Don't Elect Liars

It has been almost amusing to listen to reporters from venues as diverse as NPR and CNN acting surprised that Sarah Palin continues each day to repeat the same lie ("I said to Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks'. If we want that bridge we'll build it ourselves.")

But these are today's Republicans. Because the press has repeatedly confirmed that the statement is untrue (some have even used the "l" word!), they seem to expect Palin to do what past spinners have done: use different phrasing, tighten the boundaries, do something to create some wiggle room for herself instead of continuing to repeat bald-faced lies.

But not these Republicans. These Republicans have figured out that they can completely subvert the traditional power of the press by just going around them. They have figured out that at long as they have powerful enough marketing and enough corresponding echo chambers to amplify the message, it doesn't matter if the entire message is built on lies. They have been perfecting this for at least 20 years and the Iraq war is only the bloodiest consequence so far.

Hunter at DKos is one of my favorite writers on the web. Always spot-on; always insightful. You should read the whole thing, but here is a taste.

For Republicans, there is no longer any moral taboo whatsoever against lying outright. The only relevant question is whether the lie is effective -- not whether it should have been done in the first place.

[snip]

So what of it, if Sarah Palin says crooked things with a straight face? Name me one Republican who will object. Name me one -- just ONE -- diehard conservative who will be angry at the lie, instead of praising her for it. To hell with facts, there is another election to be won.

This is why I consider the Republican Party to be, at this point, a wrecked party. There is no self-consistent philosophy other than the acquisition and protection of their own power: there are certainly no moral or ethical boundaries that the party will internally enforce. … You can lie, you can staff your government with morons and ideologues, you can give a speech saying one thing while doing the exact opposite (a Bush specialty, in his State of the Union speeches.) We bemoan constantly the Democrats' failure to keep a unified front, in order to pass a more meaningful agenda -- but you would be hard pressed to find even a single, lone Republican in Washington willing to buck the moral collapse of their own party. Such people once existed: they were voted out of office.

Don't elect liars.

Shameful and Shameless

Reaction is already starting to the Repubs shameless exploitation of 911 tonight. Via Hunter at DKos, a media post that will set the tone, is my prediction.

A Question of Temperment

A Requiem for Moderate Republican Women

With all the talk about glass ceilings these days, and with the Republicans having achieved something the Democrats did 24 years ago, I think it is time to extend our formal condolences to those fine Republican leaders who have had their place in the universe demonstrated so unequivocally: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, Christie Todd Whitman, and others -- all Republican women with much better qualifications than Palin who happen to be pro-choice moderates.

The Republican party has become dependent for its survival on the army of the religious right, and no pro-choice candidate will ever be considered viable as long as this is true. The party will continue to marginalize itself in that way (are we really going to elect someone who wants to teach creationism next to science?!) And so be it.

So to all those moderate Republican women out there -- we welcome you aboard should you decide to play in an arena that has no ceiling.

The Mommy Wars

Interviewed on NPR today, David Brooks responded to questions about Gov. Palin by saying "Oh, I thought we were over the mommy wars."

Once again progressives, and feminists in particular, get to choke till we vomit on the hypocrisy of the Republican right. It appears that all the Christian wingnuts are rallying around Gov. Palin, and suggesting that anyone who criticizes her, her choices, or her qualifications, is sexist. This is a logical extension of the enormous outcry on the part of Christian Conservatives at the media treatment of Hillary Clinton.

Or did you miss that?

So we have Phyllis Shafley, founder of the Eagle Forum, “Patton” in the mommy wars, the woman who led an entire battalion of preachers and pundits and psychologists in the second-wave assault against any woman who had the audacity to suggest that women were equal to men, making a statement for the NY Times today defending Palin’s ability to juggle her particular family’s need with her skyrocketing career.

“It changes your life and gives you a different perspective on the world,” said Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative organizer who helped defeat the equal rights amendment nearly three decades ago.

“People who don’t have children or who have only one or two are kind of overwhelmed at the notion of five children,” Ms. Schlafly continued, mentioning that she had raised six children and run for Congress as well. “I think a hard- working,well-organized C.E.O. type can handle it very well.”

But Phyllis, for years (and YEARS) you told any woman wanting to have a career (like yours, perhaps?) that they should wait until after their children were grown, just like you did. You charged any of us who lacked the freedom or inclination to be stay-at-home moms with the utmost selfishness – putting our careers ahead of our family.

And you claimed great backup: Teen pregnancy, the divorce rate, and any number of other social ills were laid at our feet – all the fault of those uppity women – by countless Dobsons, Fallwells and Reeds. And these are not the judgments of three decades ago, they are the same judgments levied today. Remember the reaction when Jamie Lynn Spears became pregnant? If women learned to take responsibility for every stupid decision made on the part of a teenage child, it’s because the Christian conservative right spent the last 25 years telling us it was so.

So I know that we are all progressive feminists, and have evolved beyond using the weapons of the right against them as is their due.

But I would like to figure out how to make them choke as much on their own words as I choke hearing them.

Bleeding a Crisis

It makes me sick to see John McCain making every political advantage of today's hurricane in Louisiana.

First of all, his mere presence is posturing, made even more disgusting because of his record of actual behavior during and after Katrina. (Thanks to Bob Geiger.) He has no role there. Talk about presumptious?!

Then has a campaign event to accuse Obama of putting politics ahead of the country by having a campaign event.

Then Bushie actually lets him be in on a conference call of all affected governors! Has any other sitting President put himself in the middle of a campaign this way?

The Republicans are whores and hypocrites (with apologies to any actual prostitutes.)

Problem Solved

(CNN) – A health care policy adviser for the McCain campaign told a newspaper reporter that nobody in the United States is technically uninsured, because everyone has access to hospital emergency rooms.

"So I have a solution [to the health care crisis]. And it will cost not one thin dime," John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday.

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."