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He Really Was Dumb Enough

Until New York Representative Anthony Weiner stood behind a podium and admitted his Twitter indiscretions, nothing anyone could have said would have changed my initial thought of giving him the benefit of the doubt. Part of the reason for this is because of who broke the story. Andrew Breitbart, after all, has cried wolf a few too many times (ACORN, Shirley Sherrod, Planned Parenthood, etc.) for me to view him as a credible source. For as much as he believes he is non-partisan, you'd have to have shit in your head where your brain should be not to realize that Breitbart has an agenda. Show me where he's gone after a Republican as fiercely and I'll reconsider.

And part of the reason I believed Weiner is because I never thought he would be so dumb as to use social media that's out there in the ether to send "lewd" photos of himself. A guy as sharp as Anthony Weiner could never put his career in jeopardy by doing something so frivolous.

I was wrong. He really was dumb enough.

I'm not one to judge someone's moral integrity, unless they tout themselves as holier than thou and wind up being a hypocrite, so I'm not going to start here. I'm sure more details will be revealed during the ethics investigation called for by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and if Weiner violated ethics rules (using Congressional equipment to send these tweets) then he'll be called to account. But until then, I'm glad that Weiner as of this point has taken the Republican lead and decided not to resign.

What he did was disappointing to me, and reprehensible conduct for a married man, but he did nothing technically illegal. He didn't engage prostitutes like David Vitter or Eliot Spitzer. He didn't have a child in an affair like John Edwards or Arnold Schwarzenegger. He didn't get arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. None of these examples exonerates Weiner's actions, but it helps in putting things in perspective.

If his career is coming to an end, it's a shame because he is a talented, smart politician who really cares about his constituency, regardless of his private failings.

As far as Breitbart is concerned, yeah, he won one. So what? The man is still a scumbag who feeds on gutter news, and his "classiness" was on display for all to see as he hijacked the Weiner press conference before Weiner even spoke. It'll take more that one story for Breitbart to have credibility in my eyes.

Quote of the Day

Many politicians, of all political parties, make mistakes in speeches. That would certainly include the President and, even more certainly, the Vice-President.

But what they all tend to have in common is that, once the mistake is brought to their attention, they apologize for their error and set the record straight...

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, likes to double-down and dig the hole deeper. Not only does she not apologize for mistakes, she drags it out by defending the errors and encouraging her followers to do the same. She knows that her people believe pretty much anything she says so accuracy is not a high priority to her.

If this is acceptable to you –fine.

Personally, I would prefer our supposed leaders expose the public to actual history rather than the version that suits their political message.

~Rick Ungar's message to the Palin apologists who are twisting themselves in knots trying to justify Sarah Palin's Paul Revere idiocy, including editing the Paul Revere Wikipedia page.

Family Matters

POSTED BY JHW22

When Sarah Palin first started getting the "will you run for President" question on Fox, her answer included:

It’s a matter for me of practical, pragmatic decisions that have to be made... One is, with a large family, understanding the huge amount of scrutiny and the sacrifices that have to be made on my children’s part in order to see their mama run for president.

Well, I call bullshit on Mama Grizzly. If she REALLY gave a shit what her family thinks, she wouldn't have dragged Piper on a media-whore-tour all while telling her child it's a "family vacation". She's lying to her kids about the realities of their very own lives. She has placed cameras in their faces in ways the Clintons, Bushes and Obamas never have -- unless they had reality shows I am unaware of. Being part of the First Family is ALL ABOUT SCRUTINY. How you handle it speaks volumes about character, wisdom, maturity and family values.

A woman CAN be President. A mom CAN be President. But this is NOT the way to go about it. She is destroying these kids and doesn't even notice -- or care. How do I know? Because I am a mom and because Palin, herself, said

Because moms kinda just know when something's wrong.

Well, I think the Mama Grizzly is more than prepared to throw her kids under the bus. And the first kid to go under is Piper. Think Piper looks excited about her Grizzly Mama potentially being the most powerful person in the world in this video? Wait until the very last second and then tell me. (h/t www.palingates.com)



EDIT: I accidentally grabbed the video from the local news station that edited out the final second where Piper expresses her feelings. Thank goodness Palingates had the unedited version still so I now have the correct version.

Must Reads

Ezra Klein: GOP Jobs Plan: Old Ideas, Fancy New Clip Art

Jonathan Chait: The Tax Freeloader Myth

Allan, ABL Chronicles: Clarence Thomas – The Original #Weinergate

Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D.: Michele Bachmann's Stance on Evolution Demolished by High School Student

Kate Sheppard: House GOP Tells DHS to Stop Worrying About Climate Change

Paul Krugman: Fatal Fatalism

John Nichols: One If By Misstatement, Two If By Ignorant: Palin Gets an "F" in American History

Michael Winship: Secret Cash: The Worst Political Scandal of All

JHW22 recommends...

Anthea Butler: Palin Bus Tour Like Gideon’s Fleece

President Obama's Weekly Address - June 4, 2011

Growing Manufacturing with the Auto Industry Turnaround

Presidential Material

Did you catch that? Here, let me transcribe:

"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed."

That's Sarah's version of the story of Paul Revere's midnight ride. Paul Revere warned "the British" of our 2nd Amendment rights that didn't exist yet with warning shots and bells.

Sometimes a story is just a story, Sarah. There's no need to try to politicize every, single thing to let us know what side you're on. We've seen more than enough of you to know what side you're on. But you just keep going ahead with your "Hey, Don't Forget About Me" Bus Tour and continue bastardizing the English language and keep reminding us what a numbskull you are when it comes to any historical facts, or anything else for that matter. You know, like what you read and if you agree with the Bush Doctrine. Keep maintaining that foot in mouth disease just to surprise those of us who thought the bar couldn't be set any lower with even more Palin buffoonery. Also too.

John Edwards Indicted

AP: A federal grand jury has indicted two-time presidential candidate John Edwards over massive sums of money spent to keep his mistress in hiding during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House.

The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment was returned in the Middle District of North Carolina Friday.

So, here's the thing. He's a total idiot for running for the Democratic nomination at such a crucial moment in our political times with this HUGE skeleton in his closet. He's a scumbag for cheating on his cancer stricken wife and betraying his family. But is he guilty of what he is accused of?

To my knowledge, and this theory is purely speculative since I don't have a dog in this race and therefore haven't really researched the minutia, the money that was used to hide Edwards' affair did not come from official campaign contributions. From what I understand, supporters of Edwards ponied up the dough to try and keep the affair quiet. So how far can the definition of "campaign contributions" be stretched?

It's just a question - I don't care either way whether he's found guilty or not, so long as the verdict is attained appropriately, and not through some jumping of hoops to shoehorn the actions taken into what constitutes a campaign contribution because it's such a high profile case.

On a side note, it's interesting how something like this can kill a political career for Edwards, but a guy like Newt Gingrich can do it twice, decide to run for President, and no one really bats an eye. But I guess he was just a scumbag out in the open and didn't try to hide it, so there's that.

Remember the Other Wiener?

POSTED BY JHW22

Well, Allan at Angry Black Lady does. And as he strongly connects and concludes:

... allegations that Anthony Weiner sexually harassed a young African American woman just appeared out of the blue at the very moment when Weiner’s campaign to discredit Clarence Thomas was peaking.

Thanks to Vera Lynn, for the link. This was a good one!

Breitbart Busted... AGAIN

Stef at the Daily Kos does a great job with the chronology of the Weiner underwear tweet controversy and how one particular anti-Weiner Twitter user named @PatriotUSA76 (complete with a portrait of St. Ronald Reagan as his icon) was most likely behind it.

Whether the intrepid Andrew Breitbart knew about it ahead of time or reported on it without checking facts and sources is irrelevant. It shows Breitbart to be all too eager to smear anyone not in line with his ideology regardless of facts.

Christie's Helicopter Ride

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find another example of hypocrisy from a Governor of a state who is taking a hatchet to the budget and constantly crying poverty, yet uses taxpayer provided transportation for personal use.

Blunt-talking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has made ethics and government reform a centerpiece of his Administration, raised some eyebrows yesterday with his decision to take a state helicopter to his son's baseball game yesterday afternoon. Moreover, he left the game in the fifth inning, presumably to make it back to Princeton for his meeting with a group of Iowa activists who had flown to New Jersey to try to convince the governor to run for president.

If you're so worried about the budget, couldn't that helicopter flight, which I'm sure must have costs thousands, been avoided? He'll be asked about it, bark that it's his right, his family comes first and the media will drop it.

Open your FRICKING EEEEAAARRRSSSSS!!!

POSTED BY JHW22

I heard Congressman Anthony Weiner tell Dana Bash of CNN, "It was a prank." Now to me, a mere layperson, that sounds EXACTLY like an answer to the bizarrely-repeated question of the week: "What happened?"

Someone sent a wiener photo from Weiner's Twitter account to a woman the Congressman follows on Twitter.

And now the press is FREAKING OUT because the member of Congress, who consistently tries to stay ON MESSAGE and knows what's important and what's A PRANK, won't spend resources to find out the who, what, when, why, how of A PRANK! If he says it was a prank, and it makes NO SENSE otherwise, what other answers do we need?

Now, whether they believe him or not is another point. If they think he's covering up some lurid creep show, then fine. After some of the crap members of Congress have pulled, fine. BUT he has answered the question. At least QUIT saying "He's not answering the question."

He answered it. You just don't like the answer. Now it's YOUR job to do more than waste a Congressman's time who has made it clear he doesn't want to waste time on this crap that he says was created by a jerk playing a prank.

We need to STOP allowing rabble-rousers to dictate our news coverage. When a jerk-wad plays a prank, don't give it any coverage UNTIL you've done the due-diligence of investigating -- OFF CAMERA. Quit wasting the American people's time while you bumble and warp and suppose and ASSume and feign shocked.

James O'Keefe, the girl with the "B" carved in her face, Shirley Sherrod, Balloon Boy WASTED OUR TIME. GET THE FACTS BEFORE YOU WASTE OUR TIME and don't force a member of Congress to do YOUR job for you while he's trying to do his.

He says it was a prank. I don't want him wasting a second proving it to satisfy the fucking lazy-ass press!

And sorry, but no time for links at the moment. :) Just had to vent my RAGE at the press and their inability to LISTEN, report properly and know that they are part of the problem of American's inability to focus on important issues and wait until facts are in before we shape a damn story.


EDITOR'S NOTE: Some links have been added after publishing.