Warren lied when he claimed:

"[W]e have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence."

It's foggy, but I seem to recall something about bearing false witness. Wasn't that forbidden or something? And this is the guy whose reassurance of McCain's unquestionable probity you're instantly accepting.

Look, politicians run late, and there's probably no story here, despite three - count 'em - bylines. But wouldn't it be the right role for a journalist to ask impertinent questions to find out whether there's a story?

Nah. Never happen.

Obama campaigns - of all the damn gall

Can you believe Obama? First he shares a politic hug with McCain. And the very next day, he's out campaigning again! He even criticizes his opponent. The nerve of some people, to flip-flop like that.

At least, that's how McCNN and the AP see it:

So much for hugging in church.

What a vacuous lead.

Market fetishists' paradox

Why is it that Libertarians won't accept the verdict of the marketplace of ideas?

Just a sound check

Click image to see full Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Journal Constitution cartoon.

McCain steals one of Ronnie Reagan's infamous throwaway lines. Hey, that couldn't be bad, could it? Pretty sly on Luckovich's part, though.

Clift notes

Eleanor Clift ladles on the bullshit:

• Repetition is the key, and we journalists can't be bothered to repeat the truth. The lies are so much more interesting.
  
• Obama's lead has "melted away". Check the polls - pretty damn steady.
  
• Please, Democrats, puh-leeze, run a Republican-style dirty campaign. We miss middle school backbiting.
  
• Democrats shy away from sleaze, not because they're better, but because they're non-confrontational and rationalize that as high-mindedness.
• Tsk-tsk, the election has become a referendum on Obama's personality (thanks, RNC, good talking point!), so Obama better show that McCain waffles and reverses and that he'd be another four years of Bushism.
  

Could we please have a real liberal somewhere instead of concern trolls like this?

Elmer Fudd was armed

There's a Thweatt in Texas. Must be a wascawwy wabbit.

"Can I have a hall pass, Mr. Earp?"

I can hardly wait until some Klebold wannabe challenges the football coach to draw. That'll make the evening news.

No values

That's me. Anti-torture? Not a value. Pro-fairness? Are you kidding? Against offensive wars? That's not a value, dammit. I say 'fuck' and I love the word 'bullshit', so I can't be a values voter.

Instead, values voters are those who pray for a thump on the forehead from God. Lacking that, they'll settle for inflicting shame and celibacy on the rest of us. Oh, and low taxes.

Can we stop with the bullshit euphemisms and just call them conservative fundamentalist voters?

Covering the wingnuts

Nope, that's not Eddie Bauer that Mark Preston is talking with. Remember Gary Bauer? Yep, he's a "prominent social conservative." Preston also talks to Phyllis Schlafly, the ridiculous self-hating mom of a gay son and the woman who manages somehow to make Lady Thatcher look both moderate and stylish. And he rounds out the wingnut trifecta with William Murray. No, not that Bill Murray.

Preston is a regular Groundhog Day of blithering right-wing politics.

Oops, I missed Tony Perkins. Not the self-help infomercial guru overplayed by Ben Stiller or the Deadipal heir of Bates Motel - another Republican guy who wants to police your genitals and mine as if that's what Jesus cared about.

I also missed Mike Farris, another lunatic Republican-Jesus-freak best known for indoctrination through home-schooling.

What's the story now, a quinfecta? Does that make us all quinfected? And Preston is delivering criticism of John McCain from the right. Yeah, buddy!

Psyched out

Should psychologists take part in interrogations? For all the debate here, I don't think this is a hard question.

If an interrogation is a crime and particularly if it is a war crime, any participation is a crime. If the psychologist says he was trying to prevent harm, he'd better have some actual actions, not just a post hoc rationalization to show for himself. If he doesn't, far from extenuating his presence, his acknowledgement that he knew harm was likely incriminates him.

On the other hand, legal, ethical, and moral interrogations are not only possible, they're essential. Psychologists who know how to detect lies? They're needed. (I'm reading Telling Lies, by Paul Ekman.) Psychologists who can advise interrogators how to gain trust from their prisoners. Needed.

Enablers of torture? Uh, easy to say no to that.

Right to bribery

Ted Stevens (R-AK) asserts in his defense the right to accept bribes. He says that Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution forbids his trial. Here's the text:

[Senators and Representatives] shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

That's the Republicans for you. Separation of powers means to them that Congress can't oversee the Executive, but the Executive can't stop Congress from corrupting itself. Hoo-boy, all pigs to the trough right now!